The Control of Sleeping Sickness in the Raphia Pole Trade

Extract

In Northern Nigeria many of the streams are choked with the Palm, Raphia sudanica, which affords excellent conditions for Glossina tachinoides. The mid-ribs of the palm fronds provide long, straight, light poles which are invaluable for roofing in a country where small straight timber is non-existent.

In areas where the palms grow to a good height, there is an important local pole-cutting industry which results in the cutters coming into close contact with tsetse. A high incidence of sleeping sickness is often associated with villages engaged in this trade. The usual solution of clearing the stream-banks of vegetation is obviously undesirable in these cases, and the following method of control has therefore been devised.