Profit efficiency among Kenyan smallholders milk producers: A case study of Meru-South district, Kenya

Production inefficiency is usually analyzed by economical efficiency, which is composed of two components-technical and allocative efficiencies. This study provided a direct measure of production efficiency of the smallholder milk producers in Kenya using a stochastic profit frontier and inefficiency model. The primary data were collected, using IMPACT (intergrated modeling platform for mixed animal crops systems) structured questionnaire and includes four conventional inputs and socio-economic factors affecting production. The result showed that profit efficiencies of the sampled farmers varied widely between 26% and 73% with a mean of 60% suggesting that an estimated 40% of the profit is lost due to a combination of both technical and allocative inefficiencies in the smallholder dairy milk production. This study further observed that level of education, experience, and the size of the farm influenced profit efficiency positively while profit efficiency decreased with age. This implies that profit inefficiency among smallholder dairy milk producers can be reduced significantly with improvement in the level of education of sampled farmer

Predictors of HIV Antiretroviral Treatment Failure among Patients Attending a Semi - Urban HIV Clinic– Kenya, 2012: Can Social Support Help?

Background: HIV antiretroviral treatment [ART] failure increases morbidity and mortality. In Kenya, use of treatment supporter, HIV serostatus disclosure, and support groups are believed to reduce the risk of treatment failure by improving adherence. Methods: We conducted a case-control study to identify factors associated with clinical or immunologic indicators of treatment failures. Cases and controls were adult patients attending a semi-urban HIV clinic who initiated ART at least six months prior to the study. Cases were patients who had a] a decline in CD4 count [below baseline or 30% from highest value since ART initiation] or b] unimproved CD4 counts or c] a World Health Organization [WHO] stage III or IV opportunistic infection. Controls did not meet either immunologic or clinical criteria for treatment failure. Information was obtained through face-to-face interviews medical chart reviews. Results: We enrolled 52 cases and 104 controls. Twenty-eight [53%] cases and 71 [70%] controls were women, and median age was 44 years [range: 38-50 years] among cases and 43 years [range: 38-49 years] among controls. Discontinued ART for 2 weeks or more [adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 8.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4-57.4] and alcohol use [AOR 7.2, 95% CI 1.1-45.5] were found to significantly increase the risk of ART failure. Compared to men who discontinued ART for less than 2 weeks, women who discontinued ART for less than 2 weeks had reduced risk [AOR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2-0.9] while those who discontinued for two weeks or more had a greater risk [AOR 12.97, 95% CI 1.5-111.8] of developing ART failure. Social support factors were not associated with treatment failure. Conclusions: Discontinuing ART and alcohol use were identified to be modifiable factors associated with clinical or immunologic criteria of ART failure. Interventions with proven efficacy at reducing alcohol use and increasing continuous ART should be implemented.Key words: Antiretroviral treatment failure, HIV, AIDS, adherence, alcohol, Keny

Profit efficiency among Kenyan smallholders milk producers: A case study of Meru-South district, Kenya

Production inefficiency is usually analyzed by economical efficiency, which is composed of two components-technical and allocative efficiencies. This study provided a direct measure of production efficiency of the smallholder milk producers in Kenya using a stochastic profit frontier and inefficiency model. The primary data were collected, using IMPACT (intergrated modeling platform for mixed animal crops systems) structured questionnaire and includes four conventional inputs and socio-economic factors affecting production. The result showed that profit efficiencies of the sampled farmers varied widely between 26% and 73% with a mean of 60% suggesting that an estimated 40% of the profit is lost due to a combination of both technical and allocative inefficiencies in the smallholder dairy milk production. This study further observed that level of education, experience, and the size of the farm influenced profit efficiency positively while profit efficiency decreased with age. This implies that profit inefficiency among smallholder dairy milk producers can be reduced significantly with improvement in the level of education of sampled farmers

Cytokine expression in malaria-infected non-human primate placentas

Malaria parasites are known to mediate the induction of inflammatory immune responses at the maternal-foetal interface during placental malaria (PM) leading to adverse consequences like pre-term deliveries and abortions. Immunological events that take place within the malaria-infected placental micro-environment leading to retarded foetal growth and disruption of pregnancies are among the critical parameters that are still in need of further elucidation. The establishment of more animal models for studying placental malaria can provide novel ways of circumventing problems experienced during placental malaria research in humans such as inaccurate estimation of gestational ages. Using the newly established olive baboon (Papio anubis)-Plasmodium knowlesi (P. knowlesi) H strain model of placental malaria, experiments were carried out to determine placental cytokine profiles underlying the immunopathogenesis of placental malaria. Four pregnant olive baboons were infected with blood stage P. knowlesi H strain parasites on the one fiftieth day of gestation while four other uninfected pregnant olive baboons were maintained as uninfected controls. After nine days of infection, placentas were extracted from all the eight baboons through cesarean surgery and used for the processing of placental plasma and sera samples for cytokine sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Results indicated that the occurrence of placental malaria was associated with elevated concentrations of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-{\alpha}) and interleukin 12 (IL-12). Increased levels of IL-4, IL-6 and IL-10 and interferon gamma (IFN-{\gamma}) levels were detected in uninfected placentas. These findings match previous reports regarding immunity during PM thereby demonstrating the reliability of the olive baboon-P. knowlesi model for use in further studies.Comment: Open Veterinary Journal 1st June 2012. Seven pages, Three Figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1201.323

Effect of triple-layer hermetic bagging on mould infection and aflatoxin contamination of maize during multi-month on-farm storage in Kenya

Field trials were conducted in small-scale farmers' grain stores in an aflatoxin endemic region to assess the effect of storing maize in triple layer hermetic (PICS™) bags on aflatoxin contamination. Shelled maize grain was purchased from farmers, and filled into PICS bags, woven polypropylene (PP) and jute bags and kept in the farmers' own stores for 35 weeks. Grain moisture content, total mould count and mould incidence levels were examined at onset and after every 7 weeks during the 35 weeks of storage. Aflatoxin contamination was examined at onset, and after 14, 28 and 35 weeks. Ambient temperature and r.h. in the trial site and in all the bags, as well as oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the PICS bags were also monitored. Initial moisture content (m.c.) of maize varied from farmer to farmer and ranged between 12.4 and 15.0%. The m.c. of maize stored in PICS bags remained significantly higher (P 14% increased profusely in the three types of bags. Our findings demonstrate that storing maize in PICS bags can prevent accumulation of aflatoxin in rural farmers' stores if grain moisture is <14%

High prevalence of <i>Rickettsia africae</i> variants in <i>Amblyomma variegatum</i> ticks from domestic mammals in rural western Kenya: implications for human health

Tick-borne spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsioses are emerging human diseases caused by obligate intracellular Gram-negative bacteria of the genus Rickettsia. Despite being important causes of systemic febrile illnesses in travelers returning from sub-Saharan Africa, little is known about the reservoir hosts of these pathogens. We conducted surveys for rickettsiae in domestic animals and ticks in a rural setting in western Kenya. Of the 100 serum specimens tested from each species of domestic ruminant 43% of goats, 23% of sheep, and 1% of cattle had immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to the SFG rickettsiae. None of these sera were positive for IgG against typhus group rickettsiae. We detected Rickettsia africae–genotype DNA in 92.6% of adult Amblyomma variegatum ticks collected from domestic ruminants, but found no evidence of the pathogen in blood specimens from cattle, goats, or sheep. Sequencing of a subset of 21 rickettsia-positive ticks revealed R. africae variants in 95.2% (20/21) of ticks tested. Our findings show a high prevalence of R. africae variants in A. variegatum ticks in western Kenya, which may represent a low disease risk for humans. This may provide a possible explanation for the lack of African tick-bite fever cases among febrile patients in Kenya

Evaluation of the WRF and CHIMERE models for the simulation of PM₂.₅ in large East African urban conurbations

Urban conurbations of East Africa are affected by harmful levels of air pollution. The paucity of local air quality networks and the absence of the capacity to forecast air quality make difficult to quantify the real level of air pollution in this area. The CHIMERE chemistry transport model has been used along with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) meteorological model to run high-spatial-resolution (2 × 2 km) simulations of hourly concentrations of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) for three East African urban conurbations: Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Nairobi in Kenya, and Kampala in Uganda. Two existing emission inventories were combined to test the performance of CHIMERE as an air quality model for a target monthly period in 2017, and the results were compared against observed data from urban, roadside, and rural sites. The results show that the model is able to reproduce hourly and daily temporal variabilities in aerosol concentrations that are close to observed values from urban, roadside, and rural environments. CHIMERE's performance as a tool for managing air quality was also assessed. The analysis demonstrated that, despite the absence of high-resolution data and up-to-date biogenic and anthropogenic emissions, the model was able to reproduce 66 %–99 % of the daily PM2.5 exceedances above the World Health Organization (WHO) 24 h mean PM2.5 guideline (25 µg m−3) in the three cities. An analysis of the 24 h average PM2.5 levels was also carried out for 17 constituencies in the vicinity of Nairobi. This showed that 47 % of the constituencies in the area exhibited a poor Air Quality Index for PM2.5 that was in the unhealthy category for human health, thereby exposing between 10 000 and 30 000 people per square kilometre to harmful levels of air contamination

Concomitant infections of Plasmodium falciparum and Wuchereria bancrofti on the Kenyan coast

BACKGROUND: Anopheles gambiae s.l. and An. funestus are important vectors of malaria and bancroftian filariasis, which occur as co-endemic infections along the Kenyan Coast. However, little is known about the occurrence and prevalence of concomitant infections of the two diseases in mosquito and human populations in these areas. This study reports the prevalence of concomitant infections of Plasmodium falciparum and Wuchereria bancrofti in mosquito and human populations in Jilore and Shakahola villages in Malindi, Kenya. METHODS: Mosquitoes were sampled inside houses by pyrethrum spray sheet collection (PSC) while blood samples were collected by finger prick technique at the end of entomological survey. RESULTS: A total of 1,979 female Anopheles mosquitoes comprising of 1,919 Anopheles gambiae s.l and 60 An. funestus were collected. Concomitant infections of P. falciparum sporozoites and filarial worms occurred in 1.1% and 1.6% of An. gambiae s.l collected in Jilore and Shakahola villages respectively. Wuchereria-infected mosquitoes had higher sporozoite rates compared to non-infected mosquitoes, but multiple infections appeared to reduce mosquito survivorship making transmission of such infections rare. None of the persons examined in Shakahola (n = 107) had coinfections of the two parasites, whereas in Jilore (n = 94), out of the 4.3% of individuals harbouring both parasites, 1.2% had P. falciparum gametocytes and microfilariae and could potentially infect the mosquito with both parasites simultaneously. CONCLUSION: Concerted efforts should be made to integrate the control of malaria and bancroftian filariasis in areas where they co-exist

Iodine status and sources of dietary iodine intake in Kenyan women and children

In 2009, the Government of Kenya adopted a mandatory iodine standard for all ediblesalt of 30-50 mg/kg with potassium iodate as a required fortificant. To assess the new standard, iodine nutrition measurements were included in the Kenya National Micronutrient Survey (KNMS) in 2011. Spot urine samples were obtained from 951 school-age children (SAC, 5 - 14y of age) and 623 non-pregnant women (NPW, 15 – 49y), together with 625 salt samples from their households. Because salt is the major dietary source of iodine as well as sodium in Kenya, sodium concentrations were measured in the same urine samples. Using the iodine and sodium data, the report introduces a novel regression technique to apportion the urinary iodine concentrations (UIC) in both survey groups to the key sources of iodine intake, namely, naturally present (native) iodine content, iodized salt in processed foods and iodized household salt. The salt iodine (SI) content in Kenya’s households (mean 40.3 mg/kg, SD 19.4 mg/kg) showed high-quality iodized salt supply. The SI content in 94.9% of households was ≥15 mg/kg. Median UIC findings in SAC (208 μg/L) and NPW (167 μg/L) indicated adequate iodine nutrition. Although variations in UIC values existed by age, gender (only in SAC), residence type, household wealth index, and region, median UIC findings were within the accepted optimum range in virtually all sub-categories. The findings do not suggest the need for change in Kenya’s universal salt iodization (USI) strategy or adjustment of the current salt iodine standard. Partitioning of UIC values by dietary sources of iodine intake in each survey group attributed ± 35% to native dietary iodine content, ± 45% to processed food and ± 20% to household salt. The UIC levels from native iodine intake alone (60.8 μg/L and 65.3 μg/L in SAC and NPW, respectively) fell below the threshold for iodine deficiency, which supports the inference that the current USI strategy in Kenya is effective in preventing iodine deficiency. The results from regression analysis indicate that the iodine intakes of SAC and NPW can be explained mainly, and in the same way, by their urinary sodium concentrations (UNaC) and the SI contents in salt from their households. The spot UNaC data do not accurately represent salt intake estimates but the mean UNaC findings may be useful for analyzing future changes in salt supply and use from efforts to reduce the salt intake of Kenya’s population.Keywords: Universal Salt Iodization, Dietary Iodine Sources, Population Iodine Status, Keny