WALTON (1955). Kenya and neighboring areas of Tanganyika. A val- 

 uable account of conditions under which 0. moubata exists in Digo 

 (Kwale) District and epidemiology of relapsing fever, this report of 

 an \inique area should point the way for further comparative research 

 under a variety of conditions. Although settled tribes engage in 

 fishing and a small amount of animal husbandry, farming, and home 

 industries, there is qiiite a little movement of peoples. On the 

 sandy coastal plain, vegetation varies from short grasslands with 

 forest patches to grasslands with open bush and termite-mound 

 dominated islands of vegetation giving way to scant thorn bush in 

 the interior. Rain falls each month (50 to 60 inches annual at 

 coast, 30 to A.0 inches in hinterland). Mean air temperatvire is 

 80°F., RH at 0830 about 1%, falling to 70^ at U30. 



Domestic fowls are an important source of blood meals for 0. 

 noubata in huts (cf. pages 128,129,U7,U8,150,iai), 113 of IZT 

 samples being positive for fowl blood by the precipitin test. In 

 another sample of 25 ticks from Tiwi, all had fed on fowls alone 

 (the question of chickens preying on ticks is not considered). 

 Ticks were not found on the fowls or in their nests, but usually 

 in diisty cracks, holes, or depressions in the floor near chickens* 

 roosting places. Scarcity of chickens and absence of ticks in 

 damp houses is (inconclusively) correlated. 



Other blood meals among the 124 samples mentioned above were 

 eight for man only, two for man and fowl, and one for sheep or goat 

 (from this it would appear either that fowls are more accessible 

 and therefore nore frequently utilized as hosts or else that the 

 author was possibly dealing with a fow]_ blood adapted strain _ HH). 

 It could not be demonstrated that the presence of sheep and goats 

 in dry or in humid areas acted as a deterrent to ticks (cf. pages 

 127,128,14-7), also, it does not appear from this study that sheep 

 and goats are frequently parasitized. 



Bedsteads are a definite deterrent to tick infestation (cf . 

 pages 147 and 180) because ticks have difficulty in climbing 

 smooth legs, bedlegs do not break the floor, and sweeping and 

 repairing floors is easier. More primitive beds are easily 

 reached and provide shelter for ticks. Broken floors are favor- 

 able to the tick (cf. pages 146 and 180). 



Human urination in huts, as a single factor, cannot be cor- 

 related with tick infestation. Coastal strip recent sediments 



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