GATSIBO-Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) has started a campaign to fight tsetse fly in the infested districts of Nyagatare, Gatsibo and Kayonza, all in the Eastern Province.The tsetse, about the size of a house fly, infests mostly sub-Saharan African countries and can be dangerous both to human beings as well as animals like cattle.According to authorities, the most affected areas, are those bordering Akagera National Park.Addressing farmers in Gatsibo district, Dr Christine Kanyandekwe, RAB’s Deputy Director General in charge of livestock said eradication campaigns were already underway in identified infested areas of Eastern Province. The fly is the carrier of the single cell parasite, trypanosome, which attacks the blood and nervous system of its victims, causing sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in livestock. The biting tsetse fly transmits it.Kanyandekwe noted that RAB started the programme in Nyamirama farms of Karangazi sector, adding that the fly flies from the park.“I want to make it clear to farmers that we have started a campaign against the deadly fly…we started with farms neighbouring Akagera Park. Of course this is one of the dangers of neighboruing such areas,” she said.Livestock farming is a major economic and cultural activity for many people in the biggest part of the Eastern Province.In the three districts, particularly during the dry season, cattle graze very close to the Akagera Park, hence susceptible to the deadly fly attack.Peter Nkwaya, a famer said most farmers were worried that the spread of infestation would increase.“I think RAB’s intervention is timely, because we were getting concerned that our animals would perish. Tsetse fly kills cows in numbers, and in a very short time. It is great news that RAB has come in to save our cows,” he said.Despite various drastic efforts over the past 100 years to eradicate the tsetse fly, it has on several occasions reemerged.
