A Cross-Sectional Survey on Parasites of Chickens in Selected Villages in the Subhumid Zones of South-Eastern Nigeria

A study was carried out to identify and estimate the prevalence of ecto- and endoparasites of village chicken between April and July 2008 in three local councils of Enugu state, Nigeria. A total of 1038 chickens comprising of 468 chicks, 207 growers and 363 adults were examined during the house to house survey for ectoparasites, gastrointestinal helminths and coccidia infections. Our finding showed that 41% were infected with ectoparasites with lice, fleas, and mites having prevalence rates of 62.2%, 35.7% and 2.1%, respectively. Helminths and coccidia had prevalence of 35.5% each. Among the helminths Ascaridia, galli was the most dominant species (17.2%). Generally, there was a significantly higher helminth infestation relative to the ectoparasites (P < .05), high prevalence of mixed infections and absence of tick infestation. Parasitism could be big constraint to production in the study area and we recommend a sustainable control strategy

The impact of international financial reporting standards adoption and banking reforms on earnings management: evidence from Nigerian banks

This study examines stock market reaction and the impact of IFRS adoption on the Nigerian stock market. The paper also evaluates the effect of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reforms on earnings management of Nigerian banks. The result indicates no evidence of any significant effect on the market but a negative stock reaction in the medium term. Our finding highlights mixed impact of IFRS adoption on earnings management; but a significant decrease in earnings management in the post CBN reforms. Our study shows that adoption of IFRS was wrongly timed in Nigeria as the fragile investors' sentiment which was just recovering from the shock of the global financial crisis could have been weakened by the negative market returns. These results have signal effect on investors

Human factors analysis and classification system for the oil and gas industry (HFACS-OGI)

The oil and gas industry has been beset with several catastrophic accidents, most of which have been attributed to organisational and operational human factor errors. The current HFACS developed for the aviation industry, cannot be used to simultaneously analyse regulatory deficiencies and emerging violation issues, such as sabotage in the oil and gas industry. This paper presents an attempt to improve the existing HFACS investigation tool and proposes a novel HFACS named the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System for the Oil and Gas Industry (HFACS-OGI). Results found the HFACS-OGI system to be suitable for categorising accidents, following the analysis of 11 accident reports from the US Chemical Safety Board (US CSB). The HFACS-OGI system moreover revealed some significant relationships between the different categories. Furthermore, the results indicated that failures in national and international industry regulatory standards would automatically create the preconditions for accidents to occur

Development of a software solution for solar-PV power systems sizing and monitoring

Power systems sizing and monitoring are very important design components in determining the overall performance of solar-photovoltaic (PV) systems. These design components represent the pre-installation and post-installation stages of solar-PV systems planning respectively, and paying adequate attention to them can go a long way to increasing the working life of solar-PV system installations. The SolarHelper developed in this work is a small software solution package that monitors and records vital system variables that will give the state and performance of an existing solar-PV installation at any given time; and it is able to accurately provide a simulated output of the required battery storage capacity, and PV array size based on load demands

The role of intraperitoneally administered vitamin C during Trypanosoma congolense infection of rabbits

The effects of daily intraperitoneally administered doses of 100 mg/kg bd. wt. vitamin C on levels of some endogenous antioxidants as well as hepatic and renal function were investigated in a group of rabbits infected with a strain of Trypanosoma congolense (strain number: BS2/TC /SP28/P4). Values of parameters estimated in this group during and after 5 weeks of infection were compared with those from a group of similarly infected, but vitamin-free rabbits as well as two groups of healthy rabbits, one group of which was similarly treated with vitamin C. T. congolense infection caused significant (P&lt;0.01) decrease in packed cell volume (PCV), blood and organ glutathione, plasma and liver ascorbic acid as well as serum creatinine. Treatment of infected animals with vitamin C kept the parasitaemia significantly (P&lt;0.01) lower than in the vitamin-free infected animals after the 3rd week of infection. The vitamin treatment also prevented, to a significant (P&lt; 0.01) degree (and in some cases completely), the disease-induced decreases in blood and organ glutathione (GSH) as well as plasma ascorbic acid. The trypanosomal anaemia was partially, but significantly (P&lt;0.01) ameliorated by vitamin treatment. Infection without vitamin therapy also caused significant (P&lt;0.01) increase in the levels of serum total bilirubin and proteins as well as aspartate and alanine aminotransferases. Vitamin C completely, or to a significant (P&lt;0.01) degree, prevented the disease-induced increases in all these parameters. It was concluded that vitamin C at the dose and route used prevented the disease-induced depletion of endogenous antioxidants, hepatic dysfunction and to a significant degree, anemia.Key words: Trypanosoma congolense, antioxidant, oxidative damage