Rangeland dynamics in South Omo Zone of Southern Ethiopia: Assessment of rangeland condition in relation to altitude and Grazing types

A study was undertaken in Hamer and Benna-Tsemay districts of the Southern Ethiopia with the objective to determine the condition of the rangelands for grazing animals as influenced by altitude and grazing types. The rangelands in each of the study districts were stratified based on altitude and grazing types. In the study districts, a total of 32, 3, 2, 7 and 29 species of grasses, legumes, sedges, other herbaceous plants and woody species were identified, respectively. The common and/or dominant grass species in the enclosures was Cenchrus ciliaris while in the communal grazing areas they were Cynodon dactylon and Tetrapogon tennulis. In riverside grazing areas, the common and/or dominant grass species was Cynodon dactylon. The total grass biomass of communal, riverside and enclosure areas found in the different altitude categories of the study districts ranged from 398-503; 98-626, and 1,132 – 1,209 kg/ha, respectively. The common and/or dominant woody species in the communal grazing areas were highly palatable species of Acacia tortilis and Grewia bicolor and less palatable Solanum species. In riverside grazing areas, the common and/or dominant woody plants were species of Acacia tortilis, Grewia bicolor, and Solanum species while in the enclosures; Acacia brevispica and Acacia tortilis were found. The woody vegetation density per hectare of communal, riverside and enclosure areas in the different altitude categories of the study districts ranged from 2,501-3,021; 2251-3,021, and 201-700,wd/ha respectively which showed that the communal and riverside grazing areas were bush encroached. The range condition scores ranged from 17.87-20.38 (communal), 22-27 (riverside), 31.05-31.2 (enclosures) which were poor, fair and good condition classes, respectively. Similarly, with regard to the same variable the scored varied from 22-32.87, 19.73-31.43, 17.97-31.44 and 17.87-31.28% in altitudes >1550m, 1250-1550m, 900-1250m, and 550-900m, respectively. The result indicated the need for rangeland improvement measures in communal and riverside grazing areas, in order to attain sustainable livestock production from these areas. Establishment of community based enclosures was found to be one of the ways to improve the condition of the rangelands. The result indicated the need for rangeland improvement measures in communal and riverside grazing areas, in order to attain sustainable livestock production from these areas. Establishment of community based enclosures was found to be one of the ways to improve the condition of the rangeland

Prevalence of ticks on local and crossbred cattle in and around Asella town, southeast Ethiopia

The prevalence of bovine tick species in and around Asella town was studied over a period of eight months from October 2007 to May 2008. Adult ticks were collected from 384 local and crossbred cattle which were kept under extensive management system and at different agro-ecological zones. A total of 6298 adult ticks were collected from half body part of cattle, and were identified to genera and species level. Five tick species of four genera were identified, in which two species belong to genus Amblyomma, and one species each in the genus Boophilus, Rhipicephalus and Hyalomma. Of all the total ticks collected, Amblyomma, Rhipicephalus, Boophilus and Hyalomma constituted 60.1%, 22%, 15.4% and 2.5%, respectively. The tick species encountered were A. variegatum (48.2%), Rhipicephalus evertsi-evertsi (22%), Boophilus decolaratus (15.4%), A. cohaerence (11.9%) and Hyalomma marginatum rufipes (2.5%). The burden of ticks on cattle had statistically significant difference (

Trends of modern contraceptive use among young married women based on the 2000, 2005, and 2011 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys: a multivariate decomposition analysis

Published: January 30, 2015Introduction: Accessing family planning can reduce a significant proportion of maternal, infant, and childhood deaths. In Ethiopia, use of modern contraceptive methods is low but it is increasing. This study aimed to analyze the trends and determinants of changes in modern contraceptive use over time among young married women in Ethiopia. Methods: The study used data from the three Demographic Health Surveys conducted in Ethiopia, in 2000, 2005, and 2011. Young married women age 15–24 years with sample sizes of 2,157 in 2000, 1,904 in 2005, and 2,146 in 2011 were included. Logit-based decomposition analysis technique was used for analysis of factors contributing to the recent changes. STATA 12 was employed for data management and analyses. All calculations presented in this paper were weighted for the sampling probabilities and non-response. Complex sampling procedures were also considered during testing of statistical significance. Results: Among young married women, modern contraceptive prevalence increased from 6% in 2000 to 16% in 2005 and to 36% in 2011. The decomposition analysis indicated that 34% of the overall change in modern contraceptive use was due to difference in women’s characteristics. Changes in the composition of young women’s characteristics according to age, educational status, religion, couple concordance on family size, and fertility preference were the major sources of this increase. Two-thirds of the increase in modern contraceptive use was due to difference in coefficients. Most importantly, the increase was due to change in contraceptive use behavior among the rural population (33%) and among Orthodox Christians (16%) and Protestants (4%). Conclusions: Modern contraceptive use among young married women has showed a remarkable increase over the last decade in Ethiopia. Programmatic interventions targeting poor, younger (adolescent), illiterate, and Muslim women would help to maintain the increasing trend in modern contraceptive use.Abebaw Gebeyehu Worku, Gizachew Assefa Tessema, Atinkut Alamirrew Zelek

Effects of antenatal care and institutional delivery on exclusive breastfeeding practice in northwest Ethiopia: a nested case–control study

Background: For the first six months of life, breast milk is the ideal food to provide adequate quality and quantity of nutrients. Exclusive breastfeeding has a profound effect to reduce the risk of respiratory and gastrointestinal related morbidities as well as all-cause and infection-related neonatal mortalities. Despite the immense benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, the practice is suboptimal in Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to assess whether antenatal care and institutional delivery contributes to mothers' practice of exclusive breastfeeding in rural communities of northwest Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based nested case–control study was conducted in northwest Ethiopia from November 2009 to August 2011. About 1769 mother-infant pairs were included and followed for six months after birth. Interviews with mothers were conducted in the first week, at 1st, 4th, and 6th month. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were carried out to determine associations between independent variables and exclusive breastfeeding practice. Results: Of the total respondents, 30.7 % (95 % CI: 27 %, 35 %) of mothers exclusively breastfed their infants. In multivariate analysis, own business activity (AOR= 3.06; 95 % CI: 1.29, 7.25), being a housewife (AOR= 3.41; 95 % CI: 1.28, 9.11), having antenatal care (AOR= 1.32; 95 % CI: 1.01, 1.73), giving birth in a health institution (AOR= 1.29; 95 % CI: 1.02, 1.62), and possessing a microfinance bank account (AOR= 2.35; 95 % CI: 1.80, 3.07) were positively associated with exclusive breastfeeding practice. Conclusions: Despite underutilization of maternal health services, these services contributed to mothers exclusive breastfeeding practice. Strengthening utilization of antenatal care and institutional delivery would have an added benefit in improving exclusive breastfeeding practice. Moreover involving mothers in business activities is important.Gashaw Andargie Biks, Amare Tariku, and Gizachew Assefa Tessem

Determinants of under-five mortality in Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center, Southwest Ethiopia

Background: In developing countries like Ethiopia where there is no vital events registration system and laboratory diagnosis is lacking, causes of death in under-five children and its determinants could not be well known. The objective of this study was to investigate causes of death and its determinants in under-five children in Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center. Methods: A case-control study was conducted from December 12 to 27, 2005. Cases of under-five children who died between August 27, 2004 and September 22, 2005 and controls of alive children with the same age (+/-2 months) as cases were identified by a survey as the study population. Data were collected by trained enumerators using structured questionnaire adopted from World Health Organization (WHO). Causes of death were determined using the expert algorithm based on verbal autopsy data. Results: Neonatal and infant mortality rates were respectively 38 and 76.4 per 1000 live births. The two most common causes of death during neonatal period were prematurity (26.4%) and pneumonia (22.6%). Whereas the top causes of death in post-neonatal period were pneumonia (42%), malaria (37%) and acute diarrheal diseases (30%). Maternal education, practice and perception of mothers on the severity of illness and benefits of modern treatment were found to be independent predictor of child survival. Conclusion: Neonatal causes, pneumonia, malaria and diarrheal diseases were the major killers of under-five children in Ethiopia. In this study, practice of mothers and perceived benefits on the modern treatment are identified as the key predictors of child survival which are amenable to future intervention.The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development Vol. 21 (2) 2007: pp. 117-12

Simple and efficient methods to generate split roots and grafted plants useful for long-distance signaling studies in Medicago truncatula and other small plants

BACKGROUND: Long distance signaling is a common phenomenon in animal and plant development. In plants, lateral organs such as nodules and lateral roots are developmentally regulated by root-to-shoot and shoot-to-root long distance signaling. Grafting and split root experiments have been used in the past to study the systemic long distance effect of endogenous and environmental factors, however the potential of these techniques has not been fully realized because data replicates are often limited due to cumbersome and difficult approaches and many plant species with soft tissue are difficult to work with. Hence, developing simple and efficient methods for grafting and split root inoculation in these plants is of great importance. RESULTS: We report a split root inoculation system for the small legume M. truncatula as well as robust and reliable techniques of inverted-Y grafting and reciprocal grafting. Although the split root technique has been historically used for a variety of experimental purposes, we made it simple, efficient and reproducible for M. truncatula. Using our split root experiments, we showed the systemic long distance suppression of nodulation on a second wild type root inoculated after a delay, as well as the lack of this suppression in mutants defective in autoregulation. We demonstrated inverted-Y grafting as a method to generate plants having two different root genotypes. We confirmed that our grafting method does not affect the normal growth and development of the inserted root; the composite plants maintained normal root morphology and anatomy. Shoot-to-root reciprocal grafts were efficiently made with a modification of this technique and, like standard grafts, demonstrate that the regulatory signal defective in rdn1 mutants acts in the root. CONCLUSIONS: Our split root inoculation protocol shows marked improvement over existing methods in the number and quality of the roots produced. The dual functions of the inverted-Y grafting approach are demonstrated: it is a useful system to produce a plant having roots of two different genotypes and is also more efficient than published shoot-to-root reciprocal grafting techniques. Both techniques together allow dissection of long distance plant developmental regulation with very simple, efficient and reproducible approaches

Exposure and health risk assessment of applicators to DDT during indoor residual spraying in malaria vector control program

We assessed exposure of applicators, health risk of DDT to the applicators and evaluated the applicability of existing pesticide exposure models for indoor residual spraying (IRS). Patch sampling for dermal and personal air sampler for inhalation exposure were used in monitoring 57 applicators on the exposure assessment to DDT. The exposure of the applicators was also estimated using three exposure models. The mean actual dermal exposure was 449 mg total DDT per applicator per one house treatment. The applicators were exposed to DDT much beyond the estimated AOEL (acceptable operator exposure level) of DDT. The exposure estimated with ConsExpo 5.0 b01 model is situated between the median and the 75th percentile of the experimental data. On the other hand, spraying model 1 and spraying model 10 overestimate the exposure. Thus, these three models cannot be directly used for the particular circumstances of IRS as a tool for risk assessment. In general, use of DDT in IRS as a control method for malaria mosquitoes holds a high health risk for the applicators. Strict implementation of spraying procedures stated in the IRS manual of World Health Organization (WHO) is necessary to reduce the exposure level and health risk of applicators to DDT

Partograph utilization and associated factors among obstetric care providers in North Shoa Zone, Central Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

Background: Globally, prolonged and obstructed labor contributed to 8% of maternal deaths which can be reduced by proper utilization of partograph during labor.Methods: An Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted in June, 2013 on 403 obstetric care providers. A pre-tested and structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was entered to EpiInfo version 3.5.1 statistical package and exported to SPSS version 20.0 for further analysis. Logistic regression analyses were used to see the association of different variables.Results: Out of 403 obstetric care providers, 40.2% utilized partograph during labor.Those who were midwives by profession were about 8 times more likely to have a consistent utilization of the partograph than general practitioners (AOR=8. 13, 95% CI: 2.67, 24.78). Similarly, getting on job training (AOR=2. 86, 95% CI: 1.69, 4.86), being knowledgeable on partograph (AOR=3. 79, 95% CI: 2.05, 7.03) and having favorable attitude towards partograph (AOR=2. 35, 95% CI: 1.14, 4.87) were positively associated with partograph utilization.Conclusion: Partograph utilization in labor monitoring was found to be low. Being a midwife by profession, on job training, knowledge and attitude of obstetric care providers were factors affecting partograph utilization. Providing on job training for providers would improve partograph utilization.Keywords: Ethiopia, obstetric care providers, partograp

Yam breeding at IITA: achievements, challenges, and prospects

African food system Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is a multispecies, clonally propagated crop cultivated for its starchy tubers. About 10 species are widely cultivated around the world, but only D. rotundata, D. alata, and D. cayenensis are the most widely cultivated species in West Africa, accounting for 93% of the global yam production. Since inception, IITA R4D efforts have focused on developing new varieties of yam with desired agronomic and quality traits and to improve yam-based cropping systems