Tsetse, Trypanosomiasis and Communities in Transition:

Investigations into Health, Wellbeing and Ecosystem Change in the Luangwa

Valley, Zambia

The Zambia Study Team

Noreen Machila, Neil Anderson, Simon Alderton, Joanna Kuleszo,

Kathrin Schaten, Martin Simuunza, Ewan MacLeod, Alexandra Shaw,

Peter Atkinson, Susan Welburn

Trypanosomiasis and Tsetse

• Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense – human sleeping sickness (rHAT)

Photo: Wolburg H, et al. (2012) PLoS ONE 7(3): e34304

Image © Neil Anderson

Image © Neil Anderson

Image © Neil Anderson

Luangwa Valley, Zambia

• Four national parks

– Photographic safaris

• Game Management Areas

– Commercial safari hunting

– Agricultural activities

– Relatively low human density

– Historical lack of livestock keeping

– Consistent land-use patterns

Image © Neil Anderson

Anderson et al., 2015

A New Disease Interface?

• Problem statement

– Area of historically low human population density

– Influx of people and new settlements

– Increase in livestock population

– Land-use and land cover change

– How has this affected disease transmission?

Image © Neil Anderson

Image © Neil AndersonNew interfaces most at risk of epidemics (van den Bossche, 2001)

Image © Neil Anderson

Household & Animal Census

• Conducted in 2013

• Official census figures for Mambwe District:

1990 ~ 60,000

2010 ~ 70,000

Number

Households 3717

People 17656

Cattle 3169

Goats 5679

Pigs 3106

Dogs 2960

Structured and Semi-Structured Interviews

• 28 key informant interviews

• 9 focus group discussions: 256 attendants

• 19 participatory mapping sessions and transect walks

• Structured questionnaires: 211 households

Image © Noreen Machila

Image © Neil Anderson

Investigations into the Tsetse Vector

• Field surveys in June and Nov 2013

– Low apparent density

– Predominantly Glossina morsitans morsitans

June November

Epidemiological Survey of Livestock and

Humans

• Epidemiological surveys from 2005 (Mubanga, 2008) and 2013 (DDDAC)

• Decline in trypanosome prevalence

• No human-infective T. brucei rhodesiense detected

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Cattle Sheep Goats Pigs

Pre

vale

nce (

%)

2005 2013

Migration

• 62% of people reported moving location

– 37% within Mambwe District

– 17% from other parts of Zambia’s Eastern Province

– 8% from further field

Year

Study area

Mambwe

District

1000 ha % 1000 ha %

1990 10 12 20 3

2000 14 16 26 4

2013 27 31 55 10

Change in the area occupied by agriculture

Image © Joanna Kuleszo

• 85% of households grow cotton

• One third of households do not have enough food / variety

• Access to water and quality of water is bad

• Still, overall life satisfaction is high in the area

Household well-being questionnaires

Image © Neil Anderson

211 household questionnaires

Health status sheets for 1012

people, 1276 animals

Conclusions

• Landcover change significant

– Particularly towards plateau

• Migration patterns complex

– Much is over relatively short distances

• Trypanosomiasis prevalence has reduced

– Size of domestic animal reservoir has increased

– Tsetse density low

• Local communities have little access to veterinary or human health

services

Image © Neil Anderson

Acknowledgements

Gloria Mulenga,

John Mashili,

James Sikasindu,

Milner Mukumbwali,

David Sqaurre,

John Silutongwe,

Catherine Grant,

Crawford Revie,

Michael Thrusfield,

Vupenyu Dzingirai,

William Shereni,

Amon Murwira

DDDAC Consortium

Image © Jessica Groengendijk

Joseph Mubanga

This work, Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium, NERC project numberNE-J001570-1, was funded with support from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA)programme. The ESPA programme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), theEconomic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).