Identifying the Campylobacter genotypes that colonize farmed and wild ducks will help to assess the proportion of human disease that is potentially attributable to the consumption of duck meat and environmental exposure to duck faeces. Comparison of temporally and geographically matched farmed and wild ducks showed that they had different Campylobacter populations in terms of: (i) prevalence, (ii) Campylobacter species and (iii) diversity of genotypes. Furthermore, 92.4% of Campylobacter isolates from farmed ducks were sequence types (STs) commonly associated with human disease, in contrast to just one isolate from the wild ducks. Only one ST, ST-45, was shared between the two sources, accounting for 0.9% of wild duck isolates and 5% of farmed duck isolates. These results indicate that domestic ‘niche’ as well as host type may affect the distribution of Campylobacter, and that husbandry practises associated with intensive agriculture may be involved in generating a reservoir of human disease associated lineages.

The night resting sites of Glossina palpalis palpalis (R.-D.) were observed in a riverine swamp at Bara, Bauchi Emirate, northern Nigeria. The flies were marked with an ultra violet reflecting paint and released at dusk. They were detected with the aid of an ultra violet light beam. Most of the flies (72%) rest on leaves (50% on the upper sides) and on small twigs and creepers (202%). The average resting height was highest in the mid-rains (3-78 m), dropped in the late rains (2-95 m) and was lowest (1-52 m) in the dry season.The resting site heights ranged from ground level up to 18 m. Females were found to rest slightly higher than males and when the moon shone both sexes had a tendency to perch higher. It was shown that the night resting behaviour of G. palpalis is favourable to the application of residual insecticide deposits from the air because most of the spray drops are deposited on leaves.