Camels

Camels
Rendille Pastoralists Ngurunit, Kenya 1993	In Africa and the Middle East, biting flies are mechanical vectors of the camel disease "surra" (caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma evansi). They also transmit the parasite to horses, water buffalo, etc. on other continents. The actual species responsible for transmitting this important parasite are not known.
Philoliche elongata - In the deserts of northern Kenya, biting flies can be abundant during the rainy season, despite the rather harsh appearance of the scene at the waterhole above. Tabanids of the genus Philoliche are one of the many potential mechanical vectors that appear briefly in large numbers during rainy periods. They are particularly aggressive biters and are well-known to livestock owners because of the severe reaction their presence elicits from livestock. Unfortunately, we know almost nothing of the biology of Philoliche, as this genus is almost never caught in traps. The Nzi is one of the few traps that catches this elusive tabanid. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to test it's efficiency for Philoliche. The only useful information I have is from 25 August, 1996 when I set a Nzi trap at the Wabe River bridge in Ethiopia near the small town of Welkite. Over just a few hours on a sunny afternoon, the trap caught about 60 Philoliche acutipalpis.
Hippobosca camelina - This is the "camel fly" that is found on camels in large numbers in most desert environments. It rarely flies away from its host, and hence behaves more like an ectoparasite than a fly. Even so, it can be caught in good numbers in some traps. At Ngurunit in Kenya (Mihok et al., 1995), I routinely caught many hippoboscids, and was able to catch up to 73 per day with Vavoua traps. The Vavoua may be a particularly efficient trap for this group. Even traps set in villages with few camels caught many of these flies. Unfortunately, since the development of the Nzi trap, I have not sampled again in an area with hippoboscids. The only indication of trap efficiency for this group comes from survey trapping in Chad by Doutom et al. (2002). They caught up to 8 hippoboscids per day in both Nzi and biconical traps.
Stomoxys calcitrans - The stable fly is also often associated with camels. In June 1995 (dry season at low fly density), I set an octenol-baited Nzi trap for a few days in Acacia woodland next to herd of camels managed by FARM AFRICA near Nanyuki, Kenya. The trap caught a few hundred stable flies per day, with a maximum catch of 385 Stomoxys. These catches are similar to catches at low to medium fly density near horses and dairy cattle in Canada. For comparison, an unbaited Nzi trap set next to a small research herd of cattle in Nairobi, Kenya in June/July 1995 caught 144 stable flies, with a maximum catch of 344 flies. The next most effective trap for Stomoxys (the Vavoua, Mihok et al., 1995) caught only 44 flies per day in the same experiment.