Biotechnology as a Change Agent for National Development: Review in The Gambia

Biotechnology is an important tool which can ensure the production of crop that will have longer shelf live, drought resistant, high saline tolerance, ability to withstand adverse conditions among others. The Gambia among the low-income West African countries, where agriculture is practiced by two-thirds of its citizens and couple with global population which is now around 7 billion predicted to rise to 9 billion by 2050, the Gambian government really needs to act fast and positively in welcoming genetically modified crops if it’s to be able to feed its population now roughly around 2 million people. Application of Biotechnology in crop and animal farming through genetic engineering has led to the development of crops with desirable characteristics such as crop varieties that cope better with drought and salinity, crops that more resistant to pest and diseases and crops that use nutrients more efficiently. This can help transform The Gambia into a country with a robust agriculture capable of not feeding the nation but also generating substantial foreign exchange. Through Agricultural biotechnology, this looming crisis can be averted  eradicating malnutrition by ensuring food self-sufficiency through the production of resistant crops to pests and diseases, having longer shelf-lives, higher nutritional content and palatability, higher yields and early maturity period, tolerant to adverse weather and soil conditions. Achieving food sufficiency which is a direct consequence of a flourishing agricultural sector will facilitate a shift from other natural resources as a source of foreign exchange thus promoting economic diversity through agriculture

Maintaining Plasmodium falciparum gametocyte infectivity during blood collection and transport for mosquito feeding assays in the field.

BACKGROUND: Mosquito feeding assays using venous blood are commonly used for evaluating the transmission potential of malaria infected individuals. To improve the accuracy of these assays, care must be taken to prevent premature activation or inactivation of gametocytes before they are fed to mosquitoes. This can be challenging in the field where infected individuals and insectary facilities are sometimes very far apart. In this study, a simple, reliable, field applicable method is presented for storage and transport of gametocyte infected blood using a thermos flask. METHODS: The optimal storage conditions for maintaining the transmissibility of gametocytes were determined initially using cultured Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes in standard membrane feeding assays (SMFAs). The impact of both the internal thermos water temperature (35.5 to 37.8 °C), and the external environmental temperature (room temperature to 42 °C) during long-term (4 h) storage, and the impact of short-term (15 min) temperature changes (room temp to 40 °C) during membrane feeding assays was assessed. The optimal conditions were then evaluated in direct membrane feeding assays (DMFAs) in Burkina Faso and The Gambia where blood from naturally-infected gametocyte carriers was offered to mosquitoes immediately and after storage in thermos flasks. RESULTS: Using cultured gametocytes in SMFAs it was determined that an internal thermos water temperature of 35.5 °C and storage of the thermos flask between RT (~ 21.3 °C) and 32 °C was optimal for maintaining transmissibility of gametocytes for 4 h. Short-term storage of the gametocyte infected blood for 15 min at temperatures up to 40 °C (range: RT, 30 °C, 38 °C and 40 °C) did not negatively affect gametocyte infectivity. Using samples from natural gametocyte carriers (47 from Burkina Faso and 16 from The Gambia), the prevalence of infected mosquitoes and the intensity of oocyst infection was maintained when gametocyte infected blood was stored in a thermos flask in water at 35.5 °C for up to 4 h. CONCLUSIONS: This study determines the optimal long-term (4 h) storage temperature for gametocyte infected blood and the external environment temperature range within which gametocyte infectivity is unaffected. This will improve the accuracy, reproducibility, and utility of DMFAs in the field, and permit reliable comparative assessments of malaria transmission epidemiology in different settings

Detecting Foci of Malaria Transmission with School Surveys: A Pilot Study in the Gambia.

BACKGROUND: In areas of declining malaria transmission such as in The Gambia, the identification of malaria infected individuals becomes increasingly harder. School surveys may be used to identify foci of malaria transmission in the community. METHODS: The survey was carried out in May-June 2011, before the beginning of the malaria transmission season. Thirty two schools in the Upper River Region of The Gambia were selected with probability proportional to size; in each school approximately 100 children were randomly chosen for inclusion in the study. Each child had a finger prick blood sample collected for the determination of antimalarial antibodies by ELISA, malaria infection by microscopy and PCR, and for haemoglobin measurement. In addition, a simple questionnaire on socio-demographic variables and the use of insecticide-treated bed nets was completed. The cut-off for positivity for antimalarial antibodies was obtained using finite mixture models. The clustered nature of the data was taken into account in the analyses. RESULTS: A total of 3,277 children were included in the survey. The mean age was 10 years (SD = 2.7) [range 4-21], with males and females evenly distributed. The prevalence of malaria infection as determined by PCR was 13.6% (426/3124) [95% CI = 12.2-16.3] with marked variation between schools (range 3-25%, p<0.001), while the seroprevalence was 7.8% (234/2994) [95%CI = 6.4-9.8] for MSP119, 11.6% (364/2997) [95%CI = 9.4-14.5] for MSP2, and 20.0% (593/2973) [95% CI = 16.5-23.2) for AMA1. The prevalence of all the three antimalarial antibodies positive was 2.7% (79/2920). CONCLUSIONS: This survey shows that malaria prevalence and seroprevalence before the transmission season were highly heterogeneous

Age specific seroprevalence according to parasite prevalence (low versus high).

<p><b>A.</b> MSP1₁₉. <b>B.</b> MSP2. <b>C.</b> AMA1. 0 = Sites with plasmodium prevalence ≤20% (low). 1 = Sites with plasmodium prevalence >20% (high).</p

Age-specific seroprevalence.

<p><b>A.</b> MSP1₁₉. <b>B.</b> MSP2. <b>C.</b> AMA1. <b>D.</b> MSP1₁₉, MSP2 and AMA1(combined).</p

Parasite prevalence and seroprevalence by school.

<p>Parasite prevalence and seroprevalence by school.</p

Baseline characteristic and prevalence of malaria and anaemia.

‡<p>wfaz reference values available only from 5–10 years and comparison was done for this age group. hfaz and bfaz estimated for 5–19 years.</p>*<p>GM = Geometric mean.</p>**<p>n = 340.</p>***<p>n = 20.</p