Perceptions of rural and urban residents in Borana pastoral and agro-pastoral areas in Ethiopia related to milk adulteration.

Milk is a nutritious food that plays a great role in the diets of a society largely dependent on livestock production. On the other hand, contaminants can enter milk naturally or intentionally, causing a negative impact on the health of consumers. Milk adulteration is a wide concern in the dairy industry in many countries, including Ethiopia, with a subsequent negative impact on its nutritive value and potentially affecting the health of consumers. This study was designed to assess the perceptions of rural and urban residents in Borana pastoral and agro-pastoral areas in Ethiopia related to milk adulteration. It was also aimed at identifying the potential reasons for milk adulteration in the area. A semi-structured questionnaire and focus group discussions (FGDs) were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data, respectively, focusing on the types of substances added to milk and the reasons for the addition of the substances. In rural and urban areas, 73.1% and 91.7% of respondents reported suspicion of the addition of nonmilk substances or milk of other animal species to cow's milk before selling, respectively. According to the qualitative data, most reported adulterants were water and 'pasta or rice water' (a murky fluid left after boiling rice or pasta). Respondents mentioned that they identify adulterated milk by observation or tasting. Economic gain was the primary perceived reason to adulterate the milk according to the study participants. The respondents had concerns about the quality and safety of milk associated with adulteration in the area. The weak enforcement of regulations related to milk quality and marketing as well as the inadequacy of capacity for the detection of adulteration were mentioned as gaps toward mitigating the problems. Awareness creation about the negative impacts of milk adulteration among the community supported by strategies for regulation, such as improving regular testing of milk and taking actions on adulterated milk, is recommended to tackle consumer concerns around milk adulteration in the area.

Modeling the spatial distribution of Culicoides species (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) as vectors of animal diseases in Ethiopia.

Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) are the major vectors of bluetongue, Schmallenberg, and African horse sickness viruses. This study was conducted to survey Culicoides species in different parts of Ethiopia and to develop habitat suitability for the major Culicoides species in Ethiopia. Culicoides traps were set in different parts of the country from December 2018 to April 2021 using UV light Onderstepoort traps and the collected Culicoides were sorted to species level. To develop the species distribution model for the two predominant Culicoides species, namely Culicoides imicola and C. kingi, an ensemble modeling technique was used with the Biomod2 package of R software. KAPPA True skill statistics (TSS) and ROC curve were used to evaluate the accuracy of species distribution models. In the ensemble modeling, models which score TSS values greater than 0.8 were considered. Negative binomialregression models were used to evaluate the relationship between C. imicola and C. kingi catch and various environmental and climatic factors. During the study period, a total of 9148 Culicoides were collected from 66 trapping sites. Of the total 9148, 8576 of them belongs to seven species and the remaining 572 Culicoides were unidentified. The predominant species was C. imicola (52.8%), followed by C. kingi (23.6%). The abundance of these two species was highly influenced by the agro-ecological zone of the capture sites and the proximity of the capture sites to livestock farms. Climatic variables such as mean annual minimum and maximum temperature and mean annual rainfall were found to influence the catch of C. imicola at the different study sites. The ensemble model performed very well for both species with KAPPA (0.9), TSS (0.98), and ROC (0.999) for C. imicola and KAPPA (0.889), TSS (0.999), and ROC (0.999) for C. kingi. Culicoides imicola has a larger suitability range compared to C. kingi. The Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia, the southern and eastern parts of the country, and the areas along the Blue Nile and Lake Tana basins in northern Ethiopia were particularly suitable for C. imicola. High suitability for C. kingi was found in central Ethiopia and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR). The habitat suitability model developed here could help researchers better understand where the above vector-borne diseases are likely to occur and target surveillance to high-risk areas.

Entomological survey of the potential vectors of Rift Valley fever virus and absence of detection of the virus genome from the vectors in various niches in the southern half of the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is the cause of one of the most important mosquito-borne emerging diseases negatively affecting the health of humans and animals, particularly in Africa. In Ethiopia, the status of RVFV and the existence of potential vectors are unknown. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to survey the mosquito vectors of RVFV and the detection of the virus in selected sites (Batu, Hawassa, Arba Minch and Borana) in Ethiopia. METHODS: CDC light traps baited with the sugar-yeast solution were set up at various locations for a total of 29 trap nights. Mosquitoes identification were made morphologically using a stereomicroscope and for RVFV detection by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RESULTS: Among a total of 132 trap efforts conducted, 60 (45%) captured the mosquitoes. A total of 1576 adult mosquitoes were collected and identified. Including Aedes (n = 407; 25.8%), Anopheles (n = 493; 32.3%), Culex (n = 466; 29.6%) and Mansonia (n = 210; 13.32%). The genome material of RVFV was not detected by RT-PCR. CONCLUSIONS: The existence of a potential Aedes species may pose a risk for the occurrence of the RVF outbreak in Ethiopia. Based on the current study, we recommend further monitoring for potential mosquito vectors of RVFV, particularly with a view to targeting the seasons during which the mosquitoes can be abundant along with a serological survey of susceptible hosts.

Antimicrobial resistance in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence in foods, food handlers, animals, and the environment.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been recognized as one of the greatest global threats for human and animal health. The present review retrieved up to date information on the epidemiology of AMR in the animal-source food chain in Ethiopia focusing on AMR in bacterial species isolated from food handlers, live animals, foods (animal origin and non-animal origin), and in environmental samples. Accordingly, pooled prevalence of AMR in the different sources was estimated. For data analysis, we used random effect meta-analysis and in order to avoid exclusion of studies with zero prevalence of antimicrobial resistance, Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation was applied. We identified 152 eligible studies and retrieved 4097 data records (183 in food handlers, 2055 in foods, 1040 in live animals and 819 for environmental samples) which together reported a total of 86,813 AMR tests with 64 different antimicrobial disks for 81 bacteria species. We present the pooled prevalence of AMR for major bacterium-antibiotic combination in different sample types. The pooled prevalence of AMR in bacteria from food producing live animals was 20%. High estimates of AMR pooled prevalence were found in bacteria identified from milk, food handlers and the environmental samples with 29%, and 28% in meat. In foods of non-animal origin, the prevalence was lower with 13%. In milk, the highest AMR estimate was found for penicillin (69%) followed by amoxicillin (51%). Regarding multi-drug resistance (MDR), the overall pooled prevalence was 74% among AMR positive samples. Microbes reported having a higher MDR pattern were: Staphylococcus spp. (96%), Salmonella spp. (81%) and Escherichia coli (77%). The present review revealed a high resistance against commonly used drugs for animal and human treatments and/or prophylaxis. In conclusion, the high estimate of prevalence of AMR observed in bacteria recovered from different sample sources related to the animal-source food chain (food, live animal and environment) can highlight the possible linkage among them. The MDR levels in several bacteria species are a clear indication that the threat is directed to many antimicrobials. Our review demonstrated that the high overall AMR resistance levels call for effective policy and intervention measures, which best address the problem along the food chain through a One Health approach.

Modeling the global distribution of Culicoides imicola: an Ensemble approach.

Culicoides imicola is a midge species serving as vector for a number of viral diseases of livestock, including Bluetongue, and African Horse Sickness. C. imicola is also known to transmit Schmallenberg virus experimentally. Environmental and demographic factors may impose rapid changes on the global distribution of C. imicola and aid introduction into new areas. The aim of this study is to predict the global distribution of C. imicola using an ensemble modeling approach by combining climatic, livestock distribution and land cover covariates, together with a comprehensive global dataset of geo-positioned occurrence points for C. imicola. Thirty individual models were generated by 'biomod2', with 21 models scoring a true skill statistic (TSS) >0.8. These 21 models incorporated weighted runs from eight of ten algorithms and were used to create a final ensemble model. The ensemble model performed very well (TSS = 0.898 and ROC = 0.991) and indicated high environmental suitability for C. imicola in the tropics and subtropics. The habitat suitability for C. imicola spans from South Africa to southern Europe and from southern USA to southern China. The distribution of C. imicola is mainly constrained by climatic factors. In the ensemble model, mean annual minimum temperature had the highest overall contribution (42.9%), followed by mean annual maximum temperature (21.1%), solar radiation (13.6%), annual precipitation (11%), livestock distribution (6.2%), vapor pressure (3.4%), wind speed (0.8%), and land cover (0.1%). The present study provides the most up-to-date predictive maps of the potential distributions of C. imicola and should be of great value for decision making at global and regional scales.

Updating the global occurrence of Culicoides imicola, a vector for emerging viral diseases.

Culicoides imicola is the main vector transmitting viruses causing animal diseases such as Bluetongue, African Horse Sickness, and Schmallenberg. It has become widely distributed, with reports from South Africa to southern Europe, and from western Africa to southern China. This study presents a global compendium of Culicoides imicola occurrence between 1943 and 2018, reflecting the most recently compiled and harmonized global dataset derived from peer-reviewed literature. The procedures used in producing the data, as well as the geo-coding methods, database management and technical validation procedures are described. The study provides an updated and comprehensive global database of C. imicola occurrence, consisting of 1 039 geo-coded records from 50 countries. The datasets can be used for risk mapping of the diseases transmitted by C. imicola as well as to develop the global habitat suitability for the vector.