Clinical and pathological responses of West African Dwarf goats (Fouta Djallon) infected with Nigerian strains of Wesselsbron virus

The pathogenicity of Wesselsbron virus was investigated in West African Dwarf goats infected subcutaneously with the Nigerian strain of the virus. All infected goats were susceptible to infection. Two of the infected animals developed an acute disease with death occurring within 5-8 days post inoculation (P.I.). The others had a relatively protracted disease lasting between 18-20 days following the incubation period. The disease was characterized by profuse diarrhoea, dehydration, weight loss and 100% mortality. The associated haematological changes include relative polycythaemia, which was associated with dehydration in infected animals. There was leucopaenia characterized by lymphocytopoenia. The pathological changes include widespread hepatic necrosis and haemorrhage coupled with widespread congestion and dilation of meningeal and cerebral blood vessels

Sequence and phylogenetic analysis of chicken anaemia virus obtained from backyard and commercial chickens in Nigeria : research communication

This work reports the first molecular analysis study of chicken anaemia virus (CAV) in backyard chickens in Africa using molecular cloning and sequence analysis to characterize CAV strains obtained from commercial chickens and Nigerian backyard chickens. Partial VP1 gene sequences were determined for three CAVs from commercial chickens and for six CAV variants present in samples from a backyard chicken. Multiple alignment analysis revealed that the 6 % and 4 % nucleotide diversity obtained respectively for the commercial and backyard chicken strains translated to only 2 % amino acid diversity for each breed. Overall, the amino acid composition of Nigerian CAVs was found to be highly conserved. Since the partial VP1 gene sequence of two backyard chicken cloned CAV strains (NGR/Cl-8 and NGR/Cl-9) were almost identical and evolutionarily closely related to the commercial chicken strains NGR-1, and NGR-4 and NGR-5, respectively, we concluded that CAV infections had crossed the farm boundary

Complement fixing antibodies against arboviruses in horses at Lagos, Nigeria

Les sérums de 62 chevaux récoltés dans deux écuries à Lagos, Nigeria, ont été testés pour la recherche des anticorps de fixation du complément (FC) contre les antigènes de 8 arbovirus, à savoir : Chikungunya, Igbo-Ora, fièvre jaune, maladie de Wesselsbron, West Nile, Potiskum, Uganda S et la fièvre de la vallée du Rift. Dix pour cent des sérums de chevaux examinés contenaient des anticorps de FC pour un ou plus des antigènes-tests et indiquaient une activité considérable des arbovirus dans les deux écuries. Les réactions aux antigènes des flavivirus étaient très courantes et les titres d'anticorps les plus élevés ont été obtenus avec les virus de la maladie de Wesselsbron et la fièvre jaune. Onze pour cent des sérums examinés ont réagi aux antigènes des alpha-virus alors que 10 p. 100 ont donné une réaction positive aux antigènes de FC pour le virus de la fièvre de la vallée du Rift

Pharmacokinetic evaluation of aqueous solution of enrofloxacin after single intramuscular injection in layers

The effective use of enrofloxacin (ENX) in control of bacterial diseases of commercial egg layers is dependent on knowledge of pharmacokinetics (PK) and use of appropriate drug dosage formulation that guarantee sustainable and adequate drug delivery. This study aside from determining PK indices of aqueous ENX preparation administered to hens intramuscularly will also investigate the capacity of this dosage formulation in delivering therapeutic and sustainable serum drug levels against common pathogenic bacteria of chickens in our environment. A total of 108 hens assigned to 3 groups of 36 birds each were administered with 10mg/kg aqueous ENX intramuscularly. A parallel sampling technique involving one blood draw from each bird at each of the 12 time points was used. Therefore 3 birds were sampled at each time point. This was repeated in each of the experimental groups. The serum ENX concentration was determined using enzyme linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA). The peak serum concentration (Cmax), time to achieve peak serum concentration (Tmax), area under curve 0-24hrs (AUC), area under the first moment curve (AUMC), clearance (CL), volume of distribution (VD), mean residence time (MRT) and elimination half-life (t1/2) were obtained from Non-compartmental analysis of concentration-time data. The Mean ± SEM of AUC, AUMC, CL, VD, t1/2, MRT, Cmax and T max were; 5.32 ± 0.10, 64.99 ± 2.15, 0.12 ± 0.03, 1.52 ± 0.25, 8.46 ± 0.92, 12.20 ± 0.34, 0.23±0.01, 6.12 ± 0.22 respectively. In conclusion, bolus intramuscular administration of aqueous ENX to hens is capable of achieving therapeutic and sustainable drug concentrations against highly sensitive pathogenic bacteria. This formulation may prove useful in chemoprophylaxis but not in treating acute bacterial infections

ANTIGENIC RELATEDNESS OF SELECTED FLAVIVIRUSES: STUDY WITH HOMOLOGOUS AND HETEROLOGOUS IMMUNE MOUSE ASCITIC FLUIDS

The antigenic relationship of 9 flaviviruses, Yellow fever (YF) , Wesselsbron (WSL) , Uganda S (UGS) , Potiskum (POT), West Nile (WN) , Banzi (BAN) , Zika (ZK) , Dengue type 1 (DEN-1) and Dengue type 2 (DEN-2), was assessed by cross-haemagglutination-inhibition (Cross-HI) and cross-complement fixation (Cross-CF) reactions between each of the viruses and their homologous immune mouse ascitic fluids. Titre ratios were calculated using the heterologous and homologous titres. Cross-CF reactions revealed wider antigenic variations among viruses than Cross-HI reactions. There was no significant antigenic variation between WSL, POT and YF viruses using either of those methods. However, definite differences in antigenicity were observed between them and UGS, BAN and ZK viruses. There were no significant differences between UGS, BAN and ZK or between DEN-1 and DEN-2. The serological relationship among flaviviruses is important in establishing diagnosis and epidemiology of these infections in Africa.<br>A relação antigênica de 9 Flavivirus, Febre amarela (YF), Wesselsbron (WSL), Uganda S (UGS), Potiskum (POT), West Nile (WN), Banzi (BAN), Zika (ZK), Dengue tipo 1 (DEN-1) e Dengue tipo2 (DEN-2), foi avaliada por reação de inibição da hemaglutinação cruzada (cross-HI) e reação de fixação do complemento cruzada (Cross-CF) entre cada um dos virus e seu fluido ascítico homólogo em camundongos. Médias de títulos foram calculadas usando os títulos heterólogos e homólogos. Reações cruzadas CF revelaram maiores variações antigênicas entre virus do que reações cruzadas HI. Não houve variação antigênica significativa entre virus WSL, POT e YF usando cada um dos métodos. Todavia, diferenças definidas da antigenicidade foram observadas entre eles e os vírus UGS, BAN e ZK. Não existiram diferenças significativas entre UGS, BAN e ZK ou entre DEN-1 e DEN-2. A relação sorológica entre Flavivirus é importante para se estabelecer o diagnóstico e a epidemiologia destas infecções na África