A MULTI-BILLION dollar plan to rid Africa of tsetse flies will never work,
according to the continent’s leading expert on insect pests. “It stands no
chance, even if they can find the cash,” says Hans Herren, director of the
International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi.
Last week, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency announced a
plan to rid the continent of the fly by releasing millions of male flies
sterilised with gamma radiation
(Â鶹´«Ã½, 23 February, p 17).
The parasite carried by the tsetse fly causes sleeping sickness, which in places is
a bigger killer…
