Social factors affecting seasonal variation in bovine trypanosomiasis on the Jos Plateau, Nigeria

BACKGROUND: African Animal Trypanosomiasis (AAT) is a widespread disease of livestock in Nigeria and presents a major constraint to rural economic development. The Jos Plateau was considered free from tsetse flies and the trypanosomes they transmit due to its high altitude and this trypanosomiasis free status attracted large numbers of cattle-keeping pastoralists to the area. The Jos Plateau now plays a major role in the national cattle industry in Nigeria, accommodating approximately 7% of the national herd, supporting 300,000 pastoralists and over one million cattle. During the past two decades tsetse flies have invaded the Jos Plateau and animal trypanosomiasis has become a significant problem for livestock keepers. Here we investigate the epidemiology of trypanosomiasis as a re-emerging disease on the Plateau, examining the social factors that influence prevalence and seasonal variation of bovine trypanosomiasis. METHODS: In 2008 a longitudinal two-stage cluster survey was undertaken on the Jos Plateau. Cattle were sampled in the dry, early wet and late wet seasons. Parasite identification was undertaken using species-specific polymerase chain reactions to determine the prevalence and distribution of bovine trypanosomiasis. Participatory rural appraisal was also conducted to determine knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning animal husbandry and disease control. RESULTS: Significant seasonal variation between the dry season and late wet season was recorded across the Jos Plateau, consistent with expected variation in tsetse populations. However, marked seasonal variations were also observed at village level to create 3 distinct groups: Group 1 in which 50% of villages followed the general pattern of low prevalence in the dry season and high prevalence in the wet season; Group 2 in which 16.7% of villages showed no seasonal variation and Group 3 in which 33.3% of villages showed greater disease prevalence in the dry season than in the wet season. CONCLUSIONS: There was high seasonal variation at the village level determined by management as well as climatic factors. The growing influence of management factors on the epidemiology of trypanosomiasis highlights the impact of recent changes in land use and natural resource competition on animal husbandry decisions in the extensive pastoral production system

ICAR: endoscopic skull‐base surgery

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Effects of dietary non-digestible oligosaccharides on microbial characteristics differ between ileal chyme and faeces in weaner pigs

Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and transgalactooligosaccharides (TOS), which are non-digestible oligosaccharides (NDO), were included at 10 and 40 g/kg in an NDO--free control diet at the expense of purified cellulose. Each of the 5 diets was fed to 4 weaner pigs and microbial characteristics of their ileal chyme and faeces were assessed. The NDO-pigs had lower ileal pH than the control pigs. Dietary NDO did not affect the ileal volatile fatty acid concentration, though FOS-pigs had a higher concentration of lactic acid and relatively more iso-valeric acid and less acetic acid than TOS-pigs. The NDO-pigs had lower ileal aerobic bacterial counts than the control pigs, whilst the FOS-pigs had a larger ileal anaerobic bacterial counts than the TOS-pigs. The NDO-pigs had an higher faecal pH and their faecal volatile fatty acid pool contained relatively more iso-butyric acid and iso-valeric acid than the control pigs. The TOS-pigs tended to have higher faecal anaerobic bacterial counts and had a smaller concentration of faecal volatile fatty acid than the FOS-pigs. We concluded that whilst effects at the faecal level may have been partly due to a reduced intake of cellulose, dietary NDO can exert precaecal prebiotic effects in weaner pigs

Dietary fructooligosaccharides and transgalactooligosaccharides can affect fermentation characteristics in gut contents and portal plasma of growing pigs

We studied whether dietary non-digestible oligosaccharides (NDOs) affected pH and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in gastrointestinal contents and in portal plasma of young pigs. Five groups of five 57-day-old pigs received for 44 days either a corn-based control diet or this diet with 7.5 or 15 g/kg fructooligosaccharides (FOSs, Raftilose P95?) or the control diet with 10 or 20 g/kg transgalactooligosaccharides (TOSs, Oligostroop?). The pigs weighed on average 45.5±1.3 kg during dissection, which took place 3 h after feeding. Dietary NDOs tended to lower the pH of the stomach content from 4.5 to 4.2 (P=0.06). Pigs fed the high TOS diet had more caecal VFAs than the control pigs (30.4 vs. 15.6 mmol, P<0.05). Compared to TOS-fed pigs, FOS-fed pigs had a higher proximal colon pH (6.5 vs. 6.2, P<0.01), lower proximal colon VFA concentration (131 vs. 166 mmol/l, P<0.01) and lower portal VFA concentration (0.9 vs. 1.6 mmol/l, P<0.05), with the control pigs being intermediate. However, the amount of colonic VFAs was similar across diets (~40 mmol). The results support the view that dietary FOSs and TOSs may have different effects on fermentation characteristics of gut contents of pigs