Detection of human immunodeficiency virus among individuals presenting with febrile illness in Lagos, Nigeria

Introduction: The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the aetiological agent of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which is a chronic and potentially life-threatening condition. Fever is mostly associated with the early stage of virus replication known as acute HIV infection or  syndrome; as such, determination of HIV status during this critical period is a good means of improving clinical outcome in those infected. Thus, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of HIV among febrile individuals in Lagos, Nigeria.Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study of 250 febrile individuals attending General Hospitals at Isolo, Mushin and Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria. Analysis was carried out at the Virology Research Laboratory, Central Research Laboratory, College of Medicine of the University of Lagos from July to October 2017. Sample analysis was done according to the Nigerian National Testing Algorithm to determine HIV status using Enzyme Immunoassay (EIA) and data analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Results: Out of the 250 febrile participants, 8 were positive for HIV, with an overall prevalence of 3.2%. Further analysis however showed that 90% of the HIV positive participants had four or more episodes of fever in a month. HIV infection was still majorly among the ages 15-24 and 25-34 for male and ages 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54 for females.Conclusion: This findings showed that different cohorts are significantly at risk of HIV infection. Hence, policies and all efforts to reduce the burden of HIV are paramount for a HIV free future for Nigeria.Keywords: Acute Retroviral Syndrome (ARS), Fever, Asymptomatic and  Enzyme–Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)

Growth, nutrient digestibility, ileal digesta viscosity, and energy metabolizability of growing turkeys fed diets containing malted sorghum sprouts supplemented with enzyme or yeast

Growth, apparent nutrient digestibility, ileal digesta viscosity, and energy metabolizability of growing turkeys fed diets containing malted sorghum sprouts (MSP) supplemented with enzyme or yeast were investigated using 120, 28-day-old male turkeys. Six treatments were laid out in a 392 factorial arrangement of treatments with three dietary inclusion levels of MSP (0, 50, and 100 g/kg) and supplemented with 200 mg/kg yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) or 200 mg/kg of a commercial enzyme. The experiment lasted for the starter (day 28–56) and grower phases (day 57–84) of the birds. Each treatment group consisted of 20 turkeys replicated four times with five birds each. Data were analysed using analysis of variance while polynomial contrast was used to determine the trends (linear and quadratic) of MSP inclusion levels. Irrespective of dietary supplementation with enzyme or yeast, final body weight (BW), total BW gain, and feed intake for turkey poults from day 29–56 was reduced (p< 0.05) with increasing inclusion level of MSP. Dietary supplementation with yeast resulted in increased (p< 0.05) feed intake while enzyme supplementation improved (p 0.05) with MSP inclusion levels.Enzyme supplementation reduced (p< 0.05) ileal viscosity but had no effect (p>0.05) on AME. Inclusion of MSP resulted in poor growth performance. This confirms earlier studies that utilization of MSP by poultry is rather poor. Supplementation with enzyme or yeast did not lead to any appreciable improvement in performance of turkeys in this study

Phosphorus utilisation and growth performance of broiler chicken fed diets containing graded levels of supplementary myo-inositol with and without exogenous phytase

A total of 80 male Ross 308 broiler chickens were used in this study to quantify the response and interrelationship of bird growth performance, dietary nitrogen corrected apparent metabolisable energy (AMEn), and nutrient digestibility as a result of feeding graded levels of supplementary myo-inositol (MYO) with and without exogenous phytase (PHY). Supplementation of diet that was formulated to be insufficient in available Phosphorus (P) with graded levels of MYO improved daily weigh gain (WG) and AMEn intake (P<0.05; quadratic) and linearly reduced (P<0.05) the concentration and the secretion of sialic acid (SA) in excreta. Supplementation with PHY improved (P<0.05) dietary dry matter (DMD) and nitrogen (ND) digestibility coefficients. Dietary phosphorus digestibility (PD) increased with PHY addition as expected but the effect was much more pronounced in the low MYO group compared with high MYO diets as described by the interaction (P<0.05). The interaction showed that increasing MYO content had no effect in the absence of PHY but it depressed P digestibility in the diets containing PHY. It can be concluded that dietary MYO improves bird growth and possibly intestinal health of broiler chickens. Dietary supplementation with either MYO or PHY may improve growth of chickens although these effects may not always be additive

Farm risks and management strategies among arable crop farmers in Odogbolu Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria

This study examines farm risk and management strategies adopted by arable crop farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria. A two-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 120 respondents for the study with the aid of questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Likert scale and logit regression model. Results revealed that erratic rainfall, pest and diseases were the major production risks faced by the farmers. Ill-health (69.2%) and low produce price (92.5%) were the major personal risk and marketing risk experienced by the farmers respectively. The major financial risks were insurance (86.7%) and lack of access to loan (83.3%) while the major institutional risk was lack of agricultural loan and subsidies (100%) from government. The major preventive strategy adopted by the arable crop farmers were use of agrochemicals and selling at reduced price. The most employed mitigation strategies were diversification (82.5%), on-farm sales (78.3%), esusu (77.5%), cooperative society membership (71.7%) and self-medication (70%). The prominent coping strategies employed were hired labour (77.5%), off-farm activities (73.3%) and borrowing (60%). The significant factors influencing the attitude of arable crop farmers to risk were sex, educational level of the farmers, household size, farming experience, membership of cooperative association, access to bank loan, farming system and off farm income The study concluded that the arable crop farmers were risk averse and recommended that efforts should be geared towards training the farmers on the appropriate management strategies with emphasis on the need for the farmers to adopt innovations that will enhance improved farm practices in the study area.Keywords: Arable crop, farm risk, management strategies, logi

Antioxidant Nutrient Properties And Antioxidant Activities Of Obenetete ( Clerodendrum Volubile ), A Non-Conventional Leafy Vegetable Consumed In Nigeria

There is an increasing interest in the nutritional and health protecting properties of indigenous and under-utilized food resources particularly leafy vegetables that constitute basic sauce ingredient for rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. It has been suggested that an inadequate intake of trace minerals and vitamins in the diet may have a negative influence on the effectiveness of these antioxidant defence mechanisms. Leafy vegetables&apos; inclusion in diets has been shown to be protective against incidence of chronic, degenerative and age-related diseases, due to the presence of antioxidants. Leafy vegetables are abundant in most developing countries and grow all year long in the wild. The antioxidant nutrients of the leaves of Clerodendrum volubile were evaluated and compared to gallic acid which served as the control. The leaves were air-dried at room temperature and grounded to fine powder. Two grams of the dried powdered plant sample were analysed for antioxidant minerals (Mn, Se, Fe, Cu, Zn) as well as for vitamins C and E. The total flavonoid and phenolic contents were also determined. Dried powdered plant samples were extracted at room temperature by percolation with ethanol. The extracts were used to determine the reducing ability and (2,2&apos;-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) DPPH scavenging ability. The manganese content (84.35 ± 4.45 mg/g) was the highest; followed by zinc (24.50 ± 1.56 mg/g) and selenium (2.50 ± 0.21 mg/kg) content was lowest. Vitamin C had a higher content than that of E. The total flavonoid content was observed to be high (124 mg/g RUTIN). There was a corresponding increase in the reducing ability of the leaves with increase in concentration of the extracts in a dose-dependent relationship. A significant difference (p<0.05) was observed between the DPPH scavenging ability of the leafy vegetable extract (74.26 μg/ml) and gallic acid with highest reducing ability (0.28 μg/ml) observed at highest dose of the extract (100 μg/ml). Clerodendrum volubile is rich in micronutrients and flavonoids which may be responsible for its high antioxidant activities, and can act as primary and/or secondary antioxidants