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: Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is an important starch staple crop, cultivated primarily in south and southwestern Ethiopia. Enset is the main crop of a sustainable indigenous African system that ensures food security in a country that is food deficient. Related to the banana family, enset is similarly affected by plant-parasitic nematodes. Plant-parasitic nematodes impose a huge constraint on agriculture. The distribution, population density and incidence of plant-parasitic nematodes o...
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: Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens complex mosquitoes are prolific vectors of arboviruses that are a global threat to human and animal health. Increased globalization and ease of travel have facilitated the worldwide dissemination of these mosquitoes and the viruses they transmit. To assess disease risk, we determined the frequency of arboviruses in western Kenyan counties bordering an area of high arboviral activity. In addition to pathogenic viruses, insect-specific flaviviruses (IS...
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: Trypanosoma vivax is a vector-borne protozoan parasite of livestock endemic to Africa and South America. To date, fifteen genotypes of the parasite have been described in vertebrate and insect hosts in East Africa. However, information regarding T. vivax diversity remains limited in many endemic countries in the sub-region, including Kenya. Such information could deepen insight into the local epidemiology of animal trypanosomiasis in Shimba Hills, a wildlife area in southeast Kenya...
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: Vectors of emerging infectious diseases have expanded their distributional ranges in recent decades due to increased global travel, trade connectivity and climate change. Transboundary range shifts, arising from the continuous movement of humans and livestock across borders, are of particular disease control concern. Several tick-borne diseases are known to circulate between eastern Uganda and the western counties of Kenya, with one fatal case of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (C...
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...
Abstract: Aedes simpsoni complex has a wide distribution in Africa and comprises at least three described sub-species including the yellow fever virus (YFV) vector Ae. bromeliae. To date, the distribution and relative contributions of the sub-species and/or subpopulations including bionomic characteristics in relation to YF transmission dynamics remain poorly studied. In this study conducted in two areas with divergent ecosystems: peri-urban (coastal Rabai) and rural (Rift Valley Kerio Valle...
Abstract: Gender intersects with healthcare systems; this is equally true for arboviral vector control efforts. However,there is as yet no comprehensive analysis as to how vector control is gendered. Hence, our objective is to provide thefirst thematic scoping and spatial distribution of the literature on gender, community health workers, and vector control.The authors use a systematic review approach to collect the academic literature on gender, community health workers,and vector control i...
Abstract: Second instar nymphs of African migratory locust, Locusta migratoria migratorioides, and desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria, were tested for their susceptibility to the microsporidium pathogen Johenrea locustae (Lange et al. 1996, Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, 68, 28) in the laboratory. Spores of J. locustae were produced from live L.m. migratorioides, a conspecific to L. migratoria capito. Locusta m. migratorioides and S. gregaria were exposed to wheat seedlings sprayed wit...
Abstract: Stingless bees are important pollinators of cultivated and wild plants, contributing significantly to biodiversity and foodsecurity. Conserving pollinator plant interactions is essential to secure these ecosystems services. The use ofmorphological features in the identification of stingless bees in the genusHypotrigonais extremely difficult, due to manysimilarities among species resulting in taxonomic ambiguity. Here, we apply both traditional morphometrics and DNAbarcoding as ompl...
Abstract: Propolis is a hive product composed of biologically active plant resins, and has been shown toenhance individual honey bee (Apis melliferaL.) health. Propolis has also been demonstratedto mitigate, in part, the negative effects caused by the ecto-parasitic miteVarroa destructorand its associated viruses on the health of managed European honey bee colonies.However, its effect on the health status of African honey bees remains largely unknown.Here, we found that the African savannah ...