Public Health and Economic Significance of Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic disease widely distributed throughout the world and is caused by the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii. It is definitive host is felidae family, but has a wide range of intermediate hosts. There are three infective stages of Toxoplasma gondii: Tachyzoites, Bradyzoites and Oocysts. Major routes of transmission in human and animal populations are consuming an infected tissue source (such as raw or undercooked meat), ingestion of oocyst-contaminated food or water and infection of a fetus during pregnancy. After ingestion of tissue cysts, the released bradyzoites from tissue cyst invade the intestinal epithelium transforms into tachyzoite. After invasion of a cell, parasite has ability to actively penetrate hosts cells results in formation of a parasitophorous vacuole where parasite protects itself from host immune cell and replicates intracellularly, form tissue cyst. All extracellular forms of the parasite are directly affected by antibody normal immune response. It can result in a number of syndromes ranging from chorioretinitis to hydrocephalus and neurological deficits. In immunocompromised patient several health problems can be occur: like abortion, mental retardation, seizures, blindness, hydrocephalus, cerebral calcification, chorioretinitis, and ultimately death. The economic significance of Toxoplasmosis is mainly due to reproductive failure in animals, condemnation of meat and wastage of milk, treatment cost in humans and vaccination cost in cats. Diagnosis of toxoplasmosis is performed by isolation of the parasite from patients and more commonly by serological tests. Currently, sulfonamide drugs and pyrimethamine used in combination are the gold-standard medicines for treating toxoplasmosis. The best method of control and prevention are  Cleaning and drying of the environment, the use of clean utensils for feed and water, bathing to remove adhering faeces or cysts and proper disposal of faeces cat are pre-requisites to avoid animal to- animal transmission. Pregnant woman should avoid cleaning litter boxes; avoid contact with contaminated garden soil, sandboxes, and eating raw meat whenever possible. Keywords: Toxoplasmosis, Economic Impact, Public Health, Toxoplasma gondii; zoonotic DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/111-01 Publication date: November 30th 202

Prevalence of Indigestible Foreign Bodies in Rumen and Reticulum of Cattle Slaughtered at Dire Dawa Municipal Abattoir, Eastern Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study was conducted with the aim of identifying and assessing the prevalence of indigestible rumen and reticulum foreign body in cattle with respect to its risk factors from October 2017 to April 2018 at Dire Dawa Municipal Abattoir, Eastern Ethiopia. A total of 384 cattle were considered in this study by randomly selected. Before postmortem examination employed ante mortem examination performed for characterization of selected animal. Out of total 384 cattle examined 154(40.1%) were found positive for presence of indigestible foreign bodies in their rumen and reticulum. The prevalence of foreign bodies was significantly (χ2 = 25.817, p < 0.05) higher in female (54.4%) than male cattle (29.0%).  The prevalence of foreign bodies in relation to breed was higher in cross breed (56.2%) animals than that of local breed (38.6%). More of the foreign body collected was significantly higher (χ2 = 69.138, p< 0.05) in poor (71.2%) than medium (52.9) and good body condition score (18). The result evidenced (21.4% in young, 40.8% in adult and 70.3% in old) that age has also significant association (χ2 = 40.626, p< 0.05) within different age group of animals for foreign bodies. This study revealed a higher percentage of foreign bodies occurred in the rumen (78.0%) than in the reticulum (10.1%), with the remaining percent present in both rumen and reticulum. A Plastic (53.4%) was the most harbored foreign material from rumen while metallic material (35.3%) was more detected in reticulum. Results of this study showed that may be inappropriate disposal of solid waste garbage on the environments that have high risk for animal and environmental pollution. Therefore, responsible government like environmental activists, Policy makers, Livestock professionals, and community should give attentions to reduce further problem by educating the society on the risk of improper disposal of plastic and other materials. Keywords: Cattle, Indigestible foreign bodies, Rumen, Reticulum, Prevalence, Dire Dawa, Abattoir. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/111-02 Publication date: November 30th 202

Investigations on Economic Significance of Hydatidosis on Animals Slaughtered at Hirna Municipal Abattior

Hydatidosis is a serious helminthic cyclo zoonotic disease that possesses an important economic and public health concern in rural and urban area. A study was conducted from November 2016 to April 2017 to investigate the incidence of the Hydatid cysts in bovine and goats in Hirna Municipal Abattoir by examination of all visceral organ of slaughtered cattle and goats and to estimation of direct and indirect monetary losses in abattoir. Out of 252 bovine examined 47 (18.65%) was harbor one or more Hydatid cysts and out of 132 goats examined 14 (10.6%) were harbored one or moreHydatid cysts. From the examined bovine 20(7.94%), 17(6.75%), 7(2.76%), 3 (1.19%), 4(1.59%) and 5(1.98%) containedHydatidcyst in their onlyon lungs, only on livers, only on Heart,only on kidney, both on lung and heart and both on liver and kidney of cattlerespectively.From examined goats hydatid cyst organ distribution were found 7(5.3%) merely on lung, 3(2.27%) merely on liver, 3(2.27%) merely on heart, 1(.76%) merely on kidney, 3(2.27%) on both lung and heart and 2(1.51%) on both liver and kidney. Out of 75 hydatid cysts collected from different organ of 61 heads positive animal and examined for status of fertility, sterility and calcification 15(20%) were fertile, 33(44%) sterile and 27(36%) calcified. A significant association was observed (P<0.05) between the disease positivity and age groups, body condition of both animal it’s more prevalent on adult age of both goats and cattle and high prevalenceof Hydatidosis was observed on medium body condition of both animal. The annual financial losses from organ condemnation and carcass weight loss due toHydatidosis at Hirna Municipal Abattoir were estimated to be 32,810.92 and 319,900.73Ethiopian Birr (ETB) for goats and cattle respectively.Therefore, initiation and implementation of control measures is necessary in order to alleviate its economic impact as well as zoonotic risks to the human.Control measure like educate comminutes to avoid backyard slaughter practice, regular deworming of dog and proper disposal of condemned organ were important to reduce Hydatidosis in comminutes. Keywords: Abattoir, Bovine, Carcass, Dog, Goat, Hirna, Hydatidosis, Prevalence DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/109-02 Publication date:June 30th 202

Modeling the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and squamous dysplasia in a high risk area in Iran

Background: Identifying people at higher risk of having squamous dysplasia, the precursor lesion for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), would allow targeted endoscopic screening. Methods: We used multivariate logistic regression models to predict ESCC and dysplasia as outcomes. The ESCC model was based on data from the Golestan Case-Control Study (total n = 871; cases = 300), and the dysplasia model was based on data from a cohort of subjects from a gastroenterology clinic in Northeast Iran (total n = 724; cases = 26). In each of these analyses, we fit a model including all risk factors known in this region to be associated with ESCC. Individual risks were calculated using the linear combination of estimated regression coefficients and individual-specific values for covariates. We used cross-validation to determine the area under the curve (AUC) and to find the optimal cut points for each of the models. Results: The model had an area under the curve of 0.77 (95 CI: 0.74-0.80) to predict ESCC with 74 sensitivity and 70.4 specificity for the optimum cut point. The area under the curve was 0.71 (95 CI: 0.64-0.79) for dysplasia diagnosis, and the classification table optimized at 61.5 sensitivity and 69.5 specificity. In this population, the positive and negative predictive values for diagnosis of dysplasia were 6.8 and 97.8, respectively. Conclusion: Our models were able to discriminate between ESCC cases and controls in about 77, and between individuals with and without squamous dysplasia in about 70 of the cases. Using risk factors to predict individual risk of ESCC or squamous dysplasia still has limited application in clinical practice, but such models may be suitable for selecting high risk individuals in research studies, or increasing the pretest probability for other screening strategies

Overview of the Cohort Consortium Vitamin D Pooling Project of Rarer Cancers

The Cohort Consortium Vitamin D Pooling Project of Rarer Cancers (VDPP) brought together 10 cohorts to conduct a prospective study of the association between vitamin D status, measured as serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), and the development of 7 rarer cancer sites: endometrial, esophageal, gastric, kidney, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers. The cohorts come from 3 continents, with participants from a wide range of latitude who are racially diverse. Across each cancer site, there was no evidence of a protective association between higher concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (>75 nmol/L) and cancer outcome. An increased risk at very high levels (≥100 nmol/L) was noted for pancreatic cancer, confirming previous reports. The articles included in this issue detail the overall design and governance of the project, correlates of vitamin D status, and results from the cancer site-specific investigations. The Vitamin D Pooling Project realizes a major goal of consortium efforts, namely, to rigorously test hypotheses for rarer cancer outcomes that may not be adequately addressed in any one prospective cohort study. The results of this study have application for the planning and conduct of intervention trials, especially in determining potential risks

Impact of changing US cigarette smoking patterns on incident cancer: Risks of 20 smoking-related cancers among the women and men of the NIH-AARP cohort

Background: Historically, US women started smoking at a later age than men and had lower relative risks for smoking-related cancers. However, more recent birth cohorts of women and men have similar smoking histories and have now reached the high-risk age for cancer. The impact of these changes on cancer incidence has not been systematically examined. Methods: Relative risks (RR), 95% confidence intervals (CI) and attributable fractions were calculated for cigarette smoking and incidence of 20 smoking-related cancers in 186 057 women and 266 074 men of the National Institutes of Health-AARP cohort, aged 50 to 71 years in 1995 and followed for 11 years. Results: In the cohort, which included participants born between 1924 and 1945, most women and men started smoking as teenagers. RRs for current vs never smoking were similar in women and men for the following cancers: lung squamous-cell (RR women: 121.4, 95% CI: 57.3–257.4; RR men:114.6, 95% CI: 61.2–214.4), lung adenocarcinoma (RR women: 11.7, 95% CI: 9.8–14.0; RR men: 15.6, 95% CI: 12.5–19.6), laryngeal (RR women: 37.0, 95% CI: 14.9–92.3; RR men: 13.8, 95% CI: 9.3–20.2), oral cavity-pharyngeal (RR women:4.4, 95% CI: 3.3–6.0; RR men: 3.8, 95% CI: 3.0–4.7), oesophageal squamous cell (RR women: 7.3, 95% CI: 3.5–15.5; RR men: 6.2, 95% CI: 2.8–13.7), bladder (RR women: 4.7, 95% CI: 3.7–5.8; RR men: 4.0, 95% CI: 3.5–4.5), colon (RR women: 1.3, 95% CI: 1.2–1.5; RR men: 1.3, 95% CI: 1.1–1.4), and at other sites, with similar attributable fractions. Conclusions: RRs for current smoking and incidence of many smoking-related cancers are now similar in US women and men, likely reflecting converging smoking patterns

Measuring mechanical properties of the tectorial membrane with a magnetizable bead

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1998.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-127).by Charles Cameron Abnet.Ph.D