A practical solution to to develop a passive fly trap for eco farms and organic farmers
Accordingly, the loss of blood of an animal can reach up to 200-300 cm3 per day that implies a reduced yield of milk and meat in case of cows, and reduced performance in case of race horses. Because of the continuous molestation of horseflies the animals tend to behave in a strange way, which can cause many unpredictable troubles. Especially in case of horses that hardly go out to the field to pasture, and will require additional feeding in order to avoid remarkable weight loss. Moreover, horseflies are of particular threat also for livestock and for humans, because their haematophagous females are also vectors of some animal and human diseases and/or parasites such as, tularemia, anaplasmosis, hog cholera and filariasis, for example. Horseflies transmit over 35 diseases to livestock and even people, including flafellate trypanosoma that promotes health threatening conditions such as equine infectious anaemia (EIA), as well as other trypanosomes affecting cattle and sheep. Since livestock are fed outside, it is difficult to protect them from infectious flies. While to date there is no sufficient protective system available on the market, recent studies in the Biooptics Laboratory at the Department of Biological Physics of the Eötvös University has revealed that horseflies are attracted to horizontally polarized light stimulating their ventral eye region. The proposed protective system will capture horseflies by exploiting their special vision. The TabaNOid project aims at developing a passive fly trap using highly and horizontally polarized light that can be adjusted to meet the needs of open-air territories of various sizes. The system will meet all requirements of eco-farms and organic farmers as no polluting toxins or insecticides will be used, but non-toxic, recyclable or biodegradable materials. Investigation of flies behaviour and flying routes will help to develop passive traps that attract only a negligible number of other beneficial flying insects, eliminating almost exclusively horseflies, without having any serious effect on the area’s ecosystem, since there are very few natural enemies of horseflies. The TabaNOid trap system will also comply with the EU’s environment policy directives in terms of used materials. The project consortium includes partners from several European countries, who expect that the final outcome by the end of the project will be a product close to market introduction. They believe that TabaNOid tool will significantly contribute to prevention of disease spread caused by horseflies, will let breeders to ensure better conditions for animals and will eliminate the annoying harassment of horseflies during outdoor activities.