Transmission Dynamics of Rhodesian Sleeping Sickness at the Interface of Wildlife and Livestock Areas

Abstract

Many wilderness areas of East and Southern Africa are foci for Rhodesian sleeping sickness, a fatal zoonotic disease caused by trypanosomes transmitted by tsetse flies. Although transmission in these foci is traditionally driven by wildlife reservoirs, rising human and livestock populations may increase the role of livestock in transmission cycles. Deciphering transmission dynamics at wildlife and livestock interface areas is key to developing appropriate control. Data are lacking for key parameters, including host distributions, tsetse density, and mortality rates, and the relative roles of livestock and wildlife as hosts in fragmented habitats, limiting the development of meaningful models to assist in the assessment and implementation of control strategies.

Keywords: Rhodesian human African trypanosomiasis; animal reservoirs; mathematical models; tsetse; wilderness areas; wildlife–livestock interface.