In Senegal, as in many other parts of West Africa, African animal trypanosomosis (AAT), a deadly disease carried by the tsetse fly, has long been a major obstacle to the development of more efficient and sustainable livestock production systems. For more than 50 years, the Government of Senegal invested in importing more productive improved breeds from Europe and elsewhere, but many did not survive because they had no natural tolerance to AAT. Now, thanks to a long-term government-executed tsetse eradication programme in the 1 000 km2 Niayes region of Senegal, tsetse flies have been eliminated in all but one hotspot area, AAT is no longer an issue and imported herds are thriving.
The frequency of the deadly African animal trypanosomosis disease transmitted by the tsetse has dropped dramatically in Senegal’s Niayes region since the pest population was suppressed by a long-term government-executed tsetse eradication campaign that involved the release of sterile tsetse flies. Before the eradication project’s success, most farmers reared only local cattle breeds, 80–90 000 heads of which live in the area. These cattle had low milk and meat production and low reproductive rates but the farmers kept them because they were also naturally tolerant to trypanosomosis, which meant they could survive there. Today, the suppression of the tsetse population is allowing farmers to replace the low producing local cattle with more productive exotic breeds.
With tsetse under control, the government is now working closely with the farmers, giving money to a newly formed farmers’ association so that farmers can buy the exotic animals themselves. The results have been so positive, the farmers are adding their own money to what the government provides and are now buying and importing ten times more cattle than before. And, because they are purchasing more and transporting them by boat instead of air, the cost has dropped to half or a third of what they were paying before. Working together, farmers in the region are progressively replacing their indigenous cattle that produce only 1–2 litres of milk a day with exotic cattle that produce between 20 and 40 litres a day and, hence, substantially increasing both productivity and income.
