Short communication:Intestinal Ischaemia-Reperfusion Injury and Semen Characteristics in West African Dwarf Bucks

Summary: Increasing production of goats takes their reproductive potential and fertility, into consideration. Gastrointestinal obstructive lesions can set up an intestinal ischaemia-reperfusion. Testicular torsion is an established cause of testicular damage and infertility and is a form of ischaemia-reperfusion injury. This study investigates the effect of intestinal ischaemia-reperfusion (IIR) injury on semen characteristics in WAD bucks. Six healthy adult male WAD goats were divided into two groups of three, a control and IIR group, one hour ischaemia and two hours of reperfusion were achieved in the intestinal ischaemia-reperfusion (IIR) group after all goats underwent a laparotomy. Semen collection was done using the electro-ejaculator method pre-operatively and weekly for four weeks post-operatively. The semen concentration, percentage of normal sperm cells, abnormal sperm cells and percentage abnormality were evaluated. In control animals, there was an increase in semen concentration postoperatively followed by a decrease whereas in IIR animals, a decrease was observed postoperatively till the 4th week. Total normal sperm cells decreased postoperatively and then increased to preoperative levels whereas a decrease was seen in IIR animals till the 3rd postoperative week. Abnormalities in sperm cells, normal head without tail, normal tail without head, bent mid-piece, curved mid-piece and rudimentary tail were all increased by the 4th week in IIR group though the total number of abnormal cells was observed to have decreased. The main effect of intestinal ischaemic-reperfusion injury on the semen characteristics of WAD goats is an increase in abnormalities with an adequate quantity of semen. Many of the abnormalities involved midpiece and tail abnormalities which are very vital to propulsion and may cause an inability of the sperm cells to fertilize. This hitherto silent phenomenon in farm animals may be the reason for iatrogenic causes of infertility.Keywords: Intestinal Ischaemia-Reperfusion injury; semen charactieristics; West African Dwarf bucks

Maternal and child health interventions in Nigeria: a systematic review of published studies from 1990 to 2014

BACKGROUND: Poor maternal and child health indicators have been reported in Nigeria since the 1990s. Many interventions have been instituted to reverse the trend and ensure that Nigeria is on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. This systematic review aims at describing and indirectly measuring the effect of the Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) interventions implemented in Nigeria from 1990 to 2014. METHODS: PubMed and ISI Web of Knowledge were searched from 1990 to April 2014 whereas POPLINE® was searched until 16 February 2015 to identify reports of interventions targeting Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Nigeria. Narrative and graphical synthesis was done by integrating the results of extracted studies with trends of maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and under five mortality (U5MR) derived from a joint point regression analysis using Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data (1990-2013). This was supplemented by document analysis of policies, guidelines and strategies of the Federal Ministry of Health developed for Nigeria during the same period. RESULTS: We identified 66 eligible studies from 2,662 studies. Three interventions were deployed nationwide and the remainder at the regional level. Multiple study designs were employed in the enrolled studies: pre- and post-intervention or quasi-experimental (n = 40; 61%); clinical trials (n = 6;9%); cohort study or longitudinal evaluation (n = 3;5%); process/output/outcome evaluation (n = 17;26%). The national MMR shows a consistent reduction (Annual Percentage Change (APC) = -3.10%, 95% CI: -5.20 to -1.00 %) with marked decrease in the slope observed in the period with a cluster of published studies (2004-2014). Fifteen intervention studies specifically targeting under-five children were published during the 24 years of observation. A statistically insignificant downward trend in the U5MR was observed (APC = -1.25%, 95% CI: -4.70 to 2.40%) coinciding with publication of most of the studies and development of MNCH policies. CONCLUSIONS: The development of MNCH policies, implementation and publication of interventions corresponds with the downward trend of maternal and child mortality in Nigeria. This systematic review has also shown that more MNCH intervention research and publications of findings is required to generate local and relevant evidence