Abstract
Background The sterile insect technique (SIT) requires mass-rearing of the target species, irradiation to induce sexual sterility and transportation from the mass-rearing facility to the target site. Those treatments require several steps that may affect the biological quality of sterile males. This study has been carried out to evaluate the relative impact of the chilling, irradiation and transport on emergence rate, flight ability and survival of sterile male tsetse flies Glossina palpalis gambiensis.
Results Chilling, irradiation and transport all affected the quality control parameters studied. The emergence rate was significantly reduced by long chilling periods and transport, i.e. from 92% at the source insectary to 78% upon arrival in Dakar. Flight ability was affected by all three parameters with 31% operational flies lossed between the source and arrival insectaries. Only survival under stress was not affected by any of the treatments.
Conclusion The chilling period and transport were the main treatments which impacted significantly the quality of sterile male pupae. Therefore, the delivery of sterile males was divided over two shipments per week in order to reduce the chilling time and improve the quality of the sterile males. Quality of the male pupae may further be improved by reducing the transport time and vibration during transport.
Author summary Tsetse fly and the disease it transmits, trypanosomosis, remain an enormous challenge in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The use of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) has become one of the components of the eradication of tsetse fly in Africa. The sterile insect technique (SIT) requires mass-rearing of the target species, irradiation to induce sexual sterility and transportation from the mass-rearing facility to the target site. In this study, we demonstrate the relative impact of the chilling, irradiation and transport on the emergence rate, the flight ability and the survival of sterile male tsetse flies Glossina palpalis gambiensis. We found that the chilling, irradiation and transport affected the emergence rate and flight ability. But the survival of the sterile male under stress was not affected by any of the treatments. Hence, the quality of the male pupae may further be improved by reducing the transport time and vibration during transport.
Authors email addresses
Souleymane Diallo: soul08diallo03{at}gmail.com, Momar Talla Seck: mtseck{at}hotmail.fr, Jean Baptiste Rayaissé: jbrayaisse{at}hotmail.com, Assane Gueye Fall : agueyefall{at}yahoo.fr, Mireille Djimangali Bassene : bassenerose{at}yahoo.fr, Baba Sall: babasall{at}hotmail.com, Antoine Sanon: sanonant{at}yahoo.fr, Marc JB Vreysen: M.Vreysen{at}iaea.org, Peter Takac: peter.takac{at}savba.sk, Andrew Gordon Parker: a.g.parker{at}iaea.org, Geoffrey Gimonneau : geoffrey.gimonneau{at}cirad.fr, Jérémy Bouyer: jeremy.bouyer{at}cirad.fr