ABSTRACT Bats are nocturnal mammals found everywhere except in the Antarctica and Arctic regions. They are important for the maintenance of the ecosystem in terms of pollination and seed dispersal, particularly in tropical regions, as well as in controlling insect populations that would otherwise be pests. Bats have been reported as reservoir hosts for several pathogens including viruses such as Ebola, Nipah, Hendra and Lyssa. The purpose of the study was to document the parasites that infes...
ABSTRACT The important role of antibody-mediated mechanisms in protection from clinical malaria has been demonstrated by passive transfer experiments but the targets of protective immunity are not clearly defined. A number of antigens are however in various stages of testing as possible vaccine candidates. Polymorphism in these antigens, which has been reported to be an immune evasion mechanism, has hampered the development of these antigens as vaccines since antibody responses against one a...
ABSTRACT The environment harbours many bacterial species, some of which include non-tuberculous mycobacteria which have recently become important in public health. Isolation of mycobacteria from the environment has not been easy because of the presence of other fast growing bacteria and fungi. For isolation of mycobacteria from the environment, decontamination methods that minimize contamination but maximize recovery of mycobacteria are needed. This study sought to compare three decontaminat...
Abstract The systematic status and geographic distribution of spiny mice of the genus Acomys I. Geoffroy, 1838 in northern Tanzania is uncertain. This study assesses the systematic and geographic distribution of Acomys from northern Tanzania using a multidisciplinary approach that includes molecular, cytogenetic, traditional and geometric morphometric analyses, and classical morphology of the same individuals. The molecular analysis was based on 1140 base pairs (bp) of the mitochondrial cy...
ABSTRACT prostephanus truncatus (Horn) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae), the Larger Grain Borer (LGB) has become a serious pest of stored maize and dried cassava chips since it was first seen in Ghana in 1989. Studies on the tolerance of maize varieties and wood species used in the construction of maize storage structures in the Volta Region of Ghana to P. truncatus was made under laboratory and field conditions. Varietal resistance of maize to insects could be of great help to farmers, especially...
Malaria merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1) is cleaved in an essential step during erythrocyte invasion. The responses of children to natural malaria infection included antibodies that inhibit this cleavage and others that block the binding of these inhibitory antibodies. There was no correlation between the titer of the antibody to the 19-kDa fragment of MSP1 and its inhibitory activity. These findings have implications for the design of MSP1-based vaccines.
Abstract Malaria remains a major parasitic disease in Africa, with 300–500 million new infections each year. There is therefore an urgent need for the development of new effective measures, including vaccines. Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface protein-119 (MSP-119) is a prime candidate for a blood-stage malaria vaccine. Blood samples were collected from children aged 10 days to 15 years in the months of January–March (N = 351) and October–November (N = 369) corresponding to the d...
This project work studied and compared the common protozoan parasites of Africa cat fish (Clarias gariepinus) from wild and cultured environment within Bauchi metropolis, a total of 48 samples of C. gariepinus comprising 24 each from both wild and cultured environment were examined for protozoan parasites and only 18 and 13 fishes were infected by protozoa parasites respectively. Ichthyophthirus multifiilis was the most common protozoan parasites found in C. gariepinus from the wild and Trich...
ABSTRACT Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of deltamethrin dust as a protectant of maize against Sitophilus zeamais under ambient laboratory conditions of 27 ± 3°C and 70 ± 5% relative humidity. Four sets of fifty grams of disinfested maize grains were measured into jars in four replicates. Each replicate was infested with ten 0-7days old adult S.zeamais. Each set of three replicates were treated separately with 0.25g, 0.187g and 0.125g of deltamethrin while th...
ABSTRACT This project details the results of a research work carried out to develop fish feed compounded from locally available materials in the institute of oceanography fish farm and analyzed its nutritional values, in the biochemistry department all in the University of Calabar. On the basis of the feed production, it is recommended that the feeding regime of the animal (fish) for intended culture is known, a dry diet formulation of two distinct feed lines was produced (fingerlings and...
This research work was carried out to determine the effects of three organic fertilizers namely: cattle dung, poultry droppings and pig excreta on the growth of fingerlings of clarias gariepinus. A total of 120 fingerlings of average length (15.3+2.10) cm and weight (34.2+8.73)g were used for the study. Table oc content Chapter one Chapter two Chapter three Chapter four Chapter five References