Peste des Petits Ruminants: Aetiology, Pathology, Immunology, Disease Status in Africa, Diagnosis, Control, Prevention and Treatment: A Review

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a disease of economic and veterinary importance leading to considerable economic losses. PPR affects small domestic and wild ruminants. Sheep and goats are the natural hosts of PPR but cattle, pigs, African buffaloes and camels are also affected by the PPR virus. Clinical signs seen are mainly fever, mucopurulent nasal and ocular discharges, cough, dyspnoea, gastroenteritis leading to severe diarrhoea. The post mortem lesions seen are congested lungs, congestion of gastrointestinal tract, especially the discontinuous streaks of congestion, which is referred to as Zebra stripes or Zebra markings, oedematous and congested retropharyngeal and mesenteric lymph nodes, linear haemorrhages in the intestinal mucosa and splenomegaly. PPR infection is characterized by a rise in packed cell volume (PCV), increase in haemoglobin concentration (HbC), leukopenia with lymphopenia. The serum alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase activities are elevated, blood urea nitrogen and creatinine concentrations are also elevated. The disease is also characterized by disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC) evidenced by prolonged prothrombin time (PT), prolonged activated thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombocytopenia, and hypofibrinogenemia. In PPR infection, serum biomarkers of oxidative stress such as vitamins A, C, E and glutathione activity decreases while serum catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione reductase and xanthine oxidase increase. Diagnostic techniques include histopathology, virus isolation, immunocapture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (icELISA), Competitive Enzyme Linked Imunnosorbent Assay (cELISA) and Combined Indirect ELISA (CI-ELISA) agar gel immunodiffusion, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), reverse transcription-loop mediated isothermal amplification assay (RT-LAMP), Luciferase immunoprecipitation system (LIPS) and immunohistochemistry. Therefore, this review focused on the aetiology, epidemiology, pathology, immunology, and disease status in Africa, diagnosis, control, prevention, treatment and control of this disease

Effect of Whole Quail (Coturnix japonica) Egg Consumption on some Reproductive Parameters and Lipid Profile of Male Albino Rat (Rattus norvegicus)

The present study evaluated the effect of whole egg consumption on the liver, testes, cauda epididymal sperm reserve and lipid profile of male rats. These evaluations were carried out on adult twenty (20) male albino rats, which were randomly selected into four groups of 5 rats each, designated groups A, B, C and D. Group A was the control group and received only equivalent volume of distilled water, while groups B, C and D received 0.25mg/kg, 0.5mg/kg; and 1.0mg/kg body weight of the quail egg respectively. Standard procedures were carried out in the tissue processing, cauda epididymal sperm reserve and in lipid profile determinations. On days 35 and 49, the mean serum total cholesterol value of group D was significantly lower than that of the control group. On day 35, the mean serum low density lipoprotein and high density lipoprotein (LDL and HDL cholesterol) values of all the treatment groups were significantly lower and higher than that of the control group, respectively. However, on days 49 and 63, the mean serum very low density lipoprotein (VLDL cholesterol) and triglyceride values of all the treatment groups were significantly higher than that of the control group. A significant increase in cadual epididymal sperm count (CESR) was recorded on day 63 at the mid and high doses. No obvious pathological lesions were observed in the histomorphology of the testes and liver when compared to the control. Therefore, whole quail egg consumption caused an increase in serum triglyceride and very low density lipoprotein concentration, and also improved fertility. In other words, prolonged consumption of quail egg should be done with caution as it may predispose one to cardiovascular disease