Comparative evaluation of maize, sorghum, millet and biscuit waste meal as dietary energy sources for laying Japanese quails in a derived savannah zone of Nigeria

An eight-week feeding trial was conducted to compare the potential of maize, sorghum, millet and biscuit waste meal (BWM) as energy sources in diets of laying Japanese quails. One hundred and forty four layingquails (15 weeks old) were divided into 4 dietary treatment groups and each group replicated thrice with 12 quails each. Quails on dietary treatment group I were fed maize based diet while groups 2, 3 and 4 were fed sorghum, millet and BWM based diets respectively. Results showed significant differences in daily feed intake, hen-day production and feed conversion ratio. Quails fed millet and BWM based diets had the highest feed consumption while those on millet had the highest kg feed per dozen egg laid. Quails on BWM and sorghum based diets recorded the highest (p<0.05) hen day production. Daily weight gain, egg weight and feed cost per dozen egg revealed no significant (p>0.05) variations among dietary treatments. Data on egg quality traits indicated non-significance (p>0.05) among most parameters measured except for yolk color and shell  thickness where quails fed millet and biscuit meal recorded highest egg yolk color. Quails fed biscuit and maize diets had thicker shells thanthose fed with sorghum or millet based diets. The findings indicated that BWM, millet and sorghum proved to be tolerable in the diets of laying Japanese quail in a derived savannah zone of Nigeria

The effect of Cnidoscolus aconitifolius on multi-drug resistant micro-organisms

This study was carried out to investigate possible bacteriostatic and bactericidal activities of Cnidoscolus aconitifolius leaf extract on multi-drug resistant micro-organisms. The antimicrobial property of C. aconitifolius leaf extract was carried out on the following multi-drug resistant microorganisms;Escherichia coli, Klebsiella species, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica Gallinarum and Candida albicans. The results from this study show that none of the multi-drug resistant micro-organisms was sensitive to the leaf extract of C. aconitifolius.Key words: Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, bioactivity, multi-drug resistant micro-organisms

Antimicrobial activity of Parquetina nigrescens on some multidrug resistant pathogens isolated from poultry and cases of otitis media in dogs from Nigeria

There is a high prevalence of multidrug resistant pathogenic bacteria from food and companion animals in Nigeria due to abuse and misuse of antibiotics. The current work was carried out to study the antimicrobial activity of the leave extract of Parquetina nigrescens on ten multidrug resistant pathogens including: Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica Gallinarum, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, Acinetobacter species, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas diminuta that were resistant to 7 to 10 conventional antibiotics. The ten strains of the organisms tested were either isolated from cases of otitis media in dogs following more than a year of antibiotic misuse and or abuse or from internal organs of poultry that died of septicaemic disease conditions. The tested leaves extract produced activity in only one of the C. diphtheriae isolated from ear swab of one of the otitis media cases with 16±0.0 mm zone of inhibition at 100 mg/mL when compared with 30±0.0 mm at 10 μg/mL of gentamycin (positive control). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the tested extract for the isolate were 25 and 400 mg/mL respectively as compared to the respective MIC and MBC of 40 and 320 μg/mL for gentamycin.Keywords: Parquetina nigrescens, multidrug-resistant, otitis, poultry, dog, NigeriaAfrican Journal of Biotechnology, Vol. 12(13), pp. 1559-156

Identification and Characterisation of Major Hydrocarbons in Thermally Degraded Low Density Polyethylene Films

The vast application of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) in packaging, greenhouses, homes etc has led to its huge accumulation as a municipal solid waste with monumental health, economic and environmental consequences. Since these are non-biodegradable and their photodegradation occurs only over a very long period, their economic conversion to energy products through pyrolysis is the thrust of this study. LDPE sample collected from the University of Ilorin Community was thermally degraded in a pyrolyser at temperatures ranging from 203 – 400 oC. The products of pyrolysis were in three (3) states of matter and both the liquid and solid products were analysed using FTIR to determine the functional groups and GC- MS for the hydrocarbons present in the products. For the GC-MS analysis, the peaks that had 90% above quality when compared with the compounds in the installed NIST11 library were reported. There were alkanes, alkenes, halogenated alkanes, and very few aromatics in the liquid product and, the hydrocarbons were observed to range between C10 - C27. The FTIR and GC-MS results show the potential of the oil obtained as renewable source of energy while that for residue shows its inherent energy content. The liquid product was refluxed over molecular sieve catalyst (US 2882244A) and the calorific value was found to increase from 13,974 kJ/kg to 15,815.52 kJ/kg and this is found to be comparable to the range for lignite and dry wood. Key words: environmental pollution, solid wastes, LDPE, pyrolysis, hydrocarbons, Calorific value

Constraints to exclusive breastfeeding practice among breastfeeding mothers in Southwest Nigeria: implications for scaling up

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The practice of exclusive breastfeeding is still low despite the associated benefits. Improving the uptake and appropriating the benefits will require an understanding of breastfeeding as an embodied experience within a social context. This study investigates breastfeeding practices and experiences of nursing mothers and the roles of grandmothers, as well as the work-related constraints affecting nurses in providing quality support for breastfeeding mothers in Southwest Nigeria.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using a concurrent mixed method approach, a structured questionnaire was administered to 200 breastfeeding mothers. In-depth interviews were also held with breastfeeding mothers (11), nurses (10) and a focus group discussion session with grandmothers.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Breastfeeding was perceived as essential to baby's health. It strengthens the physical and spiritual bond between mothers and their children. Exclusive breastfeeding was considered essential but demanding. Only a small proportion (19%) of the nursing mothers practiced exclusive breastfeeding. The survey showed the major constraints to exclusive breastfeeding to be: the perception that babies continued to be hungry after breastfeeding (29%); maternal health problems (26%); fear of babies becoming addicted to breast milk (26%); pressure from mother-in-law (25%); pains in the breast (25%); and the need to return to work (24%). In addition, the qualitative findings showed that significant others played dual roles with consequences on breastfeeding practices. The desire to practice exclusive breastfeeding was often compromised shortly after child delivery. Poor feeding, inadequate support from husband and conflicting positions from the significant others were dominant constraints. The nurses decried the effects of their workload on providing quality supports for nursing mothers.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Breastfeeding mothers are faced with multiple challenges as they strive to practice exclusive breastfeeding. Thus, scaling up of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers requires concerted efforts at the macro, meso and micro levels of the Nigerian society.</p

Cross-sectional and prospective associations between sleep, screen time, active school travel, sports/exercise participation and physical activity in children and adolescents

publishedVersio

Farmers' Children Involvement in Cassava Production in Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria

Child's labour has attracted the global attention in recent times and the ILO has come up with several conventions to address the issue. For a developing nation like Nigeria that are reported to have alarming child's labour cases, it is then expedient to examine the children's involvement in cassava production since this is currently in the heart of the governmentagricultural reforms to improve the lots of the rural dwellers. This study investigates the involvement of farmers' children in cassava production inAkure South local government area of Ondo State, Nigeria. A field survey was carried out in which data was obtained from 120 farmers' children in Akure south L.G.A. using multi-stage sampling technique. The data collected were analyzed using frequency counts and percentageswhile the hypotheses were tested with Pearson's correlation coefficient.Majority of the respondents are within the age group of 13 and15 years (46.7%).More than half of the respondents are males (58.3%).About 60.8% of the respondents are in post primary school. Respondents are predominantly Christians (71.7%).Majority (55.8%) of the respondents' parents have less than 3000 heaps of cassava. About 32.5% of the respondents have their own farms. The study also shows that more than half (50.83%) of the respondents have low involvement in pre harvest activities while 65.00% of the respondents had medium involvement in post harvest activities. Pearson's r-coefficient shows that age is positively and significantly related to level of involvement (r = 0.466) at 0.01 level of significance. Religion of the respondents significantly affect their levels of involvement in cassava production(r =0.221) at 0.05 level of significance while gender, level of education and the respondents' parents' farmsize had no significant relationship with their level of involvement in cassava production. The study concludes that the children's ages and moral teaching taught to them can affect their involvement in cassava production. And the study recommends that education should be made accessible to the poor farmers' children in rural communities by government.  And that government should encourage moral teachings (through religions teachings) and agriculture as a subject being taught to these children in their schools.Keywords: Child labour, production, farmers' children, level of involvemen

A survey of herbs used in traditional obstetrics in South Western Nigeria

No abstract Nigerian Quarterly Journal of Hospital Medicine Vol. 13(1-2): 82-8

Hypoglycaemic activities of the stem bark of Cola Acuminata VAHL and leaf of Ficus Exasperata (P.Beauv) SCHOTT and ENDL

No abstract Nigerian Quarterly Journal of Hospital Medicine Vol. 13(1-2): 58-6