The potential of mitochondrial DNA markers and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism for domestic and wild species identification

Poaching is increasingly presenting challenge to conservational authorities in Africa. Accurate and reliable methods for the identification of poached wildlife meat when morphological features aremissing, has been lacking in Africa. We describe a molecular based approach that has a potential of serving as a tool for game and domestic meat identification in Africa. A mitochondrial (mt246) markerand Rsa1 restriction enzyme were used in the PCR-RFLP species identification of game and domestic meat. Species-specific reference DNA fragment patterns were obtained using fresh meat from ten majorwild herbivores, representing the highly targeted wild meat species in Tanzania and four domesticated animal species. With the exception of the zebra, all species produced unique monomorphic RFLPpatterns that were species specific. These reference fragment patterns enabled identification of about 75% of unknown meat samples, demonstrating the ability of the technique in discriminating betweenand among wild and domestic species. The results provide preliminary promising fingerprints which need further validation for future use for the control of the up-surging bush meat trade in the continent

Multiplicity of infections and level of recrudescence in Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Mlimba, Tanzania

Polymorphism and antigenic variation are important biological survival strategies of malaria parasites determining the episode, outcome and implications of treatment interventions. In P. falciparum, polymorphic antigens are associated with the asexual blood-stage; merozoite surface protein 2 (MSP2). The MSP2 genes have been invaluable in post-treatment discrimination of parasite resurgence fromnew infection, especially in high transmission areas. We performed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on DNA extracted from blood samples of 141 malaria-infected infants, followed by restriction fragmentlength polymorphism (RFLP) of PCR products. The findings showed multiplicity of infections of single to six infections with an average of 2.58 infections per patient. Single infections of either 3D7 or FC27allelic families of the MSP2 gene occurred in 51 patients (50.5%) out of all PCR-RFLP successful samples (n = 101). Out of 15 (10.6%) follow up samples with resurgent parasitaemia, 3 (20%) sampleshad recrudescent infections while 12 (80%) had variable results. Our findings provide an insight on the prevalence of the genetic determinants of suphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) resistance in Mlimba during the study period, and in the face of rapidly spreading resistance, calls for the periodic surveillance in order to timely detect early warning signal of the deteriorating SP cure rate