Control of aquatic leeches (Lymnatis nilotica) using Phytolacca dodecandra (Endod) in Sodo District, Gurage Zone, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, Ethiopia

Infestation of cattle by leeches and occasional attack of humans is becoming serious problem in some parts of the country. The objective of this study is to investigate the prevalence of leech in selected streams in Sodo district, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region and to evaluate the efficacy of endod on leech in field condition and its impact on other non-target aquatic fauna following the request of the district craving for intervention. Estimation of prevalence of leech was assessed before application; 24 hrs, 10 days and 30 days post application of endod based on the number of leeches collected per person per 5 minutes. Findings from interview of the local communities revealed that 95% of the respondents rated leech as the major animal health problem in the district and 65% of them have seen human infested by leech at least once in their life. The mean leech count per person per 5 minutes before application of endod ranged from 16.8-38 in different streams. Stock solution of endod berries suspended in water for 16 hrs was continuously applied to various streams so as to maintain concentration of 20 g/m3 of water for 6 hrs. Application of endod caused mortality of most of the leech population resulting in 97-100% reduction which persisted for minimum of 30 days post application in most of the streams. Most of the local communities witnessed that endod rendered the treated water bodies free of leech for 2-3 months. It has also caused mortality of tadpoles, frogs and round worms found in streams while it doesn’t cause any visible toxicity to different water insects. Moreover, no livestock toxicity due to endod was recorded post application. In conclusion, endod can be used to control leech without causing serious toxicity to most of the aquatic fauna, human and livestock with continuous application for 6 hrs at concentration of 20 g/m3. However, care should be taken in using appropriate concentration and it should not be used in water bodies that contain fish because it is toxic to fish at the dose required to control leeches. Keywords: Aquatic Leech/Lymnatis nilotica; Cattle; Phytolacca dodecandra/Endod; Stream; Sodo distric

The bright future of Alzheimer’s disease pharmacotherapy

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of progressivedementia in the elderly population leading to progressive disturbances of cognitivefunctions. It is the disease whose prevalence is rising but with very limited numbers of drugs limiting its progression making more difficult to overcome the evil side of this disease. Currently, there are a number of drugs in pipeline blooming the hope to effectively modify the progression of AD. All of these newer agents are directing toward the biochemical mechanism of AD development including targeting tau protein (e.g. Inhibition of taukinase), targeting Aβ (e.g. β-Secretase Inhibitors), and therapies involving gene as well as stem cell strategies. Hence in this review, we summarized the pathogenesis of AD on which the discovery of these newer agents based in addition to giving a clear picture on these agents

Direct detection and characterization of foot-and-mouth disease virus in East Africa using a field-ready real-time PCR platform

Effective control and monitoring of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) relies upon rapid and accurate disease confirmation. Currently, clinical samples are usually tested in reference laboratories using standardized assays recommended by The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). However, the requirements for prompt and serotype-specific diagnosis during FMD outbreaks, and the need to establish robust laboratory testing capacity in FMD-endemic countries have motivated the development of simple diagnostic platforms to support local decision-making. Using a portable thermocycler, the T-COR™ 8, this study describes the laboratory and field evaluation of a commercially available, lyophilized pan-serotype-specific real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) assay and a newly available FMD virus (FMDV) typing assay (East Africa-specific for serotypes: O, A, Southern African Territories [SAT] 1 and 2). Analytical sensitivity, diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the pan-serotype-specific lyophilized assay were comparable to that of an OIE-recommended laboratory-based rRT-PCR (determined using a panel of 57 FMDV-positive samples and six non-FMDV vesicular disease samples for differential diagnosis). The FMDV-typing assay was able to correctly identify the serotype of 33/36 FMDV-positive samples (no cross-reactivity between serotypes was evident). Furthermore, the assays were able to accurately detect and type FMDV RNA in multiple sample types, including epithelial tissue suspensions, serum, oesophageal–pharyngeal (OP) fluid and oral swabs, both with and without the use of nucleic acid extraction. When deployed in laboratory and field settings in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, both assays reliably detected and serotyped FMDV RNA in samples (n = 144) collected from pre-clinical, clinical and clinically recovered cattle. These data support the use of field-ready rRT-PCR platforms in endemic settings for simple, highly sensitive and rapid detection and/or characterization of FMDV

Cryptosporidium in Calves, Lambs and Kids at Haramaya, eastern Ethiopia

A cross sectional study was carried out from November 2010 to April 2011 to determine the prevalence of Cryptosporidium in calves, lambs and kids and to assess potential risk factors in Haramaya, eastern Ethiopia. Hence, fecal samples from a total of 237 study animals (133 calves, 63 lambs and 41 kids) were tested with Sheather’s flotation technique and Modified Ziehl-Neelsen Staining. Accordingly, the overall prevalence was found to be 23.6% (56/237) with the prevalence of 27.8% (37/133) in calves, 22.2% (14/63) in lambs and 12.2% (5/41) in kids. The prevalence of Cryptosporidium significantly (p = 0.047) varied with species of study animals being three times higher likelihood of occurrence in calves compared to its chance of occurrence in kids (OR = 2.8, 95%CI = 1.0, 7.6). No significant difference in prevalence was observed between kids and lambs. The occurrence of the disease was also assessed among the species of animals by taking into consideration different demographic characteristic of the animals including breed, age and sex. For caprine, the prevalence was higher in the cross breed animals (28.6%) followed by the breed of Hararge highland (25%) with no report of the disease in Boer and Ogaden breeds. In ovine, no association was observed between the infection occurrence and the potential risk factors. Analysis of the risk factors in bovine revealed a significant (p = 0.044) difference in disease occurrence among age groups with almost three times more likelihood of the disease occurrence in calves under 3 months than older age category(OR = 2.9, 95%CI = 1.0, 8.2). In conclusion, this study demonstrated the importance of Cryptosporidium in young ruminants with a higher prevalence among calves than lambs and kids.Key words: Cryptosporidium; Prevalence; Risk Factors; Calves, Lambs, Kids, Haramaya, Ethiopi

I Olov Hedbergs fotspor: Plantenes evolusjon i det afrikanske høyfjellet

Floraen i det tropiske afrikanske høyfjellet er spektakulær og rik på endemiske (stedegne) arter, og ikke minst er forekomstene av plantearter ekstremt fragmentert på grunn av lange avstander mellom de enkelte fjellene (fig. 1). Denne særegne floraen ble dyptpløyende analysert av Olov Hedberg i hans monumentale verk fra 1957 (Hedberg 1957) og i påfølgende arbeider (f.eks. Hedberg 1961, Hedberg 1969). Studier basert på molekylære data og nisjemodellering har senere gitt sterk støtte til flere av hans hypoteser, men også ledet til ny og overraskende innsikt. Plantenes innvandring til det afrikanske høyfjellet startet allerede da fjellhevingen skapte det spesielle tropisk-alpine døgnklimaet med frost hver natt og høye dagtemperaturer året rundt. Antallet arter økte deretter betydelig gjennom de siste 5 millioner år (plio-pleistocen) og faktisk helt fram til vår tid. En stor del av floraen oppstod etter langdistansespredning fra fjerne, kalde områder, hovedsakelig i Eurasia. Plantenes innvandring ble bare i noen få tilfeller fulgt av betydelig diversifisering (f.eks. hos marikåpe Alchemilla) – tvert imot har slekter som er artsrike i det afrikanske høyfjellet, ofte vist seg å ha spredt seg uavhengig dit gjentatte ganger (f.eks. starr Carex), noe til og med enkeltarter som vår egen fjellskrinneblom Arabis alpina har gjort. De nye studiene tyder på at den afrikanske høyfjellsfloraen har utvikletseg under et mye yngre og mer dynamisk øy-scenario enn det Hedberg så for seg: Den framstår som umettet og sårbar for framtidige klima- og arealendringer på grunn av katastrofale forstyrrelser under klimasvingningene gjennom de siste par millioner år. Den rommer artsmangfold og genetisk diversitet som er unikt, men sterkt svekket av genetiske «flaskehalser» og sykluser av innvandring, utdøing og gjeninnvandring. Det er usedvanlig lite genetisk variasjon i dagens populasjoner, noe som kan bety at mange arter står i fare for å dø ut på grunn av klimaoppvarming og økende menneskelig påvirkning

Pattern and Outcome of Chest Injuries at Bugando Medical Centre in Northwestern Tanzania.

Chest injuries constitute a continuing challenge to the trauma or general surgeon practicing in developing countries. This study was conducted to outline the etiological spectrum, injury patterns and short term outcome of these injuries in our setting. This was a prospective study involving chest injury patients admitted to Bugando Medical Centre over a six-month period from November 2009 to April 2010 inclusive. A total of 150 chest injury patients were studied. Males outnumbered females by a ratio of 3.8:1. Their ages ranged from 1 to 80 years (mean = 32.17 years). The majority of patients (72.7%) sustained blunt injuries. Road traffic crush was the most common cause of injuries affecting 50.7% of patients. Chest wall wounds, hemothorax and rib fractures were the most common type of injuries accounting for 30.0%, 21.3% and 20.7% respectively. Associated injuries were noted in 56.0% of patients and head/neck (33.3%) and musculoskeletal regions (26.7%) were commonly affected. The majority of patients (55.3%) were treated successfully with non-operative approach. Underwater seal drainage was performed in 39 patients (19.3%). One patient (0.7%) underwent thoracotomy due to hemopericardium. Thirty nine patients (26.0%) had complications of which wound sepsis (14.7%) and complications of long bone fractures (12.0%) were the most common complications. The mean LOS was 13.17 days and mortality rate was 3.3%. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, associated injuries, the type of injury, trauma scores (ISS, RTS and PTS) were found to be significant predictors of the LOS (P < 0.001), whereas mortality was significantly associated with pre-morbid illness, associated injuries, trauma scores (ISS, RTS and PTS), the need for ICU admission and the presence of complications (P < 0.001). Chest injuries resulting from RTCs remain a major public health problem in this part of Tanzania. Urgent preventive measures targeting at reducing the occurrence of RTCs is necessary to reduce the incidence of chest injuries in this region

African mountain thistles: generic delimitation problems analyzed with NGS

Póster presentado en el III Simposio Anual de Botánica Española celebrado en el Institut Botànic de Barcelona, 25-26 de noviembre de 202

Characterizing and evaluating the impacts of national land restoration initiatives on ecosystem services in Ethiopia

Land restoration is considered to be the remedy for 21st century global challenges of land degradation. As a result, various land restoration and conservation efforts are underway at different scales. Ethiopia is one of the countries with huge investments in land restoration. Tremendous land management practices have been implemented across the country since the 1970s. However, the spatial distribution of the interventions has not been documented, and there is no systematic, quantitative evidence on whether land restoration efforts have achieved the restoration of desired ecosystem services. Therefore, we carried out a meta‐analysis of peer‐reviewed scientific literature related to land restoration efforts and their impacts in Ethiopia. Results show that most of the large‐scale projects have been implemented in the highlands, specifically in Tigray and Amhara regions covering about 24 agro‐ecological zones, and land restoration impact studies are mostly focused in the highlands but restricted in about 11 agro‐ecological zones. The highest mean effect on agricultural productivity is obtained from the combination of bunds and biological interventions followed by conservation agriculture practices with 170 % and 18% increases, respectively. However, bunds alone, biological intervention alone, and terracing (Fanya Juu) reveal negative effects on productivity. The mean effect of all land restoration interventions on soil organic carbon is positive, the highest effect being from “bunds + biological” (139%) followed by exclosure (90%). Reduced soil erosion and runoff are the dominant impacts of all interventions. The results can be used to improve existing guidelines to better match land restoration options with specific desired ecosystem functions and services. While the focus of this study was on the evaluation of the impacts of land restoration efforts on selected ecosystem services, impacts on livelihood and national socio‐economy have not been examined. Thus, strengthening socio‐economic studies at national scale to assess the sustainability of land restoration initiatives are an essential next step