Abstract: By 2015, target 8 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal number six aimed to have halted and began to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. One of the strategies through which this target was expected to be achieved is to increase the proportion of the population in malaria risk areas who use effective malaria prevention and treatment measures. Malaria is one of the most common vector-borne diseases widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, inc...
Abstract: Dose-response studies in arthropod research usually involve observing and collecting successive information at different times on the same group of organisms (insects) exposed to different concentrations of stimulus such as botanical extracts. When successive observations are made on the same group of organisms at several concentrations over time the data becomes correlated. Correlated insect mortality data cannot be analyzed using Probit Analysis technique which is the usual way o...
Abstract: Researchers are often times confronted with compositional data in insect choice studies. The choice of a statistical method to model this type of data is always not obvious. In this study, three approaches for analysis of compositional data from choice tests made by the predatory parasitoid Cotesia sesamaie Cameron in a four-arm olfactometer was explored using centered, additive and isometric log ratio transformations. Oviposition induced plant volatiles (OIPVs), herbivore induced ...
Abstract: The study was done at the Department of Animal Science, University of Manitoba. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of β-mannanase on nutrient utilization and performance of laying hens. Experimental diets were based on soybean meal (SBM), corn and distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). The first study was designed to evaluate the effect of β-mannanase (CTCZYME, CTC Bio Inc., Seoul, South Korea) on performance of laying hens and egg quality traits. A ...
Abstract: The cost of feed is one of the major constraints to dairy cattle production in sub-Saharan Africa. East Africa dairy development project is promoting several feed technologies for dairy cattle in order to reduce costs and increase milk production and profits. Research was conducted to identify factors that affect farmers’ uptake of feed technologies, cost of feed and factors driving dairy milk yield through improved technologies and practices. There has however been no studies re...
Abstract: Besides soil replenishment through manure application , the zero grazing production system also contributes towards smallholders' standards of living and poverty reduction. Its benefits are many and substantial; in western Kenya, the livestock farmers have adopted it. However, factors influencing its adoption are not known. It is also not certain whether the livestock farmers who practice zero grazing are knowledgeable of the cattle reproductive parameters or not which is key to ze...
Abstract: Researchers are often confronted with multinomial data in insect choice studies. Common choice models available to researchers for analysis of multinomial data include multinomial logit (MNL) and multinomial probit model (MNP). MNL relies on the Independence from Irrelevant Alternatives (IIA) assumption which is violated when choices are correlated resulting in overestimating the probability of selecting correlated alternatives. The more flexible MNP model relaxes IIA assumption an...
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...