ABSTRACT Africa is a drought prone continent making farming risky especially to small-scale farmers who depend on rain-fed agriculture. Maize is the most widely grown staple crop in Africa with more than 300 million people depending on it as their main food source. Drought leads to crop failure, hunger and poverty and this is being worsened by climate change. There is therefore need to develop drought tolerant maize. Conventional breeding methods have been applied in the development of droug...
ABSTRACT Malaria is one of the major parasitic diseases in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that each year, malaria causes 300 to 500 million infections and 1.5 to 3 million deaths. The disease accounts for 20% of all global childhood deaths. There are major problems of drug resistance, particularly to chloroquine which has been the mainstay of malaria treatment, especially in Africa because of its low cost and minimal side effec...
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 therefo...
ABSTRACT Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are beneficial native soil bacteria that colonize plant roots and result in increased plant growth. Those that colonise the nodules of legumes are known as nodule associated bacteria (NAB). The aim of this study was to determine the distribution and genetic diversity of NAB that colonize Phaseolus vulgaris, their abundance, and symbiotic efficiency when coinoculated with Phaseolus vulgaris in Western Kenya soils. The soil samples were colle...
ABSTRACT Striga is an obligate root hemi-parasitic angiosperm that causes devastating cereal crop losses to millions of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The parasite causes the greatest effects on infertile soils thereby directly affecting the lives of the poorest subsistence farmers. The parasite attaches to a host crop‘s roots, and exploits its water and nutrients leading to stunted growth and death. Several cultural control methods including; crop rotation, use of trap c...
ABSTRACT Plantains are among staple foods in Africa. Worldwide, Musa spp. have an annual production of 88 million tonnes. Nematodes cause significant annual yield losses to these crops. The losses are estimated at about 20% worldwide. The most disastrous nematodes are Radopholus similis and Platylenchus goodeyi. Genetic improvement of the crops by conventional breeding has proved to be laborious and time consuming. Transgenic technology can offer sustainable solutions to the problem of contro...
ABSTRACT Rice, the second most important cereal crop globally, is mainly grown for food and is a staple food for more than half of the world’s population. In sub-Saharan Africa biotic stresses and lack of resources are major production constraints to food production. An estimated yield loss of 16% attributed to weed infestation is recorded in the region with Striga spp. being the most prominent. Striga hermonthica and Striga asiatica constrain production of cereals while Striga gesnerioides...
Abstract Sorghum is a subsistence and staple crop for many people living across Africa especially those in marginal arid and semi-arid tropics. While it is a staple food for millions of people in Africa, livestock feeding accounts for most of the sorghum used in the developed world especially in USA, Mexico, Australia, and South Africa. Among the major impediments to successful sorghum production is drought. This constraint is considered the most important cause of yield reduction in crop pla...
ABSTRACT Despite numerous health intervention measures available, severe dehydrating rotavirus diarrhea remains a major contributor towards childhood mortality particularly in developing countries. Global rotavirus surveillance is vital towards the development of safe, effective and efficacious vaccines to control the associated high infection rates. In Kenya, however, there is little corroborated data on rotavirus epidemiology, burden of disease and strains in circulation. The objective of t...
ABSTRACT This study investigated the effect of produced water from an oil exploration company in Rivers State on the blood, gills and liver of Juvenile African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus). Seventy Juvenile African Catfish were separated into 7 groups (10 per treatment) and used for the study. The juveniles were exposed to three varying concentrations of fresh and stale produced water (2.5ml/l, 5.0ml/l and 10.0ml/l) for a period of 3weeks. At the end of the test period, haematological, bioch...
ABSTRACT Napier grass (Pennisetum purpuruem), an indigenous tropical African clumping grass, is the major livestock feed used by many farmers in zero-grazing systems in Kenya. However, Napier stunt (Ns) disease caused by a phytoplasma has adversely affected napier production at rates of up to 90% in many smallholder fields. A number of wild grasses growing around napier fields have also been observed to host phytoplasma. This includes Hyparrhenia rufa grass that has been documented to host p...
ABSTRACT Advancement in civilization in developing countries with unmatched capacity to dispose of the vast amounts of wastes generated poises public health concerns and adds strain on diminishing land space in emerging urban centers. A sustainable efficient way of waste management is needful, to which end, enhanced composting through employment of appropriate biopreparations offers environmentally safe strategy. This work sought to improve the management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) by ass...
ABSTRACT Microbial contamination in laboratories and hospitals is becoming serious problem worldwide and characterization of such contaminants offer hope for treating some hospital and laboratory acquired infections (LAI). Microbial contaminants on benches, floors, media and in equipment can be influenced by temperature, humidity, nutrient media used in the laboratories as well as storage conditions of the media. Therefore there is need to determine the microbial sources, isolate and identify...
ABSTRACT In high Plasmodium transmission regions, malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum is the leading cause of malaria-related morbidity and mortality among children under the age of 5 years. Severe malaria anaemia (SMA) is the most common cause of malaria burden in holoendemic P. falciparum transmission regions such. Although the mechanisms underlying development of SMA are poorly understood, direct and indirect lysis of erythrocytes, suppression of erythropoiesis, erythrophagocytosis, dy...
ABSTRACT Plants appear to be almost an exclusive source of medicine to the worlds’ gradually increasing population with substances derived from them constituting a big percentage of all prescribed conventional medicines and other products. This puts pressure on the demand for medicinal plants, most of which are sourced from the wild. Zanthoxylum gilletii is an African indigenous deciduous tree which is overexploited for its medicinal use among many communities. This species has its habitat ...