Nutritional value of selected wild edible plants in Teso-Karamoja Region, Uganda

The use of wild plants for food in the rural communities of Uganda is widespread. This is attributed to food scarcity, perceived nutritional value,  medicinal and health benefits and cultural preservation. However, the claims on the nutritional value of some wild edible plant species have not  been fully validated. In cognizance of this, the macroelement, beta-carotene and ascorbic acid profile of five wild plants commonly used for food in and around eight forest reserves of Teso-Karamoja region, Uganda, were analysed. The plants prioritized for analysis were Vigna kirkii (Baker) J.B. Gillett, Maerua angolensis D.C., Leptadenia hastata (Schumach. & Thonn.) Decne, Senna obtusifolia (L.) H.S. Irwin & Barneby and Dioscorea sp.). The  macro-element, ascorbic acid and beta-carotene composition of these plants was analyzed in triplicate. The variance in parameter means was  analysed using one-way Analysis of Variance in SPSS ver. 16.0. The results showed that all the means of species were significantly different at the p=0.05 level. The highest macro-nutrient means were 80.74±0.34 %/100 g moisture content in V. kirkii, 3.95±0.23 g/100 g ash content in M.  angolensis, 19.04±0.37 Kcal gross energy in M. angolensis, 27.93±0.85 g/100 g dietary fibre in L. hastata, 3.40±0.13 g/100 g crude fat in L. hastata, 65.43±2.91 g/100 g carbohydrate in Dioscorea sp., 36.37±0.42 g/100 g crude protein in M. angolensis. The highest ascorbic acid mean was 14.71±3.56 mg/100 g in M. angolensis while beta-carotene was 1082.1±0.08 μg/100 g in S. obtusifolia. These results show that these wild edible plants have a significantly variable nutritional value. Some of the macro elements can sufficiently meet the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) and Adequate Intakes (AI) for certain life stages and groups if consumed in ideal quantities. This information is vital in enhancing food and nutrition security awareness in the community and uplifting the social appeal and acceptability of these plants. This can be enhanced by investigating the micro-nutrients of public health significance, anti-nutrient factors, and toxic compounds in these plants. Key words: Nutritional value, wild edible plants, macro-nutrient, ascorbic acid, betacarotene,Teso-Karamoja, Ugand

Brewery industry-led seed sector development for sorghum in Tanzania

The use of sorghum improved variety seeds has been low among sorghum farmers in Tanzania. Due to this, stakeholders such as brewing companies have launched various initiatives to expand the use of improved sorghum seeds. In general, this study was undertaken to assess the contribution of brewing industry to the sorghum value chain in Tanzania. Specifically, this study aims to determine the extent of use of sorghum in brewing (by quantifying the amount of sorghum grain sold to brewing companies and grain off-takers), identifying stakeholders in the value chain, and the impact of the brewing industry on use of improved seeds by smallholder farmers. The study was conducted in 11 districts in 6 regions of Tanzania covering sorghum farmers, grain off-takers, brewing companies, extension officers, and seed producers. Purposive and simple random sampling was used to select respondents: 591 individual farmers, 160 farmers from 16 focus groups, 15grain off-takers, 14 extension officers, 4 Quality Declared Seed (QDS) producers, and 2 brewing companies. Data was then analyzed using descriptive analysis statistics, Probit Regression, and cost-benefit analysis

Recovery from COVID-19 and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: The Potential Role of an Intensive Care Unit Recovery Clinic: A Case Report

Background In this case report, we describe the trajectory of recovery of a young, healthy patient diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 who developed acute respiratory distress syndrome. The purpose of this case report is to highlight the potential role of intensive care unit recovery or follow-up clinics for patients surviving acute hospitalization for coronavirus disease 2019. Case Presentation Our patient was a 27-year-old Caucasian woman with a past medical history of asthma transferred from a community hospital to our medical intensive care unit for acute hypoxic respiratory failure due to bilateral pneumonia requiring mechanical ventilation (ratio of arterial oxygen partial pressure to fraction of inspired oxygen, 180). On day 2 of her intensive care unit admission, reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction confirmed coronavirus disease 2019. Her clinical status gradually improved, and she was extubated on intensive care unit day 5. She had a negative test result for coronavirus disease 2019 twice with repeated reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction before being discharged to home after 10 days in the intensive care unit. Two weeks after intensive care unit discharge, the patient returned to our outpatient intensive care unit recovery clinic. At follow-up, the patient endorsed significant fatigue and exhaustion with difficulty walking, minor issues with sleep disruption, and periods of memory loss. She scored 10/12 on the short performance physical battery, indicating good physical function. She did not have signs of anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder through self-report questionnaires. Clinically, she was considered at low risk of developing post–intensive care syndrome, but she required follow-up services to assist in navigating the healthcare system, addressing remaining symptoms, and promoting return to her pre–coronavirus disease 2019 societal role. Conclusion We present this case report to suggest that patients surviving coronavirus disease 2019 with subsequent development of acute respiratory distress syndrome will require more intense intensive care unit recovery follow-up. Patients with a higher degree of acute illness who also have pre-existing comorbidities and those of older age who survive mechanical ventilation for coronavirus disease 2019 will require substantial post–intensive care unit care to mitigate and treat post–intensive care syndrome, promote reintegration into the community, and improve quality of life

Harnessing Opportunities for Informed Investments in the Sorghum Commodity Value Chain in Tanzania: A Business Case

This study was conducted among sorghum farmers, focus groups, seed producers and extension officers in 10 districts of Tanzania to map out business opportunities along the sorghum value chain. Results obtained demonstrated that socio-economic factors such as number of years spent in school, group membership, availability of free seeds, market accessibility and seed accessibility influenced the adoption of improved varieties among sorghum farmers. Improved sorghum seeds reflected the profitability from positive gross benefits obtained among sorghum farmers and seed producers. The general adoption rate among sorghum farmers was low (39.0%), with variety NACO Mtama 1 having the highest adoption rate among farmers (17.0%). Among traders, a majority were large off-takers (79.0%). These off-takers experienced issues such as quality (71.4%), quantity (15.9%), lack of market information (7.9%), unreliable markets (36.3%), low grain quality (24.8%) and high tax levies (10.6%). Further, financial constraints and poor linkages among stakeholders were some inefficiencies in the sorghum value chain. The study recommends greater accessibility to improved sorghum seeds as well as reliable policies that enable processes for sorghum stakeholders along the sorghum value chain

Molecular characterisation of protist parasites in human-habituated mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), humans and livestock, from Bwindi impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Over 60 % of human emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, and there is growing evidence of the zooanthroponotic transmission of diseases from humans to livestock and wildlife species, with major implications for public health, economics, and conservation. Zooanthroponoses are of relevance to critically endangered species; amongst these is the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) of Uganda. Here, we assess the occurrence of Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora, Giardia, and Entamoeba infecting mountain gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Uganda, using molecular methods. We also assess the occurrence of these parasites in humans and livestock species living in overlapping/adjacent geographical regions

Serological profile of foot-and-mouth disease in wildlife populations of West and Central Africa with special reference to Syncerus caffer subspecies

The role which West and Central African wildlife populations might play in the transmission dynamics of FMD is not known nor have studies been performed in order to assess the distribution and prevalence of FMD in wild animal species inhabiting those specific regions of Africa. This study reports the FMD serological profile extracted from samples (n = 696) collected from wildlife of West and Central Africa between 1999 and 2003. An overall prevalence of FMDV NSP reactive sera of 31.0% (216/696) was estimated, where a significant difference in seropositivity (p = 0.000) was reported for buffalo (64.8%) as opposed to other wild animal species tested (17.8%). Different levels of exposure to the FMDV resulted for each of the buffalo subspecies sampled (p = 0.031): 68.4%, 50.0% and 0% for Nile Buffalo, West African Buffalo and African Forest Buffalo, respectively. The characterisation of the FMDV serotypes tested for buffalo found presence of antibodies against all the six FMDV serotypes tested, although high estimates for type O and SAT 3 were reported for Central Africa. Different patterns of reaction to the six FMDV serotypes tested were recorded, from sera only positive for a single serotype to multiple reactivities. The results confirmed that FMDV circulates in wild ruminants populating both West and Central Africa rangelands and in particular in buffalo, also suggesting that multiple FMDV serotypes might be involved with type O, SAT 2 and SAT 1 being dominant. Differences in serotype and spill-over risk between wildlife and livestock likely reflect regional geography, historical circulation and differing trade and livestock systems

Echinococcus multilocularis Detection in Live Eurasian Beavers (Castor fiber) Using a Combination of Laparoscopy and Abdominal Ultrasound under Field Conditions

Echinococcus multilocularis is an important pathogenic zoonotic parasite of health concern, though absent in the United Kingdom. Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) may act as a rare intermediate host, and so unscreened wild caught individuals may pose a potential risk of introducing this parasite to disease-free countries through translocation programs. There is currently no single definitive ante-mortem diagnostic test in intermediate hosts. An effective non-lethal diagnostic, feasible under field condition would be helpful to minimise parasite establishment risk, where indiscriminate culling is to be avoided. This study screened live beavers (captive, n = 18 or wild-trapped in Scotland, n = 12) and beaver cadavers (wild Scotland, n = 4 or Bavaria, n = 11), for the presence of E. multilocularis. Ultrasonography in combination with minimally invasive surgical examination of the abdomen by laparoscopy was viable under field conditions for real-time evaluation in beavers. Laparoscopy alone does not allow the operator to visualize the parenchyma of organs such as the liver, or inside the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract, hence the advantage of its combination with abdominal ultrasonography. All live beavers and Scottish cadavers were largely unremarkable in their haematology and serum biochemistry with no values suspicious for liver pathology or potentially indicative of E. multilocularis infection. This correlated well with ultrasound, laparoscopy, and immunoblotting, which were unremarkable in these individuals. Two wild Bavarian individuals were suspected E. multilocularis positive at post-mortem, through the presence of hepatic cysts. Sensitivity and specificity of a combination of laparoscopy and abdominal ultrasonography in the detection of parasitic liver cyst lesions was 100% in the subset of cadavers (95%Confidence Intervals 34.24-100%, and 86.7-100% respectively). For abdominal ultrasonography alone sensitivity was only 50% (95%CI 9.5-90.6%), with specificity being 100% (95%CI 79.2-100%). For laparoscopy alone sensitivity was 100% (95% CI 34.2-100%), with specificity also being 100% (95% CI 77.2-100%). Further immunoblotting, PCR and histopathological examination revealed one individual positive for E. multilocularis, whilst the other individual was positive for Taenia martis

Importance of information and communication technology in rice production among small scale farmers in Morogoro region, Tanzania

Masters ThesisIn many sub-Saharan African countries including Tanzania, farmers face hardship to access better agricultural information. Consequently farmers lack adequate knowledge on farm management skills like correct land preparation, timely planting, pest and diseases and their control, timely weed control to bypass the critical period of weed competition, and low price of their product since they depend mostly to get information from extension officers and middlemen. But number of extension officers does not match with number of farmers who are in need of agricultural services and middlemen tend to give farmers low price and sell at high price to the trader for their own advantage hence farmers incur loss. Though the rapid development in ICTs have a huge potential to address challenges facing small scale farmers in accessing agricultural information and hence farm profitability, empirical evidence to that effect is lacking in Morogoro Region . Therefore the present study aims at bridging that knowledge gap. The present study used descriptive statistics, Probit model and Gross margin analysis to analyze the data from a randomly selected sample of 399 rice farmers from four districts of Morogoro region. The descriptive results show that 57.3% of these farmers were adopters of ICT’s while 42.7% being non-adopters, whereby among the adopters most farmers used mobile phones and radios to access information on agronomy advice and weather forecast compared to market information. Television was used by few farmers to access weather forecast information.Probit analysis shows that the use of ICT’s in communicating agriculture information is influenced by age, gender, education level, total farm size, awareness of ICT’s and use of advanced technology during production were. Gross margin analysis results shows that the adopters of ICT’s had a high gross margin compared to non- adopters at 0.05 level of significant. Through these results it is seen that still many of the rice farmers in Morogoro have not adopted the use of these ICT tools in assessing the agricultural information hence most of these farmers end up obtaining low yields and among the users of ICT many of them access very limited information with limited ICT tools. Therefore the Government should encourage policies that will emphasize farmers using the ICT tools by ensuring maximum support from other stakeholders’ example from mobile service provider companies, ensuring affordable prices of these ICT tools and prices of acquiring information so as to support rice farmers in ensuring that they obtain higher yields that will boost the sector in the country.Africa Rice Cente

Importance of information and communication technology in rice production among small scale farmers in Morogoro region, Tanzania

Masters ThesisIn many sub-Saharan African countries including Tanzania, farmers face hardship to access better agricultural information. Consequently farmers lack adequate knowledge on farm management skills like correct land preparation, timely planting, pest and diseases and their control, timely weed control to bypass the critical period of weed competition, and low price of their product since they depend mostly to get information from extension officers and middlemen. But number of extension officers does not match with number of farmers who are in need of agricultural services and middlemen tend to give farmers low price and sell at high price to the trader for their own advantage hence farmers incur loss. Though the rapid development in ICTs have a huge potential to address challenges facing small scale farmers in accessing agricultural information and hence farm profitability, empirical evidence to that effect is lacking in Morogoro Region . Therefore the present study aims at bridging that knowledge gap. The present study used descriptive statistics, Probit model and Gross margin analysis to analyze the data from a randomly selected sample of 399 rice farmers from four districts of Morogoro region. The descriptive results show that 57.3% of these farmers were adopters of ICT’s while 42.7% being non-adopters, whereby among the adopters most farmers used mobile phones and radios to access information on agronomy advice and weather forecast compared to market information. Television was used by few farmers to access weather forecast information.Probit analysis shows that the use of ICT’s in communicating agriculture information is influenced by age, gender, education level, total farm size, awareness of ICT’s and use of advanced technology during production were. Gross margin analysis results shows that the adopters of ICT’s had a high gross margin compared to non- adopters at 0.05 level of significant. Through these results it is seen that still many of the rice farmers in Morogoro have not adopted the use of these ICT tools in assessing the agricultural information hence most of these farmers end up obtaining low yields and among the users of ICT many of them access very limited information with limited ICT tools. Therefore the Government should encourage policies that will emphasize farmers using the ICT tools by ensuring maximum support from other stakeholders’ example from mobile service provider companies, ensuring affordable prices of these ICT tools and prices of acquiring information so as to support rice farmers in ensuring that they obtain higher yields that will boost the sector in the country.Africa Rice Cente