Nanotechnology applications in veterinary diagnostics and therapeutics

Livestock is an important component of the economy of most countries of the world, as it provides some foreign exchange earnings for social amenities and general development. Disease has been a major setback in livestock  production and new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches have evolved over time to strictly identify and treat diseases of animals for the purpose of  increased protein supply for human nutrition. In the search for improved  diagnostic methodologies, livestock disease diagnostics and therapeutics  have moved from the traditional methods to molecular and currently  nanotechnology. In this contribution, the authors identified the importance of nanotechnology in veterinary diagnostics and therapeutics and suggest that nanotechnology should be combined with molecular diagnostics and  therapeutics to boost the efficiency in the diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases for improved protein supply and food security.Keywords: Applications, Nanotechnology, Review, Veterinary diagnostics, Veterinary therapeutic

Antibacterial, Anti-HIV-1 Protease and Cytotoxic Activities of Aqueous Ethanolic Extracts from Combretum Adenogonium Steud. Ex A. Rich (Combretaceae).

\ud \ud Records have shown that Combretum adenogonium Steud. Ex A. Rich (Combretaceae) is used in traditional medicine systems of several tribes in Tanzania. This study focused on the investigation of antibacterial activity, anti-HIV-1 protease activity, toxicity properties and classes of phytochemicals in extracts from C. adenogonium Steud. Ex A. Rich (Combretaceae) to evaluate potential of these extracts for development as herbal remedies. Dried plant material were ground to fine powder and extracted using 80% aqueous ethanol to afford root, leaf and stem bark extracts. The extracts were assayed for anti-HIV-1 protease activities, antibacterial activities using microdilution methods and cytotoxicity using brine shrimps lethality assay. Screening for major phytochemical classes was carried out using standard chemical tests. All extracts exhibited antibacterial activity to at least one of the test bacteria with MIC-values ranging from 0.31-5.0 mg/ml. Two extracts, namely, root and stem bark exhibited anti-HIV-1 PR activity with IC50 values of 24.7 and 26.5 μg/ml, respectively. Stem bark and leaf extracts showed mild toxicity with LC50 values of 65.768 μg/ml and 76.965 μg/ml, respectively, whereas roots were relatively non-toxic (LC50 = 110.042 μg/ml). Phytochemical screening of the extracts indicated presence of flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, tannins, glycosides and saponins. These results provide promising baseline information for the potential development of C. adenogonium extracts in treatment of bacterial and HIV/AIDS-related opportunistic infections

Hematological profile of East African Short-Horn Zebu calves: From birth to 51 weeks of age

This paper is the first attempt to accurately describe the hematological parameters for any African breed of cattle, by capturing the changes in these parameters over the first 12 months of an animal’s life using a population based sample of calves reared under field conditions and natural disease challenge. Using a longitudinal study design, a stratified clustered random sample of newborn calves was recruited into the Infectious Diseases of East African Livestock (IDEAL) study and monitored at 5-weekly intervals until 51 weeks of age. The blood cell analysis performed at each visit included: packed cell volume; red cell count; red cell distribution width; mean corpuscular volume; mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration; hemoglobin concentration; white cell count; absolute lymphocyte, eosinophil, monocyte, and neutrophil counts; platelet count; mean platelet volume; and total serum protein. The most significant age-related change in the red cell parameters was a rise in red cell count and hemoglobin concentration during the neonatal period. This is in contrast to what is reported for other ruminants, including European cattle breeds where the neonatal period is marked by a fall in the red cell parameters. There is a need to establish breed specific reference ranges for blood parameters for indigenous cattle breeds. The possible role of the postnatal rise in the red cell parameters in the adaptability to environmental constraints and innate disease resistance warrants further research into the dynamics of blood cell parameters of these breed

Changes in the serum profiles of lipids and cholesterol in sheep experimental model of acute African trypanosomosis

In an effort to further elucidate the possible effect of trypanosome infection on serum levels of some lipids and cholesterol, five sheep (the infected group) were each intravenously inoculated with 2 ml ofblood containing 1 x 106 Trypanosoma congolense organisms. Another five uninfected sheep served as control group. Blood samples were collected from all the animals every other day from the day ofinfection (day 0) up to the termination of the experiment. The samples were used for haematological and parasitological analyses and determination of serum concentrations of total cholesterol,triglycerides, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol) and low density lipoproteincholesterol (LDL-cholesterol). All animals in the infected group showed parasitaemia by day 11 postinfection(PI) and the infection caused a gradual decline in the values of packed cell volume (PCV) and those of serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol. Values of all theseparameters in the control group remained fairly normal, relative to the pre-infection ones on day 0, throughout the experimental period. The PI mean values of serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDLcholesteroland LDL-cholesterol, measured in mmol/l, in the infected group were 3.44 ± 0.71, 1.62 ± 0.40, 0.78 ± 0.20 and 1.92 ± 0.40, respectively, while those in the control group were 4.32 ± 0.18, 2.24 ± 0.11,1.15 ± 0.10 and 2.26 ± 0.30, respectively. The differences between the PI mean values in the two groups of animals were significant (