ABSTRACT Theileriosis or East Coast Fever (ECF), a leukemia-like disease of cattle that is endemic in East, Central and Southern Africa, is caused by the protozoan parasite Theileria parva (T. parva), which is transmitted by the brown ear tick vector Rhipicephalus appendiculatus. In an infective tick bite, the sporozoite parasites preferentially infect bovine lymphocytes and develop into intra-cytoplasmic, multinucleated schizonts. Schizont-infected host cells proliferate and exhibit several ...
ABSTRACT Indigenous chickens show extensive physical diversity. However, industrialization and globalization of chicken in the 21st century has affected and limited their genetic resources to industrial breeds. Continuous selection for rapid growth and more egg production has resulted in the loss of disease resistance and overall immuno-competence hence a projected increase in disease-related costs in the future. Genetic control of disease resistance is one of the most important targets of br...
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 increased...
BSTRACT Donor funding is anticipated to be a multiplied direct supply of investment which is factored both in investing or financing activities of the ministries. The authorities gets large donor useful resource from numerous assets to fund some of programs in the public sector. However, despite this fact, most projects experience erratic disbursement of funds from donors thereby leading to confusion and uncertainty in implementation of project activities. This study sought to examine th...
ABSTRACT Root knot nematodes (RKNs) of (Meloidogyne spp.) are among the most devastating soil-borne plant parasitic pests infecting many food crops. They have been shown to result in over 50% loss of crop yield in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill). Various control measures including agronomic practices and nematicides have been employed in the past to manage the parasite with only modest gains. These are also costly to small-scale farmers especially in developing countries. There is need ...
ABSTRACT Despite having a lot of resources, Lake Victoria Basin has had an increase in population and land degradation and a reduction in agricultural production due to poor soil fertility. This has necessitated the use of inorganic fertilizers to boost food production. Inorganic fertilizers production contributes to emission of greenhouse gases. Use of inorganic fertilizer in Lake Victoria basin may have led to eutrophication of Lake Victoria leading to social, economic and ecological proble...
ABSTRACT The longhorn grasshopper, Conocephalus maculatus (Le Guillou, 1841), is reported to be distributed over a wide range of grassland habitats in tropical Africa, Asia and Australasia. The species has gained attention in Asia as an important biological control agent of rice pests. In Tanzania, the species has been reported around Mount Kilimanjaro ecosystem with no reliable information in Kagera region, north-western Tanzania. The present study sought to bring to light the distribut...
ABSTRACT Developing countries experience diarrheal disease at a higher rate than industrialized nations. A key contributor to increased morbidity and mortality from diarrheal disease is the lack of efficient diagnosis methods. In Kenya diagnosis of enteric pathogens is mainly performed using manual methods which involves colony morphology, gram stain and biochemical tests. Although these methods are generally reliable they are labour intensive, have a long turn-around time and they occasiona...
ABSTRACT Over the last decade cholera outbreaks have become common in some parts of Kenya. A number of recent studies have described the epidemiology of cholera in Kenya but there has been little information regarding the phenotypic and molecular characteristics of Vibrio cholerae in these outbreaks. The aim of this study was therefore to characterize Vibrio cholerae isolates from Kenya. A total of 168 Vibrio cholerae O1, biotype El Tor isolates collected between 2007 and 2010 from various ch...
ABSTRACT Understanding the interrelationships between injury, infection and diversity of Theileria in a zebra population may illuminate the mechanisms by which injuries influence the course of latent infections, and may be an important factor to be considered during therapy of injured animals. Currently, the molecular diversity of Theileria species that are circulating in Kenyan free living common zebras is unknown and the effect of anthropogenic induced injuries on Theileria diversity and in...
ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus is a clinically important pathogen in Kenya and globally owing to its widespread occurrence, virulence potential and multidrug resistance. Adequate surveillance is required to track the emergence and spread of hypervirulent and multidrug resistant strains such as methicillin and vancomycin resistant S. aureus (MRSA and VRSA). Conventional methods for S. aureus characterization include Staphylococcal protein A (spa) gene typing, multi-locus sequence typing (MLST)...
ABSTRACT Pyrexia and inflammation cause discomfort, suffering and lower productivity of the victims. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs which are highly prescribed in medication of pyrexia and inflammation have been reported to possess adverse effects. Herbal medicines may possess bioactive compounds that are safer and efficient in the management of various diseases and disorders. Kigelia africana and Acacia hockii are traditionally used to manage pyrexia and inflammation among the Embu a...
ABSTRACT Heat stress is one of the major limiting factors for crop productivity, resulting in significant yield losses annually. Reproductive development is extremely sensitive to increased temperatures. With the increase in the frequency and intensity of short waves of high temperatures, a detrimental effect on plant development is expected to rise especially on the reproductive development. Within cereals, maize is a fundamental crop from a global food security perspective. Therefore, und...
ABSTRACT Salinity affects about 40% of the global area mainly the arid and semi-arid regions. In Kenya the ASALs cover approximately 80% of the total area where agricultural production constraints include water scarcity, salinity and sodicity. Sweetpotato Ipomoea batatas L. (Lam.) is the third most economically important root crop after potato and cassava in the world cultivated for human consumption, animal feed and industrial uses. The production of sweetpotato by smallholder farmers in th...
ABSTRACT The Kenyan education sector has not embraced the ICT usage and consequently, effect of integration of ICT on performance has not received adequate investigation. The study, therefore, investigated the effect of ICT integration on the performance of tertiary institutions in Nairobi City County. The study target population was 149 tertiary institutions in Nairobi City County. Simple random sampling method was used to select the respondents from the sample size of 60 respondents drawn f...