337 
V.  PROPHYLACTIC  MEASURES  RECOMMENDED 
Prevention. 
In  a  country  like  Northern  Rhodesia  we  are  faced  by  the  interests 
of  two  sections  of  the  community — those  who  wish  to  breed  healthy 
stock  in  suitable  localities  and  those  who  for  commercial  reasons  find 
it  necessary  or  desirable  to  keep  or  expose  their  animals  in  localities 
where  the  potentialities  of  the  disease — infective  tsetse — exist. 
For  this  latter  class  there  is  little  to  be  said:  the  owner  is 
cognisant  that  all  his  animals  may  die,  and  if  he  is  engaged  in  hired 
transport  his  charges  are  sufficient  to  indemnify  him.  These  high 
rates — we  have  heard  of  per  ton  being  paid  for  transport  over 
250  miles  of  road — act  most  detrimentally  to  the  interests  of 
commerce  in  a  young  country,  but  in  the  light  of  our  present  know¬ 
ledge  there  appears  no  solution.  Theoretically  the  removal  of  the 
tsetse,  or  the  source  from  which  they  obtain  the  infection,  would 
bring  about  the  desired  result.  In  practice  the  former  is,  as  yet, 
impossible,  though  according  to  the  theory  prevalent  amongst  those 
who  have  been  in  South  Africa,  the  destruction  of  the  game,  which 
may  also  be  considered  the  main  source  from  which  infection  is 
derived,  would  be  followed  by  the  disappearance  of  Glossina.  A 
serious  attempt  was  recently  made  near  Fort  Jameson  by  men  acutely 
interested  in  the  result,  to  destroy  or  drive  away  the  game  from  an 
approved  area.  A  successful  termination  to  the  experiment  would  in 
all  likelihood  have  meant  the  adoption  by  the  Administration  of 
this  means  of  clearing  all  areas  where  cattle  movement  was  desirable, 
and  it  may  reasonably  be  supposed,  therefore,  that  every  effort  was 
made  in  order  to  obtain  this  substantial  assistance.  We  are 
informed*  that  the  agitators  confessed  their  inability  to  make  any 
noticeable  impression,  and  realised  the  utter  impossibility  of  removing 
the  vast  herds  of  game  which  tenant  the  country. 
We  are  more  concerned  in  safeguarding  the  interests  of  those 
fly-free  districts  where  trypanosomiasis  is  not  yet  known  to  be 
endemic;  that  is  to  say  the  areas  of  North-Eastern  Rhodesia  referred 
to  already  as  Fort  Jameson,  the  Tanganyika-Nyasa  Plateau  and 
Serenji ;  the  areas  south  of  the  River  Kafue,  the  Barotse  and  Masha- 
Private  communication  from  Fort  Jameson. 
W 
