Bloodthirsty tsetse flies nurse their young, one live birth at a time – understanding this unusual strategy could help fight the disease they spread
- Written by Geoff Attardo, Assistant Professor of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis
When they suck your blood they can leave behind the parasite that causes sleeping sickness.Patrick Robert/Sygma via Getty ImagesTsetse flies are bloodthirsty. Natives of sub-Saharan Africa, tsetse flies can transmit the microbe Trypanosoma when they take a blood meal. That’s the protozoan that causes African sleeping sickness in people;...