Pastoral camel husbandry practices in Kenya

This manual was developed to help pastoralists gain useful practical skills for raising camels and understanding camel behaviour. Divided into six broad sections, it addresses key topics essential for beginners. The pastoral communities (Borana) in Isiolo County (Kenya) identified diversifying livestock species to include camels as a way to build their resilience to climate change hazards. Borana communities are predominantly cattle keepers with limited knowledge in managing camels. Unlike other domestic animals, camels have many adaptations for survival under conditions of heat, drought and water deprivation. Livelihood diversification is promoted as an adaptation and risk management strategy but critical practical skills are needed

Field validation of clinical and laboratory diagnosis of wildebeest associated malignant catarrhal fever in cattle

Abstract Background Wildebeest associated malignant catarrhal fever (WA-MCF) is a fatal disease of cattle. Outbreaks are seasonal and associated with close interaction between cattle and calving wildebeest. In Kenya, WA-MCF has a dramatic effect on cattle-keepers who lose up to 10% of their cattle herds per year. The objective of this study was to report the impact of WA-MCF on a commercial ranch and assess the performance of clinical diagnosis compared to laboratory diagnosis as a disease management tool. A retrospective study of WA-MCF in cattle was conducted from 2014 to 2016 at Kapiti Plains Ranch Ltd., Kenya. During this period, 325 animals showed clinical signs of WA-MCF and of these, 123 were opportunistically sampled. In addition, 51 clinically healthy animals were sampled. Nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to confirm clinically diagnosed cases of WA-MCF. A latent class model (LCM) was used to evaluate the diagnostic parameters of clinical diagnosis and the tests in the absence of a gold standard. Results By PCR, 94% (95% C.I. 89–97%) of clinically affected animals were positive to WA-MCF while 63% (95% C.I. 54–71%) were positive by indirect ELISA. The LCM demonstrated the indirect ELISA had poor sensitivity 63.3% (95% PCI 54.4–71.7%) and specificity 62.6% (95% PCI 39.2–84.9%) while the nested PCR performed better with sensitivity 96.1% (95% PCI 90.7–99.7%) and specificity 92.9% (95% PCI 76.1–99.8%). The sensitivity and specificity of clinical diagnosis were 99.1% (95% PCI 96.8–100.0%) and 71.5% (95% PCI 48.0–97.2%) respectively. Conclusions Clinical diagnosis was demonstrated to be an effective method to identify affected animals although animals may be incorrectly classified resulting in financial loss. The study revealed indirect ELISA as a poor test and nested PCR to be a more appropriate confirmatory test for diagnosing acute WA-MCF. However, the logistics of PCR make it unsuitable for field diagnosis of WA-MCF. The future of WA-MCF diagnosis should be aimed at development of penside techniques, which will allow for fast detection in the field

Characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Patients in Busia County Referral Hospital, Kenya

Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen associated with hospital, community, and livestock-acquired infections, with the ability to develop resistance to antibiotics. Nasal carriage by hospital inpatients is a risk for opportunistic infections. Antibiotic susceptibility patterns, virulence genes and genetic population structure of S. aureus nasal isolates, from inpatients at Busia County Referral Hospital (BCRH) were analyzed. A total of 263 inpatients were randomly sampled, from May to July 2015. The majority of inpatients (85.9%) were treated empirically with antimicrobials, including ceftriaxone (65.8%) and metronidazole (49.8%). Thirty S. aureus isolates were cultured from 29 inpatients with a prevalence of 11% (10.3% methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA), 0.8% methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA)). Phenotypic and genotypic resistance was highest to penicillin-G (96.8%), trimethoprim (73.3%), and tetracycline (13.3%) with 20% of isolates classified as multidrug resistant. Virulence genes, Panton-Valentine leukocidin (pvl), toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (tsst-1), and sasX gene were detected in 16.7%, 23.3% and 3.3% of isolates. Phylogenetic analysis showed 4 predominant clonal complexes CC152, CC8, CC80, and CC508. This study has identified that inpatients of BCRH were carriers of S. aureus harbouring virulence genes and resistance to a range of antibiotics. This may indicate a public health risk to other patients and the community

Prevalence, Etiology, and Risk Factors of Mastitis in Dairy Cattle in Embu and Kajiado Counties, Kenya

Bovine mastitis continues to be a leading cause of heavy economic losses in the dairy industry and a public health hazard globally. This cross-sectional study investigated the prevalence, etiologies of clinical and subclinical mastitis, and associated predisposing factors in Embu and Kajiado counties in Kenya. A semistructured questionnaire was administered to 154 smallholder dairy farmers to collect data on management practices, animal factors, and disease history. A total of 395 dairy cows were initially screened for subclinical mastitis using the California mastitis test (CMT), and milk samples were aseptically collected. Both CMT positive and CMT negative samples were analyzed using conventional bacteriological isolation and identification procedures. In the present study, the overall prevalence of mastitis based on CMT and clinical examination was 80% (316/395), out of which 6.8% (27/395) was clinical mastitis, while 73.1% (289/395) was subclinical mastitis. Based on culture, the overall prevalence of clinical and subclinical mastitis was 51.6% (815/1580), 74.4% (294/395), and 76.6% (118/154) at the quarter, cow, and farm level, respectively. From the 1574 milk samples analyzed by cultured, 1016 bacteria were yielded. The predominant bacteria were coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CNS), 42.8% (435/1016), and in decreasing order, Streptococcus species, 22.2% (226/1016), Staphylococcus aureus, 15.7% (160/1016), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 5.1% (52/1016), and the least was Enterobacter species, 0.7% (7/1016), while 23.7% of the sample yielded no bacterial growth. Risk factor analysis revealed that milking mastitic cows last (p=0.002), using a clean udder drying towel for each cow (p=0.033) and previous history of mastitis (p=0.046) were significantly associated with presence of mastitis. The current study has shown a relatively high prevalence of subclinical mastitis with CNS as predominant bacteria. Therefore, control measures are urgently warranted. Management factors such as milking mastitic cows last, using a clean towel for udder drying for each cow, and culling mastitic cows should be considered and included in the Kenyan mastitis control programs

Seroprevalence and Risk Factors for Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Adolescent Blood Donors within Selected Counties of Western Kenya

Hepatitis B virus is a widespread public health menace approximated to have infected 257 million people chronically by 2015. Data on the prevalence of HBV is important in formulating public health policies on HBV control like safe blood transfusion. Adolescents aged 15 to 24 years, known to engage in risky activities associated with HBV spread, constitute major blood donors in Kenya. Notwithstanding current blood donation safety measures, HBV still remain hazardous transfusion-transmissible infections in donated blood. This study therefore was to determine the prevalence of HBsAg and related risk factors among this donor group. A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2019 to August 2019 in Siaya, Kisumu, and Homa Bay counties. One thousand (1000) voluntary blood donors 18 to 25 years old were recruited. A predonation questionnaire was used to record their sociodemographic features and prior risk exposures. Blood samples were initially tested for HBsAg using Murex HBsAg Version 3 (DiaSorin, UK) and positives confirmed using ARCHITECT HBsAg Qualitative Confirmatory assay (Abbott Ireland) as per the manufacturer’s instructions. A result was considered positive if the first and confirmatory tests were all reactive. Generally, the prevalence of HBV was 3.4%, with no significant association between various sociodemographic variables and HBsAg positivity. Nevertheless, scarification and risky sexual behavior were significantly linked to HBV infections (odds ratio OR=8.533, 95%confidence interval CI=3.128‐23.275, p value of 0.001 and OR=5.471, 95%CI=1.925‐15.547, p value of 0.002, respectively). This study revealed a prevalence of 3.4% HBsAg among adolescent blood donors, with perilous sexual behaviors being the most significant risk factor, evidence that sexual contact still plays a major role in transmission of HBV among this donor group despite blood transfusion safety measures put in place. These study findings should therefore be put into consideration while framing health policies to mitigate effects of HBV infection on safe blood transfusion

Camel health management and pastoralists’ knowledge and information on zoonoses and food safety risks in Isiolo County, Kenya

Abstract Camel health management has implications for public health and camel product trade. After liberalization of the veterinary service, current camel health management in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALS) of Kenya and its implications for public health is not known. This study investigated camel health management and its implications on zoonoses and food safety in Isiolo County, Kenya. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 150 households, 15 agro-veterinary shops, 15 community-based animal health workers (CBAHWs) and 10 veterinary officers to collect information on camel health management. The main occupation and source of household income for the pastoral communities is camel-keeping (45.3%). Pastoralists self-medicate camels and other livestock (45.8%), which can lead to between over-dosing, under-dosing or wrong drug use. The CBAHWs, traditional animal health service providers (TAHSPs), government veterinary officers and private veterinary officers play a minimum role. Private veterinary services have not taken root in the ASALs. The sources of knowledge and information on the veterinary drug to use are experience (57.4%), non-governmental organizations (NGO) (41.1%) or CBAHWs (32.1%). The majority of pastoralists (72.5%) do not keep camel or other livestock treatment records. The constraints in purchasing veterinary drugs are expensive drugs, accessibility to drugs and availability of money. Pastoralists refer to veterinary drugs by their brand names but not by active ingredients. As reported by pastoralists, focus group discussion and key informant interviews, antibiotics used were adamycine (33.3%), ampicilline (26.7%), penicillin (14.4%), tetracycline (12.2%), amoxylin (11.1%) and penstrip (2.2%). The common camel diseases were trypanosomiasis, brucellosis, mastitis, diarrhoea, worm infestation, camel pox and tuberculosis. The public health risk factors were the presence of veterinary drug residues in camel products and development of resistant zoonotic organisms/diseases. It was concluded that current camel health management has serious implications for public health and food safety, and hence the camel product trade

Frequency and diversity of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales recovered from untreated wastewater impacted by selective media containing cefotaxime and meropenem in Ohio, USA.

As safe agents of last resort, carbapenems are reserved for the treatment of infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms. The impact of β-lactam antibiotics, cefotaxime, and meropenem on the frequency and diversity of carbapenemase-producing organisms recovered from environmental samples has not been fully established. Therefore, this methodological study aimed at determining β-lactam drugs used in selective enrichment and their impact on the recovery of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) from untreated wastewater. We used a longitudinal study design where 1L wastewater samples were collected weekly from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) influent and quarterly from contributing sanitary sewers in Columbus, Ohio USA with 52 total samples collected. Aliquots of 500 mL were passed through membrane filters of decreasing pore sizes to enable all the water to pass through and capture bacteria. For each sample, the resulting filters were placed into two modified MacConkey (MAC) broths, one supplemented with 0.5 μg/mL of meropenem and 70 μg/mL of ZnSO4 and the other supplemented with 2 μg/mL cefotaxime. The inoculated broth was then incubated at 37° C overnight, after which they were streaked onto two types of correspondingly-modified MAC agar plates supplemented with 0.5 μg/mL and 1.0 μg/mL of meropenem and 70 μg/mL of ZnSO4 and incubated at 37°C overnight. The isolates were identified based on morphological and biochemical characteristics. Then, up to four distinct colonies of each isolate's pure culture per sample were tested for carbapenemase production using the Carba-NP test. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) MALDI-TOF MS was used to identify carbapenemase-producing organisms. In total 391 Carba-NP positive isolates were recovered from the 52 wastewater samples: 305 (78%) isolates had blaKPC, 73 (19%) carried blaNDM, and 14 (4%) harbored both blaKPC and blaNDM resistance genes. CPE genes of both blaKPC and blaNDM were recovered in both types of modified MAC broths, with 84 (21%) having a blaKPC gene, 22 (6%) carrying blaNDM and 9 (2%) harbored both a blaKPC and blaNDM of isolates recovered from MAC medium incorporated with 0.5ug/mL meropenem and 70ug/mL ZnSO4. The most prevalent isolates were Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, and Citrobacter spp

Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles and Genes of Staphylococci Isolated from Mastitic Cow’s Milk in Kenya

Increasing numbers of potentially zoonotic multidrug-resistant (MDR) staphylococci strains, associated with mastitis in dairy cows, are being reported globally and threaten disease management in both animal and human health. However, the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance profiles of these strains, including methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRS), in Kenya is not well known. This study investigated the drug resistance profiles and genes carried by 183 staphylococci isolates from 142 dairy cows representing 93 farms recovered from mastitis milk of dairy cows in two selected counties in Kenya. Staphylococci isolates were characterized by phenotypic characteristics, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, partial sequencing and susceptibility testing for 10 antimicrobial drugs. Detection of seven resistance genes to the various antimicrobial drugs was conducted using PCR. Overall, phenotypic resistance among the staphylococci ranged between 66.1% for ampicillin and 3.5% for fluoroquinolones. Twenty-five percent (25%) of S. aureus and 10.8% of the coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) isolates, were methicillin-resistant staphylococci phenotypically (defined as resistance to cefoxitin disk diffusion). The most common genes found in S. aureus and CoNS were blaZ and strB at 44.3% and 26%, and 78% and 50%, respectively. MDR was observed in 29.67% and 16.3% of S. aureus and CoNS, respectively. These findings pose a threat to bovine mastitis treatment and management as well as human health