A live weight-heart girth relationship for accurate dosing of east African shorthorn zebu cattle

The accurate estimation of livestock weights is important for many aspects of livestock management including nutrition, production and appropriate dosing of pharmaceuticals. Subtherapeutic dosing has been shown to accelerate pathogen resistance which can have subsequent widespread impacts. There are a number of published models for the prediction of live weight from morphometric measurements of cattle, but many of these models use measurements difficult to gather and include complicated age, size and gender stratification. In this paper, we use data from the Infectious Diseases of East Africa calf cohort study and additional data collected at local markets in western Kenya to develop a simple model based on heart girth circumference to predict live weight of east African shorthorn zebu (SHZ) cattle. SHZ cattle are widespread throughout eastern and southern Africa and are economically important multipurpose animals. We demonstrate model accuracy by splitting the data into training and validation subsets and comparing fitted and predicted values. The final model is weight0.262 =0.95 + 0.022 × girth which has an R2 value of 0.98 and 95 % prediction intervals that fall within the ±20 % body weight error band regarded as acceptable when dosing livestock. This model provides a highly reliable and accurate method for predicting weights of SHZ cattle using a single heart girth measurement which can be easily obtained with a tape measure in the field setting

Micronutrient fortification of food and its impact on woman and child health: A systematic review

Background: Vitamins and minerals are essential for growth and metabolism. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 2 billion people are deficient in key vitamins and minerals. Groups most vulnerable to these micronutrient deficiencies are pregnant and lactating women and young children, given their increased demands. Food fortification is one of the strategies that has been used safely and effectively to prevent vitamin and mineral deficiencies.Methods: A comprehensive search was done to identify all available evidence for the impact of fortification interventions. Studies were included if food was fortified with a single, dual or multiple micronutrients and impact of fortification was analyzed on the health outcomes and relevant biochemical indicators of women and children. We performed a meta-analysis of outcomes using Review Manager Software version 5.1.Results: Our systematic review identified 201 studies that we reviewed for outcomes of relevance. Fortification for children showed significant impacts on increasing serum micronutrient concentrations. Hematologic markers also improved, including hemoglobin concentrations, which showed a significant rise when food was fortified with vitamin A, iron and multiple micronutrients. Fortification with zinc had no significant adverse impact on hemoglobin levels. Multiple micronutrient fortification showed non-significant impacts on height for age, weight for age and weight for height Z-scores, although they showed positive trends. The results for fortification in women showed that calcium and vitamin D fortification had significant impacts in the post-menopausal age group. Iron fortification led to a significant increase in serum ferritin and hemoglobin levels in women of reproductive age and pregnant women. Folate fortification significantly reduced the incidence of congenital abnormalities like neural tube defects without increasing the incidence of twinning. The number of studies pooled for zinc and multiple micronutrients for women were few, though the evidence suggested benefit. There was a dearth of evidence for the impact of fortification strategies on morbidity and mortality outcomes in women and children.Conclusion: Fortification is potentially an effective strategy but evidence from the developing world is scarce. Programs need to assess the direct impact of fortification on morbidity and mortality

Characterization of women and youth smallholder agricultural entrepreneur’s in rural irrigation schemes in Vhembe district, South Africa

The purpose of the study was to characterize irrigated smallholder agricultural enterprises (ISAEs) in selected areas of Vhembe District, Limpopo Province. The characterization focused on the geophysical environment and on participants in ISAEs.  Precipitation was at most 460mmpa for villages along Madimbo Corridor and 701-1380mmpa for those along Mutale Valley, and temperatures were 38.1℃-44.0℃ (Madimbo) and 30.0℃-40.0℃ (Mutale). Groundwater supplemented surface water and was utilized more at Madimbo Corridor compared to Mutale Valley. The study area was characterized as semi-arid to sub-humid, hence technologies for efficient irrigation should be promoted. Participants in ISAEs were female (94.9%), and adult (52.72%) with low education levels (67.7% ≤ secondary education). The majority (88.65%) were not formally employed (54.61% self-employed, 34.04% full-time farmers). Participants experienced some level of poverty, 68.03 percent received low household incomes (R1001-R5000/month), 77 percent received social grants. Interestingly, the majority (65.31%) stayed in multiple-roomed houses, had cement brick walls, and corrugated iron roofs (54.42%), and all had electricity, a stove, and a fridge. Also, majority-owned radio (96.67%), DSTV (87.45%), vehicles (65.56%), and cellphones. Participants mostly provided adequate food supply (91.84%) with three meals/day (79.38%) except during hard times where 49.56 percent provided fewer meals mostly due to delayed readiness of farm produce. Strategies to empower ISAE participants to be more effective should consider their gender, age, education, and economic status estimated by income, asset ownership, and food security

Meta-evaluations in government and government institutions: A case study example from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research

In this paper we draw on impact assessment work of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) to present an example of meta-evaluation - an evaluation of evaluations - in an agricultural research, development and extension setting. We explore quality issues relating to evaluation studies in the context of government institutions. Program evaluation standards (PES) are divided into categories of utility, feasibility, propriety and accuracy to provide a framework for the meta-evaluation. The PES are presented as a universal measure of evaluation study quality. The intent of using them here is to judge the adequacy of PES as a universal quality measure or meta-evaluation base and to extract useful insights from ACIAR program evaluation activities when developing a meta-evaluation model for the Limpopo Department of Agriculture (LDA). Our meta-evaluation is undertaken of 63 impact assessment reports. First, the literature guiding the conduct of a meta-evaluation is reviewed. Second, an assessment (the meta-evaluation) of the evaluation studies is carried out for 19 sampled reports from a population of relevant reports fitting the dimension of the analysis, and results are presented and discussed. Also, lessons learned are presented, using the framework provided by the meta-evaluation criteria. Third, taking into account the lessons learned, implications are drawn for a proposed systematic meta-evaluation of the LDA. Finally, we conclude that all the PES cannot be equally emphasized in a meta-evaluation model. At ACIAR, 70% of the standards were at least partially addressed. Therefore, we succeeded in using the PES in judging the ACIAR evaluation quality. As such, they can be an important base when developing an evaluation model but should be applied in a contextualized manner

An evaluation of ratios as a measure of carcass traits using mature indigenous chickens in Limpopo Province of South Africa

Live weight and weight of body parts of 60 mature indigenous chickens were collected to investigate whether the use of ratios in poultry science may cause misinterpretation of data and misleading conclusions. Three villages from Mukula Tribal land in Thulamela municipality from Vhembe District in Limpopo Province of South Africa were identified for the purpose of this study. Five mature chickens were bought from each village, weighed, killed, dressed and cut to get the body parts using the standard procedures. This was done across the four distinct seasons from March 2005 to March 2006. The data was collected using a weighing scale with variables of interest being the sex, season and village. Summary statistics were computed and data was analyzed in two separate ways using the Statistical Analysis Software Packages as follows: Firstly each individual body part was expressed as ratio of body weight and data analyzed using a simple analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedure. Secondly, live body weight was used a covariate in the analysis of other body parts using the ANCOVA procedures. Ratios suggested differences gizzard, liver, head and feet and body length due to sex and in gizzard, liver and body length due to village which were not apparent with ANCOVA. The results from this study suggested that ratios did not remove the variation due to differences in sex and village and may lead us to wrong conclusions. From this study, one can draw conclusions that use of ANCOVA gives us the exceptional method for interpreting the data correctly.Keywords: Ratios, ANCOVA, live weight, body part

The food and meal pattern in the urban African population of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa: the BRISK Study

A cross sectional dietary study, utilising the 24 hour recall method, was conducted among 983 African adults aged 15 to 64 years resident in the Cape Peninsula during 1990. An evaluation of the dietary intake pattern revealed a diet confined to a relatively narrow range of foods, but little evidence of nutrient-empty food intake.In terms of recommendations, insufficient dairy products and vegetables and fruits were consumed, while requirements for intakes of cereals and components of the meat and fat groups were met. Supper emerged as the main meal of the day, contributing most of the energy and was consumed by 89 pc of respondents. Between meal eating made a valuable contribution to total nutrient intake. The low intakes of dairy products and vegetables and fruit and the apparent move away from the traditional diet present particularly great challenges

The National Food Consumption Survey (NFCS) - children aged 1-9 years, South Africa, 1999.

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