The role of customary law in women's access to land

No abstractMini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2017.Centre for Human RightsLLMUnrestricte

Treated wastewater effluent as a potential source of virulent and antibiotic resistant Yersinia species in receiving surface water.

Master of Science in Microbiology. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2015.Yersinia enterocolitica is a potentially pathogenic bacterium transmitted through the faecal-oral route. Typical symptoms include those associated with gastrointestinal disease, although infection can also lead to more serious and invasive illnesses, particularly in sensitive populations. Previous studies have detected Y. enterocolitica in surface water in various parts of the world, and studies have reported the intake of untreated water to be one of the potential risk factors for Y. enterocolitica infection. This study investigated the antibiotic resistant patterns and the virulence determinants of the previously identified Y. enterocolitica in treated wastewater effluents and the receiving rivers. In addition, the antibiogram and virulence factors of these isolates were determined in order to establish the possible effects posed by these isolates to the users of receiving surface waters. Finally, the genetic relatedness of the isolates was established by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD-PCR). The antibiotic susceptibility assays revealed that the isolates were resistant to ampicillin (100%), amoxicillin (98%), cefuroxime (96%), cefalothin (90%), streptomycin (93%), chloramphenicol (100%), tetracycline (100%) and trimethoprim (100%). The calculated multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) indices of the Y. enterocolitica isolates ranged from 0.5-0.66, suggesting high multi-antibiotic resistance among the isolates. A high prevalence (59%) of class 2 integrin was found among the isolates, with 26 and 6% of the isolates in possession of class1 and class 3, respectively. The integrase genes detection showed that the isolates possessed 3 classes of integrons, detected in 59%, 26% and 6% of the isolates, respectively. The virulence determinant assays using crystal violet staining showed that only 21% (15/70) of the isolates could retain the purple colour suggesting that they may be the virulent strain of Y. enterocolitica. The negative MBL activity suggests that the tested isolates do not demonstrate any hydrolytic activity for the degradation of cephalosporins. Virulence gene detection via PCR showed that the most abundant gene is the ystA (56%) followed by ail (34%), both chromosomally located. The plasmid located genes were detected in 3% of the isolates for both Vir/Lcr and yadA. The genotypic characterization of the tested isolates revealed two main clusters (A and B), with cluster A comprising the majority of the isolates (68%) and include the Y. enterocolitica positive control, whilst cluster B grouped 31% of the isolates. had 31% similarity to the control

PhD student an Apprentesses Leadership 2015 finalist

Zamantungwa Khumalo is a 27 year old female from the village Bergville in Woodford, KwaZulu-Natal, and is doing her PhD in Veterinary Parasitology at Ondersterpoort Campus (University of Pretoria). She is one of the Apprentesses Leadership 2015 finalists. Through collective experiences that she encountered through her academic life, she realized that the village she came from lacks the fundamental tools of life, which includes self-confidence, life skills and quality education, due to the fact that people in the community are stereotypically convinced that they are inferior, subjected to suffering and living a poor life. This lack of confidence and self-esteem has contributed to growing incidence of substance abuse, crime, teenage pregnancy and adolescence negligence; an increasing number of unemployed individuals as well as a rising HIV/AIDS incidence rate. The combination of these results has hindered socio-economic growth, as well as prevented the chance for society to attain a favorable status, which led her to form ‘I am a Future Leader’ Youth Development Programme (http://www.iamfutureleader.co.za/).Originally published as HTML file, converted to PDF with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Version 9.0.0.ab201

Anaplasma centrale in South Africa : occurrence phylogeny and genetic diversity

In summary, this study presents a novel genetic test based on msp1aS to discriminate strains of A. centrale and shows that the vaccine strain is found widely distributed across South Africa and in animals that do not have a history of vaccination. Results also indicate the significance of wildlife as a reservoir host for A. centrale. The phylogenetic analysis presented, together with differences in genome architecture, msp1?/msp1aS gene sequence, and the biology of tick transmissibility, provided sufficient divergence between A. centrale and A. marginale to classify them as separate species. The findings from this study furthermore suggested that R. evertsi evertsi, R. appendiculatus and R. microplus may be responsible for transmission of A. centrale. This study contributes greatly to the description and the taxonomic status of A. centrale.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017.Veterinary Tropical DiseasesPhDUnrestricte

Genome sequencing of a severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 isolate obtained from a South African patient with Coronavirus disease 2019

As a contribution to the global efforts to track and trace the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, here we present the sequence, phylogenetic analysis, and modeling of nonsynonymous mutations for a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome that was detected in a South African patient with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

An Empirical Test of Real Exchange Rate Overshooting in Selected African Countries

Exchange rate overshooting explains the daily behaviour of exchange rates. Irrespective of the importance of this prodigy, not enough studies specifically in the African context have been conducted. Hence, the study aims to investigate the validity of the overshooting hypothesis in a panel of African countries. It is informed by the Dornbusch model of exchange rate overshooting. The random effects technique is employed to test for this relationship during the sample period of 1985 to 2016, with the findings of the study revealing evidence of exchange rate overshooting

Molecular identification of helminth parasites of the Heterakidae and Ascarididae families of free-ranging chickens from selected rural communities of KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa

Free-range chickens are predisposed to diverse parasitic infections during scavenging. Accurate identification of these parasites using morphological characters has been a challenge. Therefore, this study aimed to identify nematodes from the Heterakidae and Ascarididae family infecting free-ranging chickens from KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa using a combination of morphological and molecular techniques. Forty-two free-ranging adult indigenous chickens were purchased from randomly selected households in Shongweni (n=12), Umzinto (n=10), Gingindlovu (n=10) and Ozwathini (n=10) rural villages and examined for nematodes of the Heterakidae and Ascarididae family. Collected specimen were identified morphologically and confirmed using mitochondrial and nuclear ribosomal markers. Results showed that Ascaridia galli was common, occurring at all sampling locations with an overall prevalence of 58.3%, while Heterakis gallinarum and H. beramporia occurred in three locations. Ascaridia galli had high prevalence in Shongweni (58.3%), followed by Gingindlovu (40%), Ozwathini (20%) and Umzinto (10%). Heterakis gallinarum infection was prevalent in three locations, with an overall prevalence of 90% in Gingindlovu, 80% in Ozwathini and 58.3 % in Shongweni. Heterakis gallinarum and H. beramporia were not recorded in Umzinto. Heterakis beramporia was recorded in low prevalence in Gingindlovu (20%), Ozwathini (10%) and Shongweni (8.3%) villages. Mixed infections of A. galli and H. gallinarum were recorded in Gingindlovu, Ozwathini and Shongweni, and H. gallinarum and H. beramporia in Gingindlovu. Molecular analysis confirmed identification of A. galli, and further showed close relationship with the GenBank-derived South African isolates. Haplotype network further confirmed their ancestral history, where all South African A. galli isolates formed five novel haplotypes corresponding with the structure of the phylogenetic tree. Similar structure was observed with Heterakis isolates, where analysis of the cox1 gene showed that H. gallinarum formed a well-supported monophyletic clade with other Heterakis species. The ITS marker identified three specimens from Gingindlovu, Ozwathini and Shongweni as H. beramporia, which formed strongly supported sister clade to H. indica and this is the first report confirming the occurrence of H. beramporia in South Africa.SM's Research Productivity funds (UKZN) and National Research Foundation of South Africa.https://www.journals.elsevier.com/poultry-sciencehj2023Veterinary Tropical Disease

Exploration and comparison of bacterial communities present in bovine faeces, milk and blood using 16S rRNA metagenomic sequencing

Cattle by-products like faeces, milk and blood have many uses among rural communities; aiding to facilitate everyday household activities and occasional rituals. Ecologically, the body sites from which they are derived consist of distinct microbial communities forming a complex ecosystem of niches. We aimed to explore and compare the faecal, milk and blood microbiota of cows through 16S rRNA sequencing. All downstream analyses were performed using applications in R Studio (v3.6.1). Alpha-diversity metrics showed significant differences between faeces and blood; faeces and milk; but non-significant between blood and milk using Kruskal-Wallis test, P < 0,05. The beta-diversity metrics on Principal Coordinate Analysis and Non-Metric Dimensional Scaling significantly clustered samples by type (PERMANOVA test, P < 0,05). The overall analysis revealed a total of 30 phyla, 74 classes, 156 orders, 243 families and 408 genera. Firmicutes, Bacteroidota and Proteobacteria were the most abundant phyla overall. A total of 58 genus-level taxa occurred concurrently between the body sites. The important taxa could be categorized into four potentially pathogenic clusters i.e. arthropod-borne; food-borne and zoonotic; mastitogenic; and metritic and abortigenic. A number of taxa were significantly differentially abundant (DA) between sites based on the Wald test implemented in DESeq2 package. Majority of the DA taxa (i.e. Romboutsia, Paeniclostridium, Monoglobus, Akkermansia, Turicibacter, Bacteroides, Candidatus_Saccharimonas, UCG-005 and Prevotellaceae_UCG-004) were significantly enriched in faeces in comparison to milk and blood, except for Anaplasma which was greatly enriched in blood and was in turn the largest microbial genus in the entire analysis. This study provides insights into the microbial community composition of the sampled body sites and its extent of overlapping. It further highlights the potential risk of disease occurrence and transmission between the animals and the community of Waaihoek in KwaZulu-Natal, Republic of South Africa pertaining to their unsanitary practices associated with the use of cattle by-products.DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : All FastQ sequence files generated from this work are available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s Short Reads Archive, under BioProject number PRJNA777568, Accession numbers SRI168760 -SRI168784. All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL : S1 Fig. A: Alpha diversity box-plots showing Chao1 richness estimates per sample group. *Significant at P < 0,05. B: Alpha diversity box-plots showing Shannon diversity estimates per sample group. *Significant at P < 0,05. C: Alpha diversity box-plots showing Simpson’s diversity estimates per sample group. *Significant at P < 0,05. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273799.s001S2 Fig. UpSetR intersection plot showing number of unique and shared taxa at family level between faeces, milk and blood groups. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273799.s002S1 Table. Read counts tracked through the DADA2 pipeline including ASV counts, richness and genus level-resolved ASVs per sample. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273799.s003S2 Table. Alpha diversity values calculated using Shannon, Simpson and Chao1 indices. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273799.s004S3 Table. Total number of taxa detected per taxonomic rank across bovine faeces, milk and blood. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273799.s005S4 Table. Top 15 abundant taxa with their respective overall rankings and distribution across the three sample groups. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273799.s006S5 Table. Prevalence of potentially pathogenic genera of veterinary significance per sample group. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273799.s007S6 Table. Bacterial taxa shared between bovine faeces, milk and blood and their overall raw and relative abundances. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273799.s008S7 Table. Genus-level taxa exclusively detected and shared between faeces, milk and blood samples. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273799.s009S8 Table. A-C Differentially abundant taxa between blood and faeces; blood and milk and; faeces and milk (Padj < 0,01). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273799.s010S1 Raw images. Gel electrophoresis image of Anaplasma PCR targeting the 16S rRNA gene from blood samples. Image taken under UV transillumination using Enduro™ GOS gel documentation system. Lane 1 = 1 kb DNA ladder; 2–10 = Anaplasma positive samples; 11 = nuclease free H20 (-ve); 12 = A. marginale (+ve). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273799.s011The National Research Foundation – Thuthuka PhD Track Funding Instrument in collaboration with the Tshwane University of Technology.http://www.plosone.orgdm2022Veterinary Tropical Disease

The dynamic gut microbiota of zoophilic members of the Anopheles gambiae complex (Diptera: Culicidae)

The gut microbiota of mosquitoes plays a critical role in the life history of the animal. There is a growing body of research characterising the gut microbiota of a range of mosquito species, but there is still a paucity of information on some members of the Anopheles gambiae complex. In this study, the gut microbiota of four laboratory strains were characterised. SENN (Anopheles arabiensis—insecticide susceptible major vector), SENN DDT (Anopheles arabiensis—insecticide resistant major vector), MAFUS (Anopheles merus—minor vector) and SANGWE (Anopheles quadriannulatus—non-vector) were used in this study. The microbiota of fourth instar larvae, 3-day old, 15-day old non-blood fed and 15-day old blood fed females were characterised by MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopy and 16 s rRNA gene sequencing by next generation sequencing. The four strains differed in species richness but not diversity. The major vectors differ in β-diversity from that of the minor and non-vectors. There was no difference in α- or β-diversity in 15 non-blood fed females and 15-day old females that had 3 blood meals before day 15. These differences may be related to a mixture of the effect of insecticide resistance phenotype as well as a potential relationship to vector competence to a limited extent. Bacterial diversity is affected by species and age. There is also a potential relationship between the differences in gut microbiota and capacity to transmit parasites. This genetic background of the mosquitoes, however, play a major role, and must be considered in this relationship.The National Research Foundation of South Africa Competitive Support for Unrated Researchers and the National Health Laboratory Services Research Trust Development Grant.https://www.nature.com/srepVeterinary Tropical Disease

Molecular detection and phylogenetic analysis of Anaplasma marginale and Anaplasma centrale amongst transhumant cattle in north-eastern Uganda

There is little molecular data from Anaplasma marginale and Anaplasma centrale isolates from cattle in Uganda. Between November 2013 and January 2014, blood was collected from 240 cattle in 20 randomly-selected herds in two districts of the Karamoja Region in north-eastern Uganda. A duplex quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay was used to detect and determine the prevalence of A. marginale (targeting the msp1β gene) and A. centrale (targeting the groEL gene). The qPCR assay revealed that most cattle (82.9%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 78.2–87.7%) were positive for A. marginale DNA, while fewer cattle (12.1%; 95% CI 7.9–16.2%) were positive for A. centrale DNA. A mixed effects logistic regression model showed that the age of cattle was significantly associated with A. centrale infection, while the prevalence of A. marginale varied significantly according to locality. The near full-length 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene and the heat shock protein gene, groEL, for both Anaplasma species were amplified from a selection of samples. The amplicons were cloned and the resulting recombinants sequenced. We found three novel A. marginale 16S rRNA variants, seven A. marginale groEL gene sequence variants and two A. centrale groEL gene sequence variants. Phylogenetic trees were inferred from sequence alignments of the 16S rRNA gene and GroEL amino acid sequences determined here and published sequences using maximum likelihood, Bayesian inference and parsimony methods Phylogenetic analyses classified the 16S rRNA gene and GroEL amino acid sequences into one clade for A. marginale and a separate clade for A. centrale. This study reveals a high prevalence and sequence variability of A. marginale and A. centrale, and is the first report on the phylogenetic characterisation of A. marginale and A. centrale from cattle in Uganda using molecular markers. Sequence variation can be attributed to mobile pastoralism, communal grazing and grazing with wildlife. These data support future epidemiological investigations for bovine anaplasmosis in Uganda.The National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), Uganda (P.109224) and University of Pretoria, South Africa (Postgraduate bursary 13399650).http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ttbdis2019-03-01hj2018Veterinary Tropical Disease