Ethidium (homidium bromide) is a trypanocide likely to be encountered as a violative residue in blood collected from abattoirs for feeding laboratory tsetse flies. We investigated its effect on female reproduction of Glossina morsitans morsitans. One-milligram homidium per kilogram body weight was intra-muscularly administered to four steers and blood aseptically collected from them between 15 and 30 min post-treatment, analysed for homidium levels and processed for tsetse feeding. Two hundred teneral female flies were fed on homidium-treated diet while a control group of similar number was given untreated diet and the reproductive performance of the two groups statistically compared. Ethidium, at 266.1 ng homidium/ml blood diet, halved A-class portion of F(1)-pupae, highly reduced decline of F(1)-progeny quality associated with aging parents, but had no significant effect on the pupae viability, fecundity and abortion rate of the flies. We therefore concluded that Ethidium has beneficial effect on laboratory tsetse attributable to clearance of unfavourable microbes mediated by the drug, and could be used as a tsetse diet additive.
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