Vectors are organisms that carry diseases from one living being to another without showing symptoms of the diseases themselves. Some of the most common forms of vectors are blood sucking insects such as mosquitos, fleas, lice, ticks and other similar insects, and rats/rodents. Places such as stagnant water and dumping sites can be ideal habitats for vectors to reside and transmit. The use of natural vector predators can help reduce or eliminate vector populations. The most common vectors in southern Africa are insects (tsetse flies-trypanosomiasis), animals (foot and mouth disease through cattle or people with contaminated shoes), tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF). Sanitising the life-cycle of vectors, implementing pest traps and introducing pest predators are means of reducing the spread of disease. The impacts of climate change, especially increased heavy rainfall and higher temperatures can encourage vector populations to grow quicker than normal. Simple strategies to control vectors includes keeping livestock surroundings clean, avoiding livestock access to stagnant water, fencing areas off, restricting animal access to certain locations, can all control biological vectors and assist in reducing vector spread.
To effectively implement biological control vectors:
- Step 1: Research common vectors in the local area and ensure that farmers are informed about the kinds, description, lifecycle and common habitats of these vectors, such as tsetse flies, ticks, biting flies.
- Step 2: Avoid allowing livestock access to dirty and damp environments as well as very bushy areas as these locations are common habitats for vectors.
- Step 3: Use of traps or even introduction of vector predators to livestock to manage vector spread could be used. This could include introducing epsilon traps for tsetse flies to promote vector control.
- Step 4: If rodents are found in or around livestock, introduce rodent control methods such as traps and/or rodent predators (cats, etc) and bury any remains far from livestock areas.
- Step 5: Fence off areas of high vector prevalence, such as stagnant water, ensuring that livestock do not access these areas.
- Step 6: Examine any rangeland to determine whether there are vectors in the vicinity such as biting insect, or locusts that may damage maize crops and fruit flies that damage tomatoes.
- Step 7: Community radio can be an effective method for extension officers to inform communities about outbreaks, or impending infestations.
- The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 2009. The Use and Exchange of Biological Control Agents for Food and Agriculture. Rome, Italy.
- The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 2007. The Sustainable Management of Biodiversity for Biological Control in Food and Agriculture: Status and Needs. Rome, Italy.
Benefits
- Identifying the common vectors in the area is a key first step to understanding how to manage them.
- Using vector traps and introducing vector predators can also help manage livestock exposure.
Drawbacks
- Biological vectors transport disease that can have devastating impacts on livestock.
