Effect on herd health and productivity of controlling tsetse and trypanosomosis by applying deltamethrin to cattle

Abstract

A large cattle ranch was established in 1954 in a heavily tsetse infested part of north-east Tanzania. Trypanosomosis was controlled for 30 years by prophylactic drugs but in 1988 drug resistance seemed to be developing as cases of trypanosomosis were being confirmed 4 or 5 weeks after treatment with isometamidium chloride (Samorin). Herd health had deteriorated and productivity was uneconomically low. In order to control the tsetse population the 8,000 cattle, grazing over 250 km2, were regularly dipped in the synthetic pyrethroid deltamethrin (Decatix Cattle Dip and Spray formulation). Within a year the tsetse population, as monitored by traps, had decreased by more than 90%. Disease mortality decreased by 66% and a range of productivity measures such as calving percentages and weaning weights were raised to levels above those prevailing before the decline in herd health.