Indigenous Chicken production in Niger.

The breeding of local chicken is an important source of animal protein and income for the rural populations of Niger, and the improvement of its productivity requires a better knowledge of production practices. Hence, a socio-economic and technical survey was undertaken from July to August 2017 in order to provide necessary information on the practice of family poultry keeping in Niger. For this purpose, two hundred and sixteen (216) producers were interviewed in the different agro-ecological zones of Niger using structured questionnaire. Results from the study revealed that 43.1% of local chicken producers are women. The most production purpose of the chicken in Niger is for selling (38.31%), self-consumption (37.74%) and donation (22.99%). Scavenging is the most dominant feeding system (92.1%). Constraints related to family poultry production as identified by the study are mainly diseases (45%), lack of housing (16%) which favors predation, lack of food (11%) and lack of training (8%). It is clear that the development of the sector necessarily involves strengthening the surveillance of avian diseases, coupled with veterinary monitoring and supervision of producers.

Rodent-borne Trypanosoma from cities and villages of Niger and Nigeria: A special role for the invasive genus Rattus?

Although they are known to sometimes infect humans, atypical trypanosomes are very poorly documented, especially in Africa where one lethal case has yet been described. Here we conducted a survey of rodent-borne Trypanosoma in 19 towns and villages of Niger and Nigeria, with a special emphasis on Niamey, the capital city of Niger. The 1298 rodents that were captured yielded 189 qPCR-positive animals from 14 localities, thus corresponding to a 14.6% overall prevalence. Rats, especially black rats, displayed particularly elevated prevalence (27.4%), with some well sampled sites showing 40-50% and up to 68.8% of Trypanosoma-carrying individuals. Rattus were also characterized by significantly lower Ct values than in the other non-Rattus species. DNA sequences could be obtained for 43 rodent-borne Trypanosoma and corresponded to 41 T. lewisi (all from Rattus) and 2 T. microti (from Cricetomys gambianus). These results, together with data compiled from the available literature, suggest that Rattus may play a particular role for the maintaining and circulation of Trypanosoma, especially T. lewisi, in Africa. Taken into account its strong abilities to invade coastal and inland regions of the continent, we believe that this genus deserves a particular attention in regards to potentially under-looked but emerging atypical trypanosome-related diseases.

New syntheses and structural characterization of NH3BH2Cl and (BH2NH2)3 and thermal decomposition behavior of NH3BH2Cl.

New convenient procedures for the preparation of ammonia monochloroborane (NH(3)BH(2)Cl) and cyclotriborazane [(BH(2)NH(2))(3)] are described. Crystal structures have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Strong H···Cl···H bifurcated hydrogen bonding and weak N-H···H dihydrogen bonding are observed in the crystal structure of ammonia monochloroborane. When heated at 50 °C or under vacuum, ammonia monochloroborane decomposes to (NH(2)BHCl)(x), which was characterized by NMR, elemental analysis, and powder X-ray diffraction. Redetermination of the crystal structure of cyclotriborazane at low temperature by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis provides accurate hydrogen positions. Similar to ammonia borane, cyclotriborazane shows extensive dihydrogen bonding of N-H···H and B-H···H bonds with H(δ+)···H(δ-) interactions in the range of 2.00-2.34 Å.

A convenient synthesis and a NMR study of the diammoniate of diborane.

DADB synthesis: The diammoniate of diborane (DADB) was synthesized in a new metathesis reaction between the diammoniate of monochloroborane and potassium borohydride in liquid ammonia. (1)H and (11)B NMR spectra of DADB are reported. The stability in THF was examined by variable-temperature (11)B NMR spectroscopy.

Nitromethane with IBX/TBAF as a nitrosating agent: synthesis of nitrosamines from secondary or tertiary amines under mild conditions.

Aliphatic or aromatic N,N-disubstituted nitrosamine was generated in fair to excellent yield from the reaction of a secondary or tertiary amine with o-iodoxybenzoic acid (IBX) or o-iodosylbenzoic acid (IBA)/R(4)NX (X = halide) and nitromethane. The product yield was strongly influenced by both the halide of R(4)NX and iodanes. IBX gave a higher yield than IBA, while the halides follow F(-) > Cl(-) > Br(-) ∼ I(-). Nitrous acid formed in situ from nitromethane and IBX (or IBA)/halides is likely responsible for the observed reaction.

Permanent genetic resources added to Molecular Ecology Resources Database 1 October 2010-30 November 2010.

This article documents the addition of 277 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Ascochyta rabiei, Cambarellus chapalanus, Chionodraco hamatus, Coptis omeiensis, Cynoscion nebulosus, Daphnia magna, Gerbillus nigeriae, Isurus oxyrinchus, Lates calcarifer, Metacarcinus magister, Oplegnathus fasciatus, Pachycondyla verenae, Phaethon lepturus, Pimelodus grosskopfii, Rotylenchulus reniformis, Scomberomorus niphonius, Sepia esculenta, Terapon jarbua, Teratosphaeria cryptica and Thunnus obesus. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Austropotamobius italicus, Cambarellus montezumae, Cambarellus puer, Cambarellus shufeldtii, Cambarellus texanus, Chionodraco myersi, Chionodraco rastrospinosus, Coptis chinensis, Coptis chinensis var. brevisepala, Coptis deltoidea, Coptis teeta, Orconectes virilis, Pacifastacus leniusculus, Pimelodus bochii, Procambarus clarkii, Pseudopimelodus bufonius, Rhamdia quelen, Sepia andreana, Sepiella maindroni, Thunnus alalunga, Thunnus albacares, Thunnus maccoyii, Thunnus orientalis, Thunnus thynnus and Thunnus tonggol.

A simple and efficient way to synthesize unsolvated sodium octahydrotriborate.

A simple and efficient way to synthesize unsolvated sodium octahydrotriborate has been developed. This method avoids the use of dangerous starting materials and significantly simplifies the reaction setup, thus enabling convenient large-scale synthesis. The structure of the unsolvated compound has been determined through powder X-ray diffraction.

Intermolecular dihydrogen- and hydrogen-bonding interactions in diammonium closo-decahydrodecaborate sesquihydrate.

The asymmetric unit of the title salt, 2NH(4)(+).B(10)H(10)(2-).1.5H(2)O or (NH(4))(2)B(10)H(10).1.5H(2)O, (I), contains two B(10)H(10)(2-) anions, four NH(4)(+) cations and three water molecules. (I) was converted to the anhydrous compound (NH(4))(2)B(10)H(10), (II), by heating to 343 K and its X-ray powder pattern was obtained. The extended structure of (I) shows two types of hydrogen-bonding interactions (N-H...O and O-H...O) and two types of dihydrogen-bonding interactions (N-H...H-B and O-H...H-B). The N-H...H-B dihydrogen bonding forms a two-dimensional sheet structure, and hydrogen bonding (N-H...O and O-H...O) and O-H...H-B dihydrogen bonding link the respective sheets to form a three-dimensional polymeric network structure. Compound (II) has been shown to form a polymer with the accompanying loss of H(2) at a faster rate than (NH(4))(2)B(12)H(12) and we believe that this is due to the stronger dihydrogen-bonding interactions shown in the hydrate (I).