Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility characterization of Escherichia coli isolated from the intestines of freshwater fish from the Mindu dam in Morogoro, Tanzania

Background: The Mindu dam, an open system, serves as a microbial reservoir, housing uropathogenic microorganisms like Escherichia coli. Morogoro municipality relies on the dam for water and fish. This study aimed to assess the antimicrobial susceptibility of Escherichia coli isolated from fish and water in Mindu dam.    Methods: In May 2019, a cross-sectional study was conducted in Morogoro municipality. Selected antimicrobials, including ampicillin, tetracycline, cefoxitin, erythromycin, trimethoprim, gentamicin, enrofloxacin, and nalidixic acid, were tested using the disc diffusion method. E. coli ATCC 25922 served as a positive control for quality assurance during bacterial isolation. The potential source of antimicrobial contamination was identified through the multiple antibiotic resistance index. Results: Out of 148 samples, E. coli was found in 24, none in water. E. coli showed high resistance (≥50.0%) to erythromycin (62.5%), nalidixic acid (79.2%), and ampicillin (75%). Additionally, 58.0% of isolates displayed multi-drug resistance across antimicrobial classes, with a multiple antibiotic resistance index ranging from 0.00 to 0.75. Conclusion: Antimicrobial-resistant E. coli in the food chain may heighten the spread of complex urinary tract infections in the municipality. It underscores the necessity for robust municipal surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and effective antimicrobial stewardship for enhanced infection prevention and control

Excision wounds healing activity of Centella asiatica (Gotukola) extract on laboratory rats

Background: Skin wound cases are increasing in hospitals requiring efficient treatment. The dependence on antimicrobial has been expensive and sometimes less effective hence requiring alternatives. Medicinal herbs with wound healing properties could be among the alternatives. Methods: The current study assessed the wound healing efficacy of Centella sciatica (Gotukola leaves) ethanolic extract using Laboratory rats as a model. A total of 32 animals were divided into 8 groups (n=4). G1 (Control group (nothing), G2 (Dexamethasone + 1% Gotukola extract), G3 (0.1% Gotukola extract), G4 (0.5% Gotukola extract), G5 (1% Gotukola extract), G6 (Grounded fresh Leaves of Gotukola), and G7 (Silver sulphadiazine). Excision wounds were made on the skin. The plant extract solution was applied to the wound and results were observed on days 3, 7, and 10. Assessed parameters included wound contraction percentages, wound epithelialization time, duration taken for complete wound healing, and gross appearance of wounds. Results: wounds treated with 1 or 0.5 percentages of Gatukola leaf extract had relatively higher contraction percentages, shorter epithelialization time, and shorter duration for complete healing compared to wounds of rats treated with the lower concentration of the extract and those of the control rats. Visual assessment of excision wounds in the current study revealed corroborative results in that wounds of rats under Gotukola extract at 1% and 0.5 appeared to be recovering faster similar to that of the positive control compared to the wounds treated with a lower concentration of the extract, leaf juice, dexamethasone incorporated extracts and wounds of the negative control. Conclusion: The extracts of C. asiatica at the dosage of 1 or 0.5 %, promoted wound healing at a rate similar to that of the conventional silver sulphadiazine suggesting its potential use in wound management

Factors affecting adoption of improved sorghum varieties in Tanzania under information and capital constraints

Abstract Low adoption of agricultural technology is among the main reasons for low farm productivity and high incidence of poverty and food insecurity in sub-Saharan countries including Tanzania. In this study, we examine the factors affecting adoption of improved sorghum varieties using data from 822 randomly selected sample households in northern and central Tanzania. We employ a multiple-hurdle Tobit model to assess the factors affecting adoption after controlling for both capital and information constraints. We also use t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding to cluster farmers into homogeneous groups. The method allows to reduce the dimensionality while preserving the topology of the dataset, which increases the clustering accuracy. It also superiors for visualization of the clustering results. Results show that radio and other mass media outlets that create awareness will increase adoption among farmers who do not face capital constraint. Some farmers lack basic resources such as land and capital, and subsidies could have a high impact on these farmers. Other farmers simply need assurance on the performance of improved sorghum varieties. Field days, on-farm trials, and demonstration plots could be useful in supporting these farmers. A tailored support system, however, needs a sustained investment in both quantity and quality of services. There is therefore a need to develop a pluralistic research and extension systems that encourage the use of information technologies and community-based organizations to reach specific groups of farmers

Participatory Variety Selection for enhanced promotion and adoption of improved finger millet varieties: A case for Singida and Iramba Districts in Central Tanzania

Participatory variety selection (PVS) is an approach which provides a wide choice of varieties to farmers to evaluate in their own environment using their own resources for increasing production. It enhances farmer’s access to diverse crop varieties, increases production and ensures food security and helps faster dissemination and adoption of pre and released varieties. It allows varietal selection in targeted areas at cost-effective and timely manner and helps promotion of community seed production and community seed banks. Therefore, a variety developed through PVS usually meets demand of different stakeholders. Farmers in Singida and Iramba districts in central Tanzania were found to be growing land races which were low yielding, long maturing, drought and disease susceptible, as no variety had previously been released in Tanzania. Through PVS a broader choice of varieties that matched farmer needs in adaptation and quality traits was offered for evaluation. As such PVS was used to introduce, evaluate, release and promote for adoption finger millet varieties in Central and Northern Tanzania. Farmers selected and adopted new varieties of a higher utility (a combination of improved agronomic traits, higher yield, and improved quality). Through PVS Tanzania released her first finger millet varieties (U15 and P224). Adoption of the varieties was very high as farmers associated with the varieties; and affordable high quality seed was made available as Quality Declared Seed (QDS) produced by the target farmer groups. Preferred traits differed between the gender groups; women preferred risk averting traits like short duration, drought tolerance, compact heads and disease resistance while male preferred market related traits (high yield, brown colour and big head