Abstract: Mosquitoes are the primary vectors of arboviral infections. As there are no vaccines or effective therapeutic treatments for these diseases, vector control is an important approach for curbing their circulation or transmission. These vectors spend the first three of their four life stages in aquatic habitats where fitness and efficiency of adult mosquitoes to transmit arboviral infections is greatly influenced. Understanding ecology of mosquitoes in their aquatic habitats is theref...
Abstract: Water is life thus access to safe drinking water is essential to health and a basic human right. Kenya is considered a water scarce country whose water sources are becoming more contaminated through changes in land use and poor solid waste management. This has in turn affected the quantity and quality of portable water available. There are nearly 1.7 billion cases of waterborne diarrheal disease every year with over 760 000 deaths of children under five years. Traditional methods o...
Abstract: Malaria is a strong selective force in the human genome, selecting genes for resistance to disease in human populations living in malaria endemic areas. Selection by malaria has generated genetic variations, providing evolutionary driving force mediating polymorphisms such as Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase deficiency and sickle-cell anaemia. Genes encoding erythrocyte receptors of Plasmodium falciparum especially the sialoglycoproteins, glycophorins A, Band C, which are the main...
Abstract: Honeybees, Apis mellifera, are key contributors to the global economy, nutrition, food security and ecological biodiversity. Despite their robust benefits, declines in honeybee populations have been reported owing to a number of factors. Such include pests and diseases, climate change, poor management practices, change in land usage and low ge-netic diversity. High intra-colonial genetic diversity is associated with resilience and re-sistance to pest and diseases as well as increas...
Abstract: Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) is a major pest of maize in East Africa. Its indigenous natural enemies are unable to regulate its densities to a level acceptable to farmers. Cotesia flavipes Cameron (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a larval parasitoid of C. partellus now established in Kenya, was released in 1993 from Pakistan for the control of this pest. A major constraint in evaluating the establishment of C. flavipes, is the great amount of time spent for its field collection and identifi...
Abstract: Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) has been in use as an agricultural insecticide and as a disease vector control since 1939. Due to its persistence in the environment, its use has been surrounded by controversies regarding its safety to humans and the environment. There has been no reliable and replicable scientific evidence proving its harmful effects to humans though DDT was banned in many developed nations by 1970s. The DDT ban has seen to the reemergence of malaria and othe...
Abstract: Pesticide use has been one of the major factors in improving productivity in agricultural enterprises. Pesticide residues in food and drinking water when ingested affect human health while ecosystems are also affected through loss of biodiversity. The aim of the research was to survey pesticide usage in farms under horticultural production, isolate bacterial strains, evaluate their biodegradation potential of selected pesticides, characterize the bacteria isolates morphologically, ...
Abstract: Chemical pesticides have disadvantages such as high production costs, short persistence, comparative low efficacy, development of resistance to toxin and causing ecological damage. In order to obtain cheaper biopesticides, many locally available and inexpensive agricultural/industrial byproducts have potential as culture media for Bacillus thuringiensis Crystal protein production. In this study, cost-effective media were developed, based on locally available raw materials namely le...
Abstract: Tsetse flies are the sole vectors of Human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and Animal African trypanosomiasis (Nagana). The insect is attracted to its suitable hosts through external signals which are perceived by olfactory receptors (ORs); thus representing the basis of transmission of the disease to thousands of people and millions of livestock. A developing approach to efficiently identify the key chemical ligands of odorant receptors entails expressing single ORs in...
Cassava mosaic geminiviruses (CMGs) and Cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) cause diseases of major economic significance to cassava in Kenya. The Western region of Kenya contributes about 60% of cassava production in the country. Currently CBSD distribution is being newly reported in the Western region where over 90% CMD incidences have been observed. Transmission studies have confirmed that B. tabaci transmits both CMGs and CBSV. The co-occurrence of the vector, CMGs and the newly reported CB...
Cassava (Manihot esculanta Crantz) is a perennial shrub grown mainly for its tuberous roots and provides food for over 500 million people in developing countries. The crop is affected by various biotic and abiotic stresses such as diseases, low protein content and presence of cyanogenic glycosides that result in low production. Management strategies against these stresses rely upon conventional improvement programs, but these are not effective owing to vast limitations inherent to such breedi...
Cancer is referred to as uncontrolled abnormal proliferation of body cells. It is a leading cause of death in developed world and second leading cause of death in developing world. Currently cancer treatment and management is a challenge due to complexity of the disease, toxicity of chemotherapy and unaffordability of treatment. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate complementary and alternative medicine for leads and development of anticancer drugs. Cassia abbreviata has traditionally b...
Malaria is a global life-threatening disease in human beings caused by four species of Plasmodium parasites, P.vivax, P.ovale, P. malariae and P. falciparum. Among these, P. falciparum is the most deadly form affecting about 240 million people worldwide every year, with 1 million deaths annually, 85% of which occur in children below 5 years of age. Malaria is a health problem in more than 90 countries and each year, between 300 and 500 million new cases are reported worldwide. Over 80 c...
ABSTRACT Many species in the genus Populus and their hybrids are economically valuable, fast growing, short rotation woody trees for producing wood, fiber, and biofuels, as well as sequestering atmospheric carbon in large plantations and agroforestry settings. Industrial facilities to produce liquid transportation fuels from Poplar feedstock are currently being built in the USA. Populus ilicifolia locally known as Tana River Poplar is the only species in the Populus genus that falls within t...
ABSTRACT Banana and plantain (Musa spp.) are important staple food crops for rural and urban consumers and provide a source of income for resource poor farmers in the humid tropics of sub-Saharan Africa. However, banana production is severely limited by both biotic and abiotic factors. Application of conventional breeding for both disease and pest resistance has resulted only in limited success due to the long generation times and the high sterility and triploidy of most cultivated bananas a...