Estimating the impact of administration of dewormers on smallholder chickens in Odisha State, India.

Helminth infections, in particular infections with nematodes are highly prevalent and an impediment to the productivity of chickens in smallholder settings. Infections can be easily and cheaply treated using dewormers. We present an empirical framework for estimating the impact of administration of locally available dewormers on chicken weight in a smallholder setting in Odisha State of India. We recruited 1,040 chickens aged between 40 and 70 d from 168 households in 13 village groups in Odisha. Chickens were randomly assigned to treatment with a dewormer (fenbendazole), or non-treatment. Each chicken was tagged with 2 legbands and weighed, then followed up after 28 and 56 d and reweighed. To account for the local variations in exposure and for variations between flocks, the data were analyzed in a multilevel mixed model with flock within village as nested random effects. After 56 d, the modeled results showed that all chickens had gained a mean of 288.3 g but heavier chickens at the baseline gained more weight than lighter chickens. In addition to this, the treated chickens had gained an additional mean of 90.55 g relative to non-treated chickens (P < 0.001). In this setting, we have demonstrated that administration of dewormers has a clear beneficial impact on chicken weight, but it also indicates that other management practices can have a substantial impact on chicken weight.

The impact of anthelmintic drugs on weight gain of smallholder goats in subtropical regions.

Helminth infections are recognised as a major impediment to the productivity of goats in smallholder production systems. We used a multilevel framework to estimate the impact that administration of locally available anthelminthic drugs can have on the weight gains of goats in smallholder settings in India and Tanzania. We recruited 234 goats from 92 households from Odisha state in India and 253 goats from 15 households from Dodoma region in Tanzania. The goats were non-pregnant adult females, and from each household a minimum of two goats were recruited wherever possible. Each goat was randomly assigned to treatment with a locally available anthelminthic drug, or non-treatment. Each animal was tagged, weighed and had its body condition score (BCS) assessed. Animals were followed up after 28 and 56 days and re-weighed. To account for the local variations in exposure to helminths and for variations between households and herds, the data were analysed in a multilevel mixed model with herd in village as nested random effects. Over the 56 days of study, the non-treated goats in India had gained a mean of 30.64 g per day (a daily gain of 0.23% baseline body weight) and in Tanzania 66.01 g per day (0.33% baseline body weight). From the mixed model, the treated goats in India gained a mean of 25.22 g per day more than non-treated goats, this is significantly greater than the weight gain in non-treated goats (p < 0.001). In Tanzania treated goats gained a mean of 9.878 g per day more than non-treated goats, which is also significantly greater than non-treated goats (p = 0.007). Furthermore, in India and Tanzania, goats with a lighter weight at the baseline survey gained greater amounts of weight. In both studies the BCS of the treated goats improved by a greater amount than the non-treated goats. In this study we have demonstrated that in certain settings, the administration of anthelminthic drugs has a clear beneficial impact on goat weight.

DSTHO: database of siRNAs targeted at human oncogenes: a statistical analysis.

Existing treatments of human cancer, which is characterized by abnormal proliferation of cells often lead to fatal outcomes. Sequence selective silencing of oncogene expression using siRNA technology is emerging as a potential solution for cancer treatment. The exclusive selectivity and easy application to virtually any therapeutic target including intracellular factors and transcription factors renders siRNA oligonucleotide applications very promising. However, synthesis of siRNA having sufficient knockdown efficiency is laborious and cost intensive. The database is designed in order to aid the synthesis of siRNAs, which target human oncogenes (OsiRNAs). It provides OsiRNAs of known efficacy from previous experiments with links to published literature and theoretically pre-generated putative target sequences. In addition, links to available theoretical tools, databases and literature corresponding to siRNAs in general are also provided. The links to literature provide information about role of siRNA in therapeutics, chemical properties and transfection methods. Statistical analysis of mono-, di- and tri- mers located in OsiRNAs of known efficacies is performed to identify positional preferences and screen specific motifs. This analysis aids the design and synthesis of effective siRNAs, which particularly target human oncogenes. The database can be accessed at .