Mosquito Control Strategies In Ishiagu Rural Communities: Implications To Public Health

Mosquito control strategies adopted by the residents of two Ishiagu Communities (Okue and Ihie)were investgated. 53 households in Okue and 54 in Ihie were sampled. Simple structured questionnaires were prepared and administered. Percentages and chi square (X2) test of significance was employed in analysing the data. The result revealed that 429 % of the residents of the two communities used insecticides, 25.2% used mosquito coils, 6.5% used smoke of local herbs and 5.6% were insensitive to mosquito nuisance and careless about mosquito control. Choice of control measures by residents of the two communities were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Occupational related preferences revealed that farmers ranked highest in the use of insecticides and coils (21.5%) each. 131% of teachers use insecticides and 37% use nettings. Statistical analysis of the occupational related choice patterns was significant (P < 005). Keywords: Mosquito, Rural Communities, Control, Implications, Public Health.Animal Research International Vol. 3 (1) 2006 pp. 431-43

Lost Revenue Due to Trade Liberalization: Can Nigeria recover her own?

The aim of the study is to find out the possibility of recovering the tariff revenue that will be lost in the process of liberalization through restructuring of the domestic tax system in Nigeria by examining the buoyancy and elasticity of the tax system. Using the dummy method, commonly known as the Singer approach, the Nigerian tax system as a whole was found to be relatively buoyant but not elastic. The buoyancy however showed a decline close to 16% after the 1991 trade reform. Import duty despite the decline in its share in total tax from 47.3% before the reform to 28% over the reform period showed a positive increase in buoyancy. CIT collection measured by tax-to-base elasticity declined by 46% over the reform period, suggesting that there is an urgent need to improve on tax administration. Also, the result confirm the ineffectiveness of the various reforms and (DTMs) in enhancing the productivity of the tax system, showing that much need to be done in our domestic tax system, both in structure and administration before thinking of engaging in any bi- or multilateral trade agreement.   Key words: Nigeria, Trade liberalisation, Lost revenue and Domestic tax syste

Comparative evaluation of the physicochemical composition and microbial quality of seven different water sources used in processing root and tuber crops in Umudike, Nigeria

The physicochemical composition and microbial quality of 7 different water sources (Umudike ukwu bore hole (B5), Umuariaga borehole (B3), Nidoro spring water (S2), Umudike bore hole (B4), Umudike school borehole A (B7), Umudike school bore hole B (B6) and Ahiaeke bore hole (B9) used for root and tuber crop processing in Umudike, Nigeria were investigated using standard techniques. The chloride, sulphate, phosphate, dissolved substances, hardness of water, ammonium nitrate and conductivity in all the water samples, fell within the range recommended by the Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) or the World Health Organization (WHO) while the values obtained for pH and nitrites were lower than the range given by WHO and NIS. Most of the samples had higher organic carbon contents than permitted. In terms of dissolved oxygen (D) and total hydrogen (TH), S2 had the highest, B5 and B6 had the least for DO (P &gt; 0.05) while B6 had the least in addition for TH. The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of B3 was the highest among the water samples analyzed (P &lt; 0.05) while that of B5 and B6 were the least (P &gt; 0.05). Sensory evaluation of the samples showed that they were clear, tasteless and odorless. Microbial analysis carried out indicated the presence of coliforms in the water samples although this does not give any cause for concern as they fell within the standards for coliform in water. The total plate count of the samples ranged from 8.00 to 19.09cfu/100ml with B9 having the highest while B7 had the least. Some of the microorganisms isolated include: E.coli, salmonella, shigella, fungi and staphylococcus, indicating microbial contamination of these water samples and thus highlights the need for their urgent sterilization. The absence of Vibrio cholerea in all the water samples indicate the non-prevalence of cholera in the study area. Finally, most of the water sources used by these communities in processing their root and tuber crops did not meet the recommended standards for nitrites, biochemical oxygen demand, organic carbon and nitrites in water, underscoring the need for regular checks and on these water sources.Key words: Water, microbial, coliform, physicochemical, root crops, tuber crops

OPTIMIZATION OF PROCESS PARAMETERS IN ETHANOL PRODUCTION FROM CASSAVA WASTE SLURRY

The production of ethanol from renewable material is a sustainable avenue of ethanol production. This study focused on optimizing parameters affecting the production of ethanol generated from cassava waste slurry. The waste generated from cassava were characterized using proximate analysis. The proximate analysis results showed that the cassava waste slurry contain more moisture, volatile matter and fixed carbon. Central composite experimental design (CCD) was used to design and model the process with 50 experimental runs. CCD, with quadratic models explored the combined effect of five independent variables namely, temperature, PH, sugar concentration, time, and feed rate of the fermenting medium. The process parameters were optimized to obtain the optimal yield, purity and specific gravity. The experimental result showed that the maximum ethanol yield of 26% was obtained at a temperature of 400C, pH of 4, sugar concentration of 0.125, production time of 0.5hrs and feed value of 250ml. The statistical analysis of the yield, purity and specific gravity showed correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.88, 0.91 and 0.82 respectively. The effect of the process parameters showed that increase in the reaction temperature, feed, time, and pH increases the yield of ethanol while increase in the sugar concentration decreases the ethanol yield. The optimization result showed that the optimal yield of 10.54%, purity of 5.76% and specific gravity of 0.26 were obtained at reaction temperature of 30.06 ̊C, pH of 5.40, sugar concentration of 0.30ml/dm3 and reaction time of 1.03 hours

The Anti-Nutritional and Proximate Composition of Rain Tree (Samanea saman) Pod Samples

The anti-nutritional and proximate composition of pods of Samanea saman were determined. About 600g of wholesome, cleaned and dried pods were divided into two portions: one portion was ground as whole pod meal while the other portion was deseeded and ground as seedless meal. The removed seeds were ground separately as a sample to obtain three samples namely: whole pod, pulp and seed samples. Triplicate data obtained were subjected to One-Way ANOVA using SPSS software of version 21. Mean values and Fisher’s least significant difference (LSD) were determined for the separation of the means at (p≤0.05). The whole pod had 1.49mg/100g oxalate, 1.97mg/100g hydrogen cyanide, 0.71mg/100g tannins, 27.07mg/100g saponins, 0.51mg/100g flavonoids and 1.71mg/100g alkaloids, which were significantly(p≤0.05) different from that of pulp (1.89mg/100g oxalate, 1.51mg/100g hydrogen cyanide, 0.86mg/100g tannins, 28.46mg/100g saponins, 1.00mg/100g flavonoids and 1.41mg/100g alkaloids) and seed samples (1.39mg/100g oxalate, 1.61mg100g hydrogen cyanide, 0.56mg/100g tannins, 26.51mg/100g saponins, 0.49mg/100g flavonoids and 1.86mg/100g alkaloids). The moisture contents were pulp (19.30%), whole pod (15.50%) and seed (9.20%). Ash content were whole pod (4.70%), pulp (2.90%) and seed (2.60%); Ether extract of whole pod, pulp and seed were 3.31%, 2.52% and 2.66% respectively. The crude proteins were whole pod (13.21%), pulp (10.98%) and seed (21.55%); crude fibre of the plant were whole pod (15.95%), pulp (6.77%) and seed (8.47%). The whole pod had 47.33% carbohydrate which was significantly (p≤0.05) lower than the carbohydrate of pulp (57.53%) and seed (55.52%). The utilization of the pods of S. samana is a significant source of bioactive that if harnessed in the formulation of nutraceutical beverage could offer a whole lot of health benefit to the users

In vivo studies on the biochemical indices of Plasmodium berghei infected mice treated with Alstonia boonei leaf and root extracts

Background: A study on the biochemical indices of albino mice infected with Plasmodium berghei and treated with Alstonia boonei aqueous and ethanolic extracts was undertaken. Methods: 216 males mice were randomly assigned to six treatment groups each containing six mice for both aqueous and ethanolic extracts experiments. P. berghei NK-65 was inoculated into the mice intraperitoneally and establishment of infection confirmed. Administration of extracts of was done after phytochemical and acute toxicity tests at varying concentrations, for both suppressive and curative tests. Blood samples collected by ocular puncturing were examined for the biochemical indices; ALT, AST, ALP, creatinine and total protein using the standard procedures. Results: A. boonei extracts suppression of P. berghei in mice was comparable to the standard drug. Significantly higher (p&lt;0.05) recovery of mice treated with A. boonei extracts was observed. The biochemical indices examined all had significantly (p&lt;0.05) increased concentration after 7 days post-infection, except for total protein concentration which had no significant increase or decrease due to A. boonei extracts administration. Conclusion: The antiplasmodial potentials of A. boonei leaf and root extracts were dosage and duration-dependent, and have demonstrated satisfactory normalization of altered biochemical indices due to malaria

Kinetics and Equilibrium of Crude Oil Sorption from Aqueous Solution Using Borassus Aeothopum Coir

In this study, Borassus aethopum coir (BAC) which is an abundant, cheap, readily available and biodegradable agricultural waste was modified by acetylation using acetic anhydride and NBS catalyst at room temperature. This was to increase their hydrophobic properties and improve their sorption capacity in aqueous environment. The crude oil sorption kinetic data were fitted by intra-particle diffusion and pseudo-first order for raw BAC but the pseudo-second order kinetic model best fits crude oil sorption data for acetylated BAC.  The Langmuir and Freundlich models were used to elucidate the sorption behaviour of crude oil with raw and acetylated BAC. Freundlich isotherm gave the best fit for the equilibrium crude oil sorption data for acetylated BAC and raw BAC. Fourier transform infrared and scanning electron microscope analyses showed clear evidence of successful acetylation. The results presented and discussed in the study suggests that acetylated BAC (ABAC) is more suitable for crude oil sorption than raw BAC, therefore, possesses more potential for application and further development in treatment of oil spillage. Keywords: acetylated borassus aethopum coir, kinetics, crude oil sorption, sorbents, sorption capacity. DOI: 10.7176/CMR/11-2-02

Marker Assisted Foreground Selection for Identification of Striga Resistant Backcross Lines in Sorghum bicolor

Striga is a major constraint to sorghum production causing high yield loss due to increasing infestation. Locally-adapted cultivars with resistant genes/QTLs could be an effective control strategy for Striga. Marker-Assisted Foreground Selection was used to select backcross lines possessing Striga resistance QTLs from N13. Marker polymorphism was conducted for the donor parent N13 and 10 recurrent parents using 10 Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers. Recurrent parents with SSR alleles, polymorphic to the donor parent allele were selected. F1 lines were developed by making a cross between the selected recurrent parent and the donor. The F1 were confirmed for heterozygosity using SSR markers. Selected heterozygote F1s were backcrossed to their recurrent parent to develop backcross populations (BC1F1 and BC2F1). BC1F1 and BC2F1 populations were genotyped using SSR markers flanking the Striga resistant QTLs in N13. Forty two DANYANA-N13 BC2F1 lines (with 4 QTLs in 3 lines, 3 QTLs in 10 lines and other 28 lines having 1 to 2 QTLs) were selected for the presence of N13 QTLs. Forty three SAMSORG39-N13 BC2F1 lines (with 3 QTLs in 2 lines while 41 lines had 1 to 2 QTLs) were also selected for the presence of N13 QTLs. Although, selected lines will be genotyped for the recovery of recurrent parent background and evaluated to identify elite genotypes for possible release as varieties, the successful introgression of Striga resistance QTLs using Marker Assisted Selection suggests that in developing superior sorghum varieties, breeders could make use of molecular marker technologies to speed up breeding programmes

Genetic Variation for Striga hermonthica Resistance and Yield Among Sorghum Accessions in Nigeria

Striga hermonthica (Delile) Benth., commonly referred to as witch weed, is a major constraint to sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) production in the Northern region of Nigeria because of high yield losses due to infestation. To identify parental lines useful in breeding for S. hermonthica resistant sorghum genotypes adapted to Nigeria, twenty-five sorghum accessions were evaluated in Nigeria across three test environments. Both phenotypic and genetic components influenced the variation observed in the sorghum accessions. The estimates for the genetic coefficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance for the area under Striga number progress curve (ASUNPC), Striga emergence counts, yield and other agronomic traits, obtained in this study revealed that genetic gain for resistance to S. hermonthica could be realized through selection. Based on the performance of the 25 sorghum accessions SRN39, Danyana, Sepon82, and SAMSORG40 were the top four accessions found to be most resistant to S. hermonthica. Assessment of resistance was based on the low Striga emergence counts and the ASUNPC values. These accessions can be used as donor sources of S. hermonthica resistant genes for introgression into cultivars adapted to Nigeria, followed by recombination breeding for pyramiding the different resistance mechanisms

Epidemiological Assessment of Vesical Schistosomiasis in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria

A survey was carried out between January and July 2002 to determine the prevalence of vesical schistosomiasis in Bende Local government area of Abia State. A total of 2406 persons in eleven communities aged between 6 and 60 years were examined. Prevalence rates in the eleven communities ranged between 25.5% and 52.3% with an overall prevalence of 41.5%. More males (42.6%) than females (39.4%) were infected in all the age groups, and high rate of haematuria (78.2%) was observed among the infected subjects. Infection prevalence was significantly higher (65.3%) among those in the age group of 11 - 20 years (P &lt; 0.05) than those above 60 years. More than 70% of those infected excreted above 50 eggs/10ml urine. Malacological studies conducted along water bodies in the study area indicated that infection was localised. Bulinus globosus is implicated as the potential disease intermediate host. @JASE