Final ReportSummary - TABANOID (Trap for the novel control of horse-flies on open-air fields)
Horse-flies (tabanid) are not only unwanted 'guests', but can also cause notable prejudices. Adult female horse-flies feed on blood of domestic animals (e.g. cows, horses) and even humans, which aids the development of their eggs. 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 horse-flies 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, horse-flies 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. Horse-flies 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 Bioptics Laboratory at the Department of Biological Physics of the Eötvös University has revealed that horse-flies are attracted to horizontally polarised light stimulating their ventral eye region. The aim of this project is to develop a protective system that captures horse-flies by exploiting their special vision.
The TABANOID project aims at developing a passive fly trap using highly and horizontally polarised light that can be adjusted to meet the needs of open-air territories of various sizes. The developed system will meet all requirements of eco-farms and organic farmers as no polluting toxins or insecticides will be used, but non-toxic, recyclable and 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 horse-flies, without having any serious effect on the area's ecosystem, since there are very few natural enemies of horse-flies. The TABANOID trap system will also comply with the European Union (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 horse-flies, will let breeders to ensure better conditions for animals and will eliminate the annoying harassment of horse-flies during outdoor activities.
Project context and objectives:
In order to develop a highly efficient, environment-friendly tool for horse-fly control that will not require power-supply or any background knowledge, TABANOID project targets the following objectives:
- exploring and exploiting the positive polarotaxis of horse-flies for trapping them by using horizontally polarised light;
- gaining in-depth understanding and characterisation of horse-flies family;
- developing a structure that can create highly and horizontally polarised light;
- determining general rules about the use of the developed TABANOID control tool;
- combining the used materials in an optimal way by investigating environment-friendly, recyclable and biodegradable materials;
- creating a fully functional environment-friendly modular TABANOID prototype trap with which preliminary and validation tests can be executed.
Project results:
The TABANOID project consortium executed the following science and technology (S&T) tasks:
- Investigated and examined the methods and tools of fly-control at farms and holiday resorts, giving emphasis to the user's perception on how well the methods work.
- Specified the needs and requirements of infected sites, investigating the differences in needs according to geographical locations and company profile.
- Determined the constraints in terms of factors such as price sensitivity, maintenance, post-processing, facilities, etc.
- Surveyed the perception of end-users to a new product on the market.
- Investigated the characters and behaviour of horse-flies in Europe.
- Developed the means for creating highly and horizontally polarised light.
- Using imaging polarimetry, compared the attracting intensity of TABANOID traps to that of natural attractants.
- Carried out preliminary tests and justified the efficient functioning of the principle of TABANOID trap.
- Performed field tests in order to determine the optimal use of TABANOID traps, especially the optimal vertical positioning and the optimal distribution of the traps.
- Performed field tests to determine the optimal size of the traps.
- Investigated the affect of different weather parameters (such as humidity, temperature, etc.) on the efficiency of TABANOID traps.
- Investigated the effective lifetime of TABANOID traps in different conditions.
- Compared the efficiency of TABANOID traps with that of other competing products.
- Validated the efficiency and usability of TABANOID traps at third party farmers.
Potential impact:
The consortium of TABANOID project expects that the TABANOID horse-fly traps, the final result of the project, will have a high impact mainly on EU's livestok industry. The effective pest- and fly-control is of high importance given that many livestock breeders across Europe are struggling to stay afloat, weighed down by soaring feed prices but powerless to pass costs on to consumers. Livestock farming is of particular relevance to rural areas. Livestock contribute to the livelihoods of an estimated 70 % of the world's rural poor: some 630 million people, providing food and income, and is an important means of reducing risk and increasing assets. Draught power, fuel, manure and transport all contribute significantly to whole farm productivity and the consumption of animal protein improves human health and ability to work. With over half of the population in the 25 Member States of the EU living in rural areas, which cover 90 % of the territory, rural economic development is a vitally important policy area. Effectively, farm investment to increase the income of farmers through modernization is an essential pillar in the EU rural development policy. The current project is expected to significantly contribute to EU efforts to help less competitive small to medium size enterprise (SME) livestock farmers.
List of websites:
The TABANOID project website's address is http://www.tabanoid.eu
The commercial TABANOID website is http://www.tabanoid.com
The relevant contact details can be found on these websites.
Because of the continuous molestation of horse-flies 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, horse-flies 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. Horse-flies 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 Bioptics Laboratory at the Department of Biological Physics of the Eötvös University has revealed that horse-flies are attracted to horizontally polarised light stimulating their ventral eye region. The aim of this project is to develop a protective system that captures horse-flies by exploiting their special vision.
The TABANOID project aims at developing a passive fly trap using highly and horizontally polarised light that can be adjusted to meet the needs of open-air territories of various sizes. The developed system will meet all requirements of eco-farms and organic farmers as no polluting toxins or insecticides will be used, but non-toxic, recyclable and 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 horse-flies, without having any serious effect on the area's ecosystem, since there are very few natural enemies of horse-flies. The TABANOID trap system will also comply with the European Union (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 horse-flies, will let breeders to ensure better conditions for animals and will eliminate the annoying harassment of horse-flies during outdoor activities.
Project context and objectives:
In order to develop a highly efficient, environment-friendly tool for horse-fly control that will not require power-supply or any background knowledge, TABANOID project targets the following objectives:
- exploring and exploiting the positive polarotaxis of horse-flies for trapping them by using horizontally polarised light;
- gaining in-depth understanding and characterisation of horse-flies family;
- developing a structure that can create highly and horizontally polarised light;
- determining general rules about the use of the developed TABANOID control tool;
- combining the used materials in an optimal way by investigating environment-friendly, recyclable and biodegradable materials;
- creating a fully functional environment-friendly modular TABANOID prototype trap with which preliminary and validation tests can be executed.
Project results:
The TABANOID project consortium executed the following science and technology (S&T) tasks:
- Investigated and examined the methods and tools of fly-control at farms and holiday resorts, giving emphasis to the user's perception on how well the methods work.
- Specified the needs and requirements of infected sites, investigating the differences in needs according to geographical locations and company profile.
- Determined the constraints in terms of factors such as price sensitivity, maintenance, post-processing, facilities, etc.
- Surveyed the perception of end-users to a new product on the market.
- Investigated the characters and behaviour of horse-flies in Europe.
- Developed the means for creating highly and horizontally polarised light.
- Using imaging polarimetry, compared the attracting intensity of TABANOID traps to that of natural attractants.
- Carried out preliminary tests and justified the efficient functioning of the principle of TABANOID trap.
- Performed field tests in order to determine the optimal use of TABANOID traps, especially the optimal vertical positioning and the optimal distribution of the traps.
- Performed field tests to determine the optimal size of the traps.
- Investigated the affect of different weather parameters (such as humidity, temperature, etc.) on the efficiency of TABANOID traps.
- Investigated the effective lifetime of TABANOID traps in different conditions.
- Compared the efficiency of TABANOID traps with that of other competing products.
- Validated the efficiency and usability of TABANOID traps at third party farmers.
Potential impact:
The consortium of TABANOID project expects that the TABANOID horse-fly traps, the final result of the project, will have a high impact mainly on EU's livestok industry. The effective pest- and fly-control is of high importance given that many livestock breeders across Europe are struggling to stay afloat, weighed down by soaring feed prices but powerless to pass costs on to consumers. Livestock farming is of particular relevance to rural areas. Livestock contribute to the livelihoods of an estimated 70 % of the world's rural poor: some 630 million people, providing food and income, and is an important means of reducing risk and increasing assets. Draught power, fuel, manure and transport all contribute significantly to whole farm productivity and the consumption of animal protein improves human health and ability to work. With over half of the population in the 25 Member States of the EU living in rural areas, which cover 90 % of the territory, rural economic development is a vitally important policy area. Effectively, farm investment to increase the income of farmers through modernization is an essential pillar in the EU rural development policy. The current project is expected to significantly contribute to EU efforts to help less competitive small to medium size enterprise (SME) livestock farmers.
List of websites:
The TABANOID project website's address is http://www.tabanoid.eu
The commercial TABANOID website is http://www.tabanoid.com
The relevant contact details can be found on these websites.