Abstract: A disease with clinical and post-mortem presentation similar to those seen in heartwater, a tick-borne disease of domestic and wild ruminants caused by the intracellular bacterium Ehrlichia ruminantium, was first reported in dromedary camels in Kenya in 2016; investigations carried out at the time to determine the cause were inconclusive. In the present study, we screened sera from Kenyan camels collected before (2015) and after (2020) the 2016 disease outbreak for antibodies to Eh...
Abstract: Ticks are increasingly a global public health and veterinary concern. They transmit numerous pathogens that are of veterinary and public health importance. Acaricides, livestock breeding for tick resistance, tick handpicking, pasture spelling, and anti-tick vaccines (ATVs) are in use for the control of ticks and tick-borne diseases (TTBDs); acaricides and ATVs being the most and least used TTBD control methods respectively. The overuse and misuse of acaricides has inadvertently sel...
Abstract: The sources of animal odours are highly diverse, yet their ecological importance, in host–vector communication, remains unexplored. Here, using the camel (host)–Stomoxys calcitrans (vector) interaction, we collected and analyzed the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) of camels from four of its diferent odour sources: breath, body (skin), urine, and dung. On non-metric model multivariate analyses of VOCs we show that substantial chemo-diversity exists between metabolic products a...
Abstract: We present findings from an outbreak of a heartwater-like disease in camels that killed at least 2000 adult animals in Kenya in 2016. Clinical signs included excitability, head pressing, aimless wandering, recumbency, and fast breathing followed by death after about 4 days. The observed morbidity in one herd was 40% with an average mortality of 7.5% in animals that received early antibiotic treatments. In untreated adults, the case fatality rate reached 100%. Gross pathology showed...
Abstract: Tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) are major constraints to livestock production and a threat to public health in Africa. This cross-sectional study investigated the risk of infection with TBPs in cattle of Lambwe Valley, Kenya. Blood samples of 680 zebu cattle from 95 herds in six geospatial clusters within 5 km of Ruma National Park were screened for bacterial and protozoan TBPs by high-resolution melting analysis and sequencing of PCR products. We detected Anaplasma bovis (17.4%), Anap...
Abstract: Ticks and tick-borne diseases cause substantial economic losses to the livestock industry in sub-Saharan Africa. Mazao Tickoff is a novel bioacaricide developed for tick control and is based on the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae sensu lato (s.l.) isolate ICIPE 7. To date, no randomized controlled study has been undertaken to demonstrate the efficacy of this bioacaricide in reducing natural tick infestation on cattle. To this end, this field trial is designed to eval...
This paper looks at a movement-based assay to analyze adaptability in Caenorhabditis elegans locomotion behavior. A series of sinusoidal microchannels of fixed wavelength and varying amplitude, with the width being similar to the body diameter of the organism, are used for this purpose. The worms are allowed to enter the channel from the input and transition towards the output port. In sections that are similar to the worms' undulations, the movement is fast and steady. However, as the channe...
This paper looks at a movement-based assay to analyze adaptability in Caenorhabditis elegans locomotion behavior. A series of sinusoidal microchannels of fixed wavelength and varying amplitude, with the width being similar to the body diameter of the organism, are used for this purpose. The worms are allowed to enter the channel from the input and transition towards the output port. In sections that are similar to the worms' undulations, the movement is fast and steady. However, as the channe...
To evaluate the level of infestation of the soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Heterodera glycines, in the field, egg population densities are determined from soil samples. Sucrose centrifugation is a common technique for separating debris from the extracted SCN eggs. We have developed a procedure, however, that employs OptiPrep as a density gradient medium, with improved extraction and recovery of the eggs compared to the sucrose centrifugation technique. Also, we have built computerized methods t...
To evaluate the level of infestation of the soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Heterodera glycines, in the field, egg population densities are determined from soil samples. Sucrose centrifugation is a common technique for separating debris from the extracted SCN eggs. We have developed a procedure, however, that employs OptiPrep as a density gradient medium, with improved extraction and recovery of the eggs compared to the sucrose centrifugation technique. Also, we have built computerized methods t...
To evaluate the level of infestation of the soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Heterodera glycines, in the field, egg population densities are determined from soil samples. Sucrose centrifugation is a common technique for separating debris from the extracted SCN eggs. We have developed a procedure, however, that employs OptiPrep as a density gradient medium, with improved extraction and recovery of the eggs compared to the sucrose centrifugation technique. Also, we have built computerized methods t...
ABSTRACT Velogenic Newcastle disease (VND) has been very much associated with drop in egg production and the production of poor quality eggs. The aim of this project was to study the pathological, biochemical and haematological changes that led to the poor egg production and quality. Two hundred and forty Isa-Brown pullets were purchased from Zartech, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria at day old. They were reared to point of lay. At 16 weeks of age they were divided into two groups of 120 layers eac...
Abstract This study was conducted on 176 sheep slaughtered at Al-sabaloga abattoir, West Omdurman, Khartoum State, Sudan, during the period extended from October2016 to December 2016. The objectives were to estimate the prevalence of hydatid cysts in sheep and to investigate risk factors associated with the disease. Routine meat inspection procedure was employed to detect the presence of hydatid cysts in visceral organs (liver, lung, heart and muscle). The Examined sheep originated from two a...
Abstract Infectious bronchitis (IB) is an acute infectious viral disease causing severe economic losses in poultry production. In Nigeria, there has only been monitoring of the disease in chickens with little attention given to other bird species. For this study, blood samples were collected from 184 apparently healthy, unvaccinated birds which comprised of 61 captured free-living pigeons, 60 free range indigenous chickens and 63 intensively reared Japanese quails. Sera from these bir...
Abstract Brucellosis is one of the bacterial zoonotic disease that affects both man and animal and has considerable impact on public health and economy. This Study was carried out to update information about prevalence of brucellosis in cattle in the north Darfur state, Sudan. The study was extended from April to November 2019. The objective was to estimate the prevalence of brucellosis in cattle and to investigate risk factor associated with the disease . Two hundred and thirty blood for se...