Radiation and agriculture The scourge of the tsetse

Its importance lies in the fact that it bites both humans and livestock, and in the process transmits the parasitic protozoan Trypanosoma which causes sleeping sickness in humans, and nagana in livestock. The disease, also known by the general name of trypanosomiasis, often kills or, at the least, produces morbidity in its victims which results in low productivity. Affected cattle quickly lose appetite, become noticeably emaciated, and succumb within a few weeks.