Assessment Of Species Composition And Ecology Of Eye-seeking Flies (diptera Muscidae) In Relation To Trachoma Transmission In South Gondar North West Ethiopia.

The study was conducted in South Gondar Zone, DelTa Woreda, Zara-Jigina kebele andrnMelefena village from December 2002 to March 2003. FOliy households were selected atrnrandom from the village and one child between 2-10 years old was recruited for the study.rnAttempts to quantity flies swanning the faces of children were made by simply counting andrncollecting flies using hepa-filter aspirator. To detelmine the general trend of the diumal flyrnactivity, the sum of the number of flies counted/collected from each child during each hourrnof the day was averaged and plotted against time of observation.rnData were also obtained from the heads of households for h•achoma risk factor analysis usingrna prepared questionnaire. Different animal excreta including human faeces and house garbagernwere investigated to dete1mine the breeding sites of eye-seeking flies under natural conditionsrnin the field using funnel cage exit traps. Finally an ophthalmic nurse for the presence orrnabsence of h•achoma screened the study children by everting the upper eyelids and visuallyrnexamining the tarsal plate with a torch and a 2.5 X magnitying binocular loupe. Eyes wererngraded according to Thylefors et al. (1987) simplified scale. All the trachoma positivernchildren were given 1 % tetracycline eye oinhnent and health education was given to therncommunity.rnThe study showed that most (about 94.5 %) of the flies captured on the faces ofrnchildren were found to be Musca sorbells. Musca d011lestica accounted for 2.2 % and thernremaining (3.3 %) were unidentified Musca species. The main breeding habitat for M sorbellsrnwas found to be human and dog faeces. The peak density of flies on the faces of children wasrnobserved in the moming between 09:00 - 11 :00 hours. Temperature and relative humidityrnwere found to be the two impollant environmental factors goveming the diurnal activity ofrnflies. The highest fly density was observed in a temperahlre range of 23 to 27°C, and 32 to 35rn% relative humidity. During the four-month Shldy, the lowest density of flies was observed inrnDecember 2002 and highest in Febmaty 2003. Logistic regression analysis on the risk factorsrnof trachoma have shown that trachoma is directly related with sex, age, education, householdrnsize, number of children below the age of 10 years, cohabitation with cattle, fly density, andrnface drying. Seventy-five percent of the study children were infected with trachoma.

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