A new method for identifying blood meals of human origin in tsetse flies.

A new sensitive technique using the electrophoresis of superoxide dismutase to distinguish between tsetse blood meals of human and non-human origin is described. In Côte d'Ivoire, 602 blood meals were collected; 170 were from man (28.3%), 377 from animals (62.6%) and 55 were unidentified (9.1%) because no pattern was observed. When calculating the index of epidemiological risk, it is strongly correlated with the incidence of sleeping sickness cases.