Female philopatry and male dispersal in a cryptic, bush-dwelling antelope: A combined molecular and behavioural approach

In most mammals, females are philopatric while males disperse in order to avoid inbreeding. We investigated social structure in a solitary ungulate, the bushbuck Tragelaphus sylvaticus in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda by combining behavioural and molecular data. We correlated spatial and social vicinity of individual females with a relatedness score obtained from mitochondrial DNA analysis. Presumed clan members shared the same haplotype, showed more socio-positive interactions and had a common home range. Males had a higher haplotype diversity than females. All this suggests the presence of a matrilineal structure in the study population. Moreover, we tested natal dispersal distances between male and female yearlings and used control region sequences to confirm that females remain in their natal breeding areas whereas males disperse. In microsatellite analysis, males showed a higher genetic variability than females. The impoverished genetic variability of females at both molecular marker sets is consistent with a philopatric and matrilineal structure, while the higher degree of genetic variability of males is congruent with a higher dispersal rate expected in this sex. Evidence even for male long-distance dispersal is brought about by one male carrying a haplotype of a different subspecies, previously not described to occur in this area. © 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation. © 2009 The Zoological Society of London

Incorporating scale dependence in disease burden estimates:the case of human African trypanosomiasis in Uganda

The WHO has established the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) as a metric for measuring the burden of human disease and injury globally. However, most DALY estimates have been calculated as national totals. We mapped spatial variation in the burden of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) in Uganda for the years 2000-2009. This represents the first geographically delimited estimation of HAT disease burden at the sub-country scale.Disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) totals for HAT were estimated based on modelled age and mortality distributions, mapped using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, and summarised by parish and district. While the national total burden of HAT is low relative to other conditions, high-impact districts in Uganda had DALY rates comparable to the national burden rates for major infectious diseases. The calculated average national DALY rate for 2000-2009 was 486.3 DALYs/100 000 persons/year, whereas three districts afflicted by rhodesiense HAT in southeastern Uganda had burden rates above 5000 DALYs/100 000 persons/year, comparable to national GBD 2004 average burden rates for malaria and HIV/AIDS.These results provide updated and improved estimates of HAT burden across Uganda, taking into account sensitivity to under-reporting. Our results highlight the critical importance of spatial scale in disease burden analyses. National aggregations of disease burden have resulted in an implied bias against highly focal diseases for which geographically targeted interventions may be feasible and cost-effective. This has significant implications for the use of DALY estimates to prioritize disease interventions and inform cost-benefit analyses

Pyrethroid treatment of cattle for tsetse control: Reducing its impact on dung fauna

Background: African trypansomiases of humans and animals can be controlled by attacking the vectors,various species of tsetse fly. Treatment of cattle with pyrethroids to kill tsetse as they feed is the most cost-effective method. However, such treatments can contaminate cattle dung, thereby killing the fauna which disperse the dung and so play an important role in soil fertility. Hence there is a need to identify cost-effective methods of treating cattle with minimal impact on dung fauna. Methodology/Principal Findings: We used dung beetles to field bioassay the levels of dung contamination following the use of spray and pour-on formulations of deltamethrin, applied to various parts of the body of cattle in Zimbabwe. Results suggested that dung was contaminated by contact with insecticide on the body surface as the cattle defecated, and by ingestion of insecticide as the cattle licked themselves. Death of dung beetles was reduced to negligible levels by using only the spray and applying it to the legs and belly or legs alone, i.e., places where most tsetse feed. Conclusion/Significance: The restricted applications suitable for minimising the impact on dung fauna have the collateral benefits of improving the economy and convenience of cattle treatments for tsetse control. The demonstration of collateral benefits is one of the surest ways of promoting environmentally friendly procedures

Cost analysis of options for management of African Animal Trypanosomiasis using interventions targeted at cattle in Tororo District; south-eastern Uganda

BACKGROUND: Tsetse-transmitted African trypanosomes cause both nagana (African animal Trypanosomiasis-AAT) and sleeping sickness (human African Trypanosomiasis - HAT) across Sub-Saharan Africa. Vector control and chemotherapy are the contemporary methods of tsetse and trypanosomiasis control in this region. In most African countries, including Uganda, veterinary services have been decentralised and privatised. As a result, livestock keepers meet the costs of most of these services. To be sustainable, AAT control programs need to tailor tsetse control to the inelastic budgets of resource-poor small scale farmers. To guide the process of tsetse and AAT control toolkit selection, that now, more than ever before, needs to optimise resources, the costs of different tsetse and trypanosomiasis control options need to be determined. METHODS: A detailed costing of the restricted application protocol (RAP) for African trypanosomiasis control in Tororo District was undertaken between June 2012 and December 2013. A full cost calculation approach was used; including all overheads, delivery costs, depreciation and netting out transfer payments to calculate the economic (societal) cost of the intervention. Calculations were undertaken in Microsoft Excel™ without incorporating probabilistic elements. RESULTS: The cost of delivering RAP to the project was US$6.89 per animal per year while that of 4 doses of a curative trypanocide per animal per year was US$ 5.69. However, effective tsetse control does not require the application of RAP to all animals. Protecting cattle from trypanosome infections by spraying 25 %, 50 % or 75 % of all cattle in a village costs US$1.72, 3.45 and 5.17 per animal per year respectively. Alternatively, a year of a single dose of curative or prophylactic trypanocide treatment plus 50$ 4.87 and US$ 5.23 per animal per year. Pyrethroid insecticides and trypanocides cost 22.4 and 39.1 % of the cost of RAP and chemotherapy respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Cost analyses of low cost tsetse control options should include full delivery costs since they constitute 77.6 % of all project costs. The relatively low cost of RAP for AAT control and its collateral impact on tick control make it an attractive option for livestock management by smallholder livestock keepers

Improvements on Restricted Insecticide Application Protocol for Control of Human and Animal African Trypanosomiasis in Eastern Uganda

African trypanosomes constrain livestock and human health in Sub-Saharan Africa, and aggravate poverty and hunger of these otherwise largely livestock-keeping communities. To solve this, there is need to develop and use effective and cheap tsetse control methods. To this end, we aimed at determining the smallest proportion of a cattle herd that needs to be sprayed on the legs, bellies and ears (RAP) for effective Human and Animal African Trypanosomiasis (HAT/AAT) control.; Cattle in 20 villages were ear-tagged and injected with two doses of diminazene diaceturate (DA) forty days apart, and randomly allocated to one of five treatment regimens namely; no treatment, 25%, 50%, 75% monthly RAP and every 3 month Albendazole drench. Cattle trypanosome re-infection rate was determined by molecular techniques. ArcMap V10.3 was used to map apparent tsetse density (FTD) from trap catches. The effect of graded RAP on incidence risk ratios and trypanosome prevalence was determined using Poisson and logistic random effect models in R and STATA V12.1 respectively. Incidence was estimated at 9.8/100 years in RAP regimens, significantly lower compared to 25.7/100 years in the non-RAP regimens (incidence rate ratio: 0.37; 95% CI: 0.22-0.65; P>0.001). Likewise, trypanosome prevalence after one year of follow up was significantly lower in RAP animals than in non-RAP animals (4% vs 15%, OR: 0.20, 95% CI: 0.08-0.44; P>0.001). Contrary to our expectation, level of protection did not increase with increasing proportion of animals treated.; Reduction in RAP coverage did not significantly affect efficacy of treatment. This is envisaged to improve RAP adaptability to low income livestock keepers but needs further evaluation in different tsetse challenge, HAT/AAT transmission rates and management systems before adopting it for routine tsetse control programs

The burden and spatial distribution of bovine African trypanosomes in small holder crop-livestock production systems in Tororo District, south-eastern Uganda

African animal trypanosomiasis (AAT) is considered to be one of the greatest constraints to livestock production and livestock-crop integration in most African countries. South-eastern Uganda has suffered for more than two decades from outbreaks of zoonotic Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), adding to the burden faced by communities from AAT. There is insufficient AAT and HAT data available (in the animal reservoir) to guide and prioritize AAT control programs that has been generated using contemporary, sensitive and specific molecular techniques. This study was undertaken to evaluate the burden that AAT presents to the small-scale cattle production systems in south-eastern Uganda. Randomised cluster sampling was used to select 14% (57/401) of all cattle containing villages across Tororo District. Blood samples were taken from all cattle in the selected villages between September-December 2011; preserved on FTA cards and analysed for different trypanosomes using a suite of molecular techniques. Generalized estimating equation and Rogen-Gladen estimator models were used to calculate apparent and true prevalences of different trypanosomes while intra cluster correlations were estimated using a 1-way mixed effect analysis of variance (ANOVA) in R statistical software version 3.0.2.ResultsThe prevalence of all trypanosome species in cattle was 15.3% (95% CI; 12.2-19.1) while herd level trypanosome species prevalence varied greatly between 0-43%. Trypanosoma vivax (17.4%, 95% CI; 10.6-16.8) and Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense (0.03%) were respectively, the most, and least prevalent trypanosome species identified. The prevalence of bovine trypanosomes in this study indicates that AAT remains a significant constraint to livestock health and livestock production. There is need to implement tsetse and trypanosomiasis control efforts across Tororo District by employing effective, cheap and sustainable tsetse and trypanosomiasis control method that could be integrated in the control of other endemic vector borne diseases like tick-borne diseases

Fatty And Amino Acids Composition Of Selected Wild Edible Mushrooms Of Bunyoro Sub-Region, Uganda

For thousands of years, mushrooms have long been used for their health promoting properties. The aim of this study was to determine the fatty acids and amino acids contents in priority wild mushrooms: Termitomyces microcarpus , Termitomyces sp. (Bunyanaka), Termitomyces globulus , Termitomyces eurrhizus and Polyporus tenuiculus widely consumed in Bunyoro Sub-region, Uganda. The study revealed seventeen amino acids using pre-column derivatization with a phenylisothiocyanate followed by HPLC-UV-vis, and tryptophan using spectrophotometry. Fatty acids were determined by gas chromatography and detected by a flame ion detector. The essential amino acids ranged from 23.6% P. tenuiculus to 59.0% T. microcarpus of the total amino acids. Termitomyces sp. (Bunyanaka) and T. globulus were the most nutritious species based on essential amino acid indices. Generally, glutamic acid was high followed by phenylalanine, histidine, tryptophan and lysine concentrations, whereas threonine, valine, methionine, leucine, cysteine, arginine and tyrosine contents were either low or absent. T. eurrhizus and T. globulus were limited in leucine and valine, T. microcarpus in leucine and Termitomyces sp. (Bunyanaka) in isoleucine and valine. Unsaturated fatty acids predominated over saturated ones. Termitomyces sp. (Bunyanaka) and T. globulus had poor fatty acid profiles, rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (nervonic and eruic acids), had low PUFA:MUFA ratio and a PUFA+MUFA:SFA ratio greater than two. Docosahexaenoic (DHA) and a trans-fatty acid, elaidic were also identified in these mushroom species. This represents the first report on the occurrence of DHA in mushrooms. T. microcarpus had a fairly good profile, high in palmitoleic, λ-linolenic, α- linolenic, palmitic and oleic acids. Stearic DHA, linoleic and eicosapentaenic acids were detected in small quantities. The odd carbon number fatty acids (heptadecanoic, heneicosanoic and cis- 10-heptadecanoic) were also identified. These results serve as a basis to encourage the local communities to exploit the nutritive potentials of these mushrooms in order to reduce the burden of nutritional deficiencies

Nutritional And Hypocholesterolemic Properties Of Termitomyces Microcarpus Mushrooms

Wild edible mushrooms, Termitomyces Microcarpus are widely consumed in Uganda, partly because of their taste, flavour and because they are believed to have medicinal benefits. This study investigated the nutrient composition of the Termitomyces microcarpus mushrooms and the effect of the mushroom on feed intake, weight gain, serum cholesterol and triglycerides of male albino rats. Semi-dried mushrooms collected from Kyenjojo District in western Uganda were analyzed for nutrient composition using standard procedures. To determine the effect of dietary intake of mushrooms, a completely randomized study design was used with experimental treatments having diets containing 25, 45 and 60% air-dried mushroom flour mixed with the basal feed and 0.5% cholesterol. These were compared to a control diet consisting of only commercial (basal) feed and to a diet containing basal feed and 0.5% cholesterol. The rats were fed on the five diets for ten weeks and were monitored for changes in feed intake and weight at weekly intervals for six weeks and in serum total cholesterol, High Density Lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol and triglycerides at two weeks intervals for ten weeks. Proximate analysis revealed that the mushrooms contained 25.5% protein, 2.3% fat, 11.2% dietary fibre, 48.37% available carbohydrates and 12.67% water. The mushrooms were also found to contain 61 mg/100g of iron, 156 mg/100g of calcium and a number of other dietary minerals. Dietary inclusion of Termitomyces microcarpus mushrooms significantly reduced the feed intake and weight gain of the rats by up to 36.8 and 29.5%, respectively. The reduction increased with the proportion of dietary mushroom. Inclusion of mushrooms in the diets of rats also lowered their total serum cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides by up to 15.6, 28.3 and 29.9%, respectively. Reduction in serum lipids did not, however, show a clear relation to the quantity of mushrooms in the diet. The reduction in the total serum cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides may be attributed to the high quantities of fibre in the mushrooms. These results suggest that consumption of T. microcarpus mushrooms could contribute to reducing the prevalence of diseases linked to high blood lipids

Preliminary observations on the species composition and distribution of indigenous wild mushrooms in the Lake Victoria basin wetlands, Musoma, Tanzania.

Harvesting of wild mushrooms in the Lake Victoria basin for household food and inter-household trade is widespread and mushrooms contribute strongly to household food security. In spite of the importance of mushrooms to household food security the spatial and temporal distribution and ecological conditions influencing mushroom growth and availability in the Lake Victoria basin are yet to be documented adequately to enable development of plans for their conservation. The objective of this study was to document the composition, seasonal and spatial distribution of the mushrooms of the Lake Victoria basin wetlands and their habitats. Preliminary surveys identified a total of nine species most of which are of the genus Termitomyces. Generally most of the mushrooms were associated with termite mounds thus growing on clay soils and soils associated with low organic matter. Some species grow solely on termite mounds while others can grow a distance from a termite mound but associated with underground termite nests. Majority of the mushrooms appear during the rain season and are equally available during the short and long rains. This suggests that most species will grow well throughout the year whenever moisture level in the substrate is adequate irrespective of the season. Some of the species especially the Polypores (Ganoderma sp.) grow on dead wood as well as on living trees, infecting living trees through wounds. Most of the species grow in acidic (pH 6.5) substrates with a pH range between 5 and 6.8 though one species (Termitomyces clypeatus) was observed to grow on slightly alkaline conditions. Generally the substrate for most species had low organic carbon ranging from 3% to slightly above 4%. More detailed study of the ecology of the most important mushrooms in the Lake Victoria basin wetlands is important as a basis for their management and domestication. TJFNC Vol. 76 2007: pp. 80-8