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Tsetse eradication is assuming increasing importance within Africa as it has become evident that the tsetse and trypanosomosis is a contributing factor to perpetuating rural poverty. In recognition, the African Heads of State endorsed a campaign that would seek to eliminate the tsetse from Africa, the Pan African Tsetse Eradication Campaign (PATTEC). This plan concludes that the adoption of an area-wide approach for integrated pest management where conventional methods are used in combination with the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) to eliminate tsetse can have a major impact on socio-economic development by increasing land available for agricultural exploitation as well the accruing benefit of livestock development.
SIT or autocidal pest control is a "birth control" method for controlling or eradicating insect pests. It involves the colonization and mass rearing of the target insect species,sterilization through the use of gamma radiation and releasing them into an area on a sustained basis and in sufficient numbers to achieve appropriate sterile to wild insect over-flooding ratios. No offspring results from the mating of sterile males with fertile wild females which results in a reduction and finally elimination of the pest population. SIT is not a stand-alone technique and should be applied together with other insect control activities as part of an area-wide integrated pest management program.
