Antelope perfume’ keeps flies away from cows

Scientists; Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister from the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn and his colleagues from Kenya and the UK have developed an innovative way of preventing tsetse flies from cows called antelope perfume, a method that prevents sleeping sickness disease. The scientists took advantage of the fact that tsetse flies avoid waterbucks, a widespread antelope species in Africa. In Africa, tsetse flies transfer the sleeping sickness also to cattle. This leads to huge losses in milk, meat and manpower. The damage in Africa is estimated to be about 4.6 billion US dollars each year. Read more