Abstract: Many successful laboratory studies have demonstrated the potential of using the entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana against malaria mosquitoes. This study focussed on infection of wild malaria mosquitoes with the entomopathogeriic fungus B. bassiana under field conditions. Four experiments were carried out under laboratory conditions by use of World Health Organization bioassay cones, for exposure of3-6 days old, non-blood fed laboratory-reared Anopheles arabiensis mosquito...
Abstract: Rift Valley Fever (RVF) is a mosquito borne viral infection, first reported in the Rift Valley province of Kenya in 1912 and identified in 1931. Major outbreaks have been reported in Kenya in 1997/1998 and 2006/2007. Baringo, Garissa and Kilifi district of Kenya were hot spots in the last major RVF outbreak that occurred in the country in 2006/2007. Investigations were conducted during the outbreak to establish putative mosquito vectors and vertebrate host of RVF virus. Engorged fe...
Abstract: Sampling insects in and around Napier grass fields revealed that 21 Homopteran insect species exploit Napier Grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach 1827) canopy. Leafhopper Cicadulina sp., and plant hoppers; Leptodelphax dymas Young, and Sogatella manentho Horvath, are the most dominant Napier canopy insects. This study developed a Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification of DNA (LAMP) for rapid detection of phytoplasma 16S rDNA. LAMP was simple, sensitive, specific, robust and very ra...
Abstract: Sustainable mango production will rely increasingly on alternatives to conventional chemical insecticides that are environmentally friendly for the management of fruit flies. The use of microbial control agents such as fungi in pest suppression is considered suitable since micro-organisms usually exert low environmental impact and are target specific. Application methods of bio-pesticides in the environment, which use minimal amount of inoculum is currently under improvement from i...
Abstract: Several studies have shown that Rhipicephalus appendiculatus from geographically isolated areas differ in their susceptibilities to Theileria paIva, the haemoprotozoan causative agent of East Coast Fever. In Kenya, R. appendiculatus from Muguga have been reported to be less susceptible to T parva infection than those from Rusinga Islands. As the same tick species from different areas shows variation in vector competence, it was considered to be of epidemiological interest to determ...
Abstract: This research work on the role of termites in an arid ecosystem covered eleven months (August 1981 to .June 1982). It was conducted at the site of the UNESCO integrated project in Arid Lands (UNESCO - !PAL} . This area is in Western Marsabit district, Kenya . About 80% of this area is semi-arid thorn bush scrubland and receives annual rainfall from about 100 to 600 mm. A survey of the termite fauna as a whole was carried out around most of the !PAL Field camps. Main investigation s...
Abstract: Malaria is an infectious disease that continues to be associated with considerable morbidity and mortality and significant social and economic impact on developing societies. Approximately 300 million people worldwide are affected and between 1 and 1.5 million people die from it every year. The disease is caused by a protozoan parasite of the genus Plasmodium. Four species are known to cause malaria in man; these are Plasmodium falciparum, P, vivax, P.ovale and P malariae. The para...
Abstract: The possibility of adaptation to host resistance by field strains of R. appendiculatus was investigated by comparing the feeding and breeding performance of two field strains with a laboratory strain (Muguga) which has been bred and maintained for about 30 years on susceptible rabbits. Results have shown that the laboratory strain has smaller eggs and smaller unfed larvae, nymphs and adults than the field strains. When fed on susceptible rabbits the laboratory strain females laid e...
Abstract: Scorpion venom contains insect and mammal selective toxins. However, despite their significance and potential application in insect-pest control, bioactivity of Kenyan scorpions is still unknown. As such this study initiated investigations on the inherent insecticidal activity of the venoms of scorpions collected in Kenya. Venom from four scorpion species namely Parabuthus leiosoma, Parabuthus pallidus, Hottentotta trilimeatus and Hottentotta eminii was collected upon stinging a pa...
Abstract: Reliable molecular identification of vertebrate species from morphologically unidentifiable tissue is critical to the prosecution of illegally traded wildlife products to limit their trade, as well us for surveillance to inform conservation policies and identification of blood-meal hosts. Currently, this is mainly dependent on sequencing of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) ‘barcode’ genes, which remains costly for purposes of screening large numbers of unknown samples a...
Abstract: Biochemical methods have been applied to elucidate the species systematics of cassava green mite (CGM). Traditionally CGM have been classified using the length of the dorso-central setae (D1-o3 ), which groups CGM into two species, the short setae form, Hononychellus tanajoa (Bandar) and the long setae form Mononychellus progresivus Doreste. However the validity of this method of classification is being questioned because the setae were found to vary from short to long in a continu...
Abstract: Food and nutrition insecurity has been a major challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). With land frontier closing, farmers in SSA must intensify and diversify food production to alleviate food and nutrition insecurity. In the face of climate change, African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVs) can offer opportunities to diversify production systems and improve food, nutrition and income security in many countries of SSA. Despite their potential, the importance of AIVs in alleviating food, n...
Abstract: Rule-based classifiers have one major advantage over other classes of supervised learning algorithms: interpretability. They provide a means to read into a model and find how the features co-act in order to come to a classification outcome. This in turn enables the researcher to visualize the feature interactions and evaluate the key features that discern between different decision classes. The rules generated from these algorithms, however, can be very many and their analysis is n...
Abstract: Cellulolytic microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria are responsible for much of the cellulose degradation in soils. Despite this vast number of cellulase producers, there is a deficiency of microorganisms that can produce significant amount of the three cellulase enzyme specifities i.e. endoglucanases, exoglucanases and cellobiases to efficiently degrade cellulose to fermentable products. Little emphasis has been given to cellulase production from bacteria despite their extremel...
Abstract: Kakamega forest, a major reservoir of biodiversity in Kenya has experienced degradation over a long period of time due to human disturbance. This disturbance has resulted in a heterogeneous mixture of vegetation including disturbed primary forest, secondary forest, clearings and glades, and timber plantations. Restoration of the forest ecosystem has included the re-establishment of native tree species in order to accelerate recovery of the degraded areas and connect formally joined...