Gastrointestinal parasites of horses (Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758) and risk factors associated with equine coccidiosis in Kwara and Niger States, Nigeria

About two-third of the parasitic infections in animals are believed to occur in the gastrointestinal tract. Coccidiosis is an important disease of horses and it is responsible for a great economic setback worldwide. This study was designed to determine the species diversity and prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites of horses and the risk factors associated with Eimeria infections in horses in Kwara and Niger States, North Central Nigeria. Faecal samples were collected from 105 horses in Kwara and Niger States. Simple floatation and formalin-ethyl acetate concentration techniques were used as diagnostic techniques. An overall prevalence of 62.86% (66/105) was recorded. Eleven gastrointestinal parasites comprising of 7 nematodes, 2 trematodes, 1 protozoan and 1 cestode were detected. Strongylus spp. (33.33%; 35/105) and Eimeria spp. (28.57%; 30/105) were the most prevalent. Fortysix (43.81%) of the sampled population had multiple gastrointestinal parasites infection. Body condition score, presence/ absence of diarrhoea and horse ownership were significantly association with the occurrence of Eimeria infection. This appears to be the first report on gastrointestinal parasites of horses in Kwara and Niger States of Nigeria. The high prevalence reported in this study calls for horse owners to improve on the veterinary medical attention given to their horses as gastrointestinal parasitism is a major cause of economic loss in equine husbandry. The curtailing of gastrointestinal parasitism will improve production, reproduction and performance of horses in the study areas.Keywords: Eimeria spp.; Gastrointestinal parasites; Horses; North Central Nigeria; Risk factor

An upgraded bio-oil produced from sugarcane bagasse via the use of HZSM-5 zeolite catalyst

The pyrolysis upgrading of bio-oil from sugarcane bagasse (SB) using ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst was carried out in a fixed bed reactor to determine the effects of heating rate, temperature, and catalyst/biomass ratio on yield of bio-oil and their chemical compositions. Proximate analysis indicated that SB has 13.2% moisture content. The ultimate analysis carried out established that the percentage of carbon content is higher (48.2%) than oxygen content (44%) while the fibre content analysis showed 26.4% lignin, 33.3% cellulose, 30.1% hemicellulose. The heating rate, temperature and catalyst/biomass ratio were varied in the range of 10–50 °C/min, 400–600 °C and 0.05–0.25 respectively. The non-catalytic pyrolysis gave the maximum percentage yield (45.67 wt%) of bio-oil at a pyrolysis temperature of 600 °C, heating rate of 50 °C/min, sweeping gas flow rate of 40 mL/min and the catalytic pyrolysis gave 40.83 wt% of bio-oil at the same conditions. The FT-IR spectra showed that the non-catalytic bio-oil is dominated by oxygenated compounds (acids, ketones, aldehydes, alcohols), while the catalytic bio-oil had preponderances of desirable compounds (alkanes, alkenes, aromatics, phenols). The chemical composition of the bio-oils was analyzed using GC–MS, which revealed that the quality of the bio-oil has been improved using HZSM-5 catalyzed pyrolysis. Keywords: Pyrolysis, Zeolite, Bio-oil, Chemical composition, Fixed-bed reacto