Arthropod Borne Diseases at Toshka, Upper Egypt

The Egyptian Government plan to move in 25 years from an inhabited area of 6-25% of the total Nile land area to a larger one to compensate the huge increase of Egyptian populations. The decision was recently made to begin a development project at Toshka, on the western bank of the River Nile, Upper Egypt. Toshka depression is more or less close to Wadi Halfa of Sudan. Therefore, it was necessary to develop of Toshka on the west bank of the River Nile. Consequently, two specialized teams, one is national and the other is from WHO, were interested to study the health risk impact of the project on the vector-borne diseases and pests and to plan recommendations for prevention and feasible control of these diseases. The present study was initiated during spring of 2007 & 2008, as spot light survey, on wild rodents and the arthropods having medical and/or veterinary importance. Whilst Psammomyes obesus Cretzchmar, 1828 was the only recognized rodent, the following arthropods were identified: the scorpion, Buthus quinquestriatus Hante en E., the insects, Cephus tabidus (F.), Ischnura senegalensis (Rambur, 1842), Mantis religiosa Linnaeus, 1758 and Tabanus taeniola Palisot de Beauvois, Culicoides riethi Kieffer, Anopheles sergenti Theobald and Phlebotomus papatasii (Scopoli). The medical, veterinary and agriculture importance of each species have been discussed and feasible control measures were suggested.