Detection and identification of gastrointestinal parasites in dogs presented to veterinary clinics in Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria

Gastrointestinal parasites of dogs have been incriminated in cases of morbidity and mortality; hence, this study was undertaken to investigate the presence and distribution of gastrointestinal parasites in dogs presented to different veterinary clinics in Abeokuta, Ogun State. One hundred and twenty faecal samples were collected between February to September 2018 from three different veterinary clinics into universal sample bottles that were properly labeled with the age, sex and breed. Samples were processed with Mini-FLOTAC® kit using salt and sugar solution at a specific gravity of 1.3. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and Chi square test was used to determine the association between variables. Of the 120 dogs screened, 37(30.8%) were positive for one or more gastrointestinal helminths: males had a prevalence of 24(20%) while females had a prevalence of 13(10.8%). Prevalence of 29(24.1%) and 8(6.7%) was reported in young and adult dogs respectively. Of the different breeds of dogs sampled; the Nigerian local breed had the highest prevalence 21(17.5%) of gastrointestinal helminths, followed by German shepherd 8(6.7%), Rottweiller 5(4.2%), Boerboel 1(0.8%) Samoyed 1(0.8%) and Pitbull 1(0.8%). A statistically significant association (p<0.05) was recorded between gastrointestinal helminth infection and breed while no statistically significant association (p>0.05) was observed between age, sex and gastrointestinal helminth infection. Six different genera of helminths were recorded in this study: Ancylostoma caninum (17.5%), Toxocara canis (14.1%), Toxascaris leonina (2.5%), Dipylidium caninum (2.5%), Trichuris vulpis (1.7%) and Taenia spp (1.7%). The findings from this study indicated moderate prevalence of gastrointestinal helminth infection. The presence of Ancylostoma caninum, Toxocara canis and Dipylidium caninum infection in this study raises concern about the zoonotic potential of these parasites due to the close relationship between man and dogs

Performance Evaluation of a Hybrid Fractional Carrier Frequency Offset Estimator in OFDM

The major drawback of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system is high sensitivity to synchronization errors caused by carrier frequency offsets (CFOs), which result in degradation in the bit error rate (BER) performance. This paper investigates the performance of a hybrid fractional carrier frequency offset estimator (FCFOE) for frequency synchronization in the OFDM system. The hybrid FCFOE exploits the pilots inserted within the OFDM symbol for channel estimation together with the information inherent in the cyclic prefix (CP), with a view to improving the estimation of the CP-based FCFOE. The performance of the developed hybrid FCFOE was evaluated in terms of the mean squared error (MSE) and bit error rate (BER) using OFDM-QPSK and OFDM-16QAM schemes it turn. The simulation results show that the hybrid FCFOE only gives slightly better performance over the CP-based FCFOE; but the performance enhancement of the hybrid FCFOE is noticeable in OFDM-16QAM. Keywords: Carrier frequency offset estimation, Hybrid, Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, Synchronization, Maximum likelihood, Cross-correlation

Haematological and Serum Characteristics of Broiler Birds Fed Diets Supplemented with Varying Levels of Selenium Powder

The haematology and serum components of broiler chickens fed diets supplemented with selenium powder was investigated. A total of one hundred and fifty day old broilers were randomly allotted to three dietary treatments with ten birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. Treatment 1 was control with no Selenium supplementation, Treatments 2 and 3 had 0.3mg/kg 0.5mg/kg Selenium supplementation respectively.  Birds were vaccinated as schedule and acclimatized to rearing and feeding regime before data collection commenced. Result indicated differences (P<0.05) in the final bodyweight and total weight gain of the experimental birds. Feed  conversion ratio of birds on high selenium (0.5mg) was superior that its counterparts in control and 0.3mg supplementation. The heamatological and serum characteristics were not significantly affected (P<0.05) across the treatments except the differential count of the blood. The activity of the blood enzymes measured increase with selenium supplementation whereas the cholesterol level fall significantly in birds fed selenium supplemented diets. The study showed that all the dietary inclusion satisfactory as feed for broiler chicken without any deleterious effect on performance and blood profile.  Inclusion level of 0.5mm/kg of selenium appeared to have better overall performance when fed to broiler chicken. Keywords: selenium, broilers, haematology, seru

Hepatoprotective and therapeutic potential of liver Gen® on carbon tetrachloride induced liver damage in female Wistar albino rats

Background: Liver gen , a Chinese herbal productwith claims of potency against a variety of diseaseconditions is commonly sold and used in every part ofNigeria by people plagued with ill health.Objective: The study evaluated the hepatoprotectiveeffect, therapeutic potentials and acute toxicity of®Liver gen on carbon tetrachloride induced liverdamage in female Wistar albino rats.Materials and methods: Acute toxicity study wascarried out using albino mice and the LD for Liver 50®gen determined. Similarly, albino rats weighing 180-200g were divided into four groups. Hepatic injury inrats was induced in groups I – III by the administrationof equal mixture of Carbon tetrachloride (CCL ) and 4olive oil (50% v/v, 1ml / kg body weightintraperitoneally) every 72 hours for 10 days. Group I(negative control) was not treated while groups II and®III were subsequently treated with Liver genadministered orally at a dose of 28.6mg / kg and57.2mg / kg body weight respectively for 14 days.Group IV (normal control) received distilled waterthroughout the study period. After the treatmentperiod the animals were sacrificed, serum wasobtained from the blood; liver, brain and kidney wereexcised. Employing standard biochemical assayprotocols, hepato-specific biomarkers, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate amino transferase(AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), renal functionstest (urea and creatinine), hematological indicessuch as hemoglobin (Hb) concentration packed cellvolume (PCV) and white blood cell count (WBC) weredetermined in the serum. Antioxidant statussuperoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT),reduced glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA)and histopathological features were assessed in therat tissues. Heavy metals' contamination wasassessed in the product using atomic absorptionspectroscopy.Results: Levels of liver function marker enzymesalanine amino transferase (ALT) decreased (p<0.05)significantly in CCl treated groups, urea 4concentration reduced significantly in the CCl 4treated rats, SOD and CAT showed no significant(p<0.05) difference in the treated rats compared withthe control. Glutathione-s-transferase activityreduced (p<0.05) significantly in the CCl treated 4group and increased on treatment with the Liver®gen®. The effect of Liver gen on the PCV and WBCwas dose dependent. No mortality was recorded inthe acute toxicity study at the highest dose of20,000mg/kg. Quantitative analysis of the heavy® metals present in Liver gen showed a higherpercentage of copper compared to cobalt, lead, zinc,iron, nickel, manganese and chromium.Histopathological examinations of the liver sectionsconfirmed the biochemical results and indicated thatCCl induced severe histological lesions in the 4hepatic, renal and brain tissues and this was®ameliorated by Liver gen administration. The®findings suggested that the treatment with Liver genenhanced recovery from CCl induced hepatic 4damage. It could therefore be a good natural foodsupplement capable of reducing oxidative stress andserve as an hepatoprotective agent in particular.Key words: hepatoprotection, aminotransferases,®Liver gen , antioxidant