Effect of fermented Cassava sievate and tiger nut shaft on growth performance, blood profile and immunological parameters in male rabbits.

This study examined the effects of using mushroom mycelium to ferment tigernut and cassava pulp on the growth performance, haematology and immunology of rabbits. Seventy-five New Zealand Bulk grower rabbits were randomly distributed to four treatment groups and a control group in a completely randomized approach. The treatment groups were fed with formulated experimental diets containing one of fermented tigernut drink by-product (FT), fermented cassava sievate (FC), unfermented tigernut drink by-product (UT), or unfermented cassava sievate (UC). The control group was fed a basal diet with no additives. The proximate composition of the fermented feed was analyzed. The weight gain of the animals was, 834.5, 633, 790, 510, and 706 g for control, FT, FC, UT, and UC respectively. The packed cell volume (PCV) for animals in the control group, FT, and FC are 34.33, 37.26, and 32.29% respectively. The red blood cell (RBC) of the FT was favourably improved (5.53 × 1012/L) compared to those of UT (2.28 × 1012/L), while there was a reduction in the red blood cell count of FC group (1.02 × 1012/L). Conclusively, the inclusion of fermented tiger nut drink by-product in rabbit feed improved the PCV and RBC of the rabbits' understudy but did not affect their growth performance.

Phyloevolutionary analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in Nigeria.

Phyloepidemiological approaches have provided specific insight into understanding the emergence and evolution of infection. Knowledge on the outbreak and spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Nigeria would assist in provision of preventive measures to reduce transmission among populations at risk. This study aimed to investigate the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in Nigeria. A total of 39 complete genomes of SARS-CoV-2 were retrieved from the GISAID EpiFlu™ database on 29 March 2020 to investigate its evolution in Nigeria. Sequences were selected based on the travel history of the individual and the collection date. Other sequences were not selected because they were short, contained artefacts, were not from an original source or had insufficient information. Evolutionary history was inferred using the maximum likelihood method based on the general time reversible model. A phylogenetic tree was constructed to determine the common ancestor of each strain. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the strain in Nigeria clustered in a monophyletic clade with a Wuhan sublineage. Nucleotide alignment also showed a 100% similarity indicating a common origin of evolution. Comparative analysis showed 27 972 (93.6%) identical sites and 97.6% pairwise identity with the consensus. The study evidently showed the entire outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Nigeria stemmed from a single introduction sharing consensus similarity with the reference SARS-CoV-2 human genome from Wuhan. Preventive measures that can limit the spread of the infection among populations at risk should be implemented.

Identification and physiological properties of a Nigerian strain of Volvariella sp. isolated from oil palm waste.

Over the years several species of edible mushrooms have been collected for consumption from different agro-wastes in Nigeria. Identification of most of these mushrooms was often by morphological descriptive methods. This study reports the morphological study, physiological study and identification of a Nigerian wild strain of Volvariella sp. (VNW) isolated from discarded oil palm waste and three Indian commercial strains V11, V245 and V247 of V. volvacea. Effect of incubation temperatures and medium pH was investigated. Molecular characterization of the strains was carried out using ITS-1 and ITS-4 primers. Results obtained showed close similarities of the Nigerian strain to the Indian strains with few morphological variations in colour, shape and appearance. Growth was observed at temperature range of 20-40 °C and pH range of 4.0-8.0 for all strains with optimum mycelia extension at 35 °C and pH 6.0. VNW recorded a significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) mycelia extension rate at 35 °C (25.20 ± 1.80 mm/day) and pH 6.0 (40.20 ± 0.34 mm/day). Highest biomass yield was observed at pH 6.0 with V11 recording a significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher yield (1.74 ± 0.07 g/100 mL). Increasing percentage (w/v) of CaSO4·H2O increased biomass yield of all the strains. NJ phylogenetic tree showed the Nigerian and Indian strains in the same cluster indicating evolutionary closeness than with other species of Volvariella from GenBank in a separate cluster even though they share a common ancestor. This successfully proves the identity of a Nigerian strain of Volvariella sp. VNW from oil palm waste as V. volvacea with GenBank accession number KC894923.

Chemopreventive and anti-leukemic effects of ethanol extracts of Moringa oleifera leaves on wistar rats bearing benzene induced leukemia.

Pharmacological exploitation of natural compounds has continued to lead to development of non-synthetic and non-toxic anticancer agents that are promising at ameliorating the menace of neoplastic diseases such as leukemia. This study is an attempt to determine the chemopreventive and antileukemic activities of ethanol extracts of Moringa oleifera leaves on benzene induced leukemia bearing rats. Leukemia was induced by intravenous injection of 0.2 mL benzene solution 48 hourly for 4 weeks in appropriate rat groups. Ethanol extract of Moringa oleifera (EMO) leaves was administered at 0.2 mL of 100 mg/mL to respective treatment rat groups. A standard antileukemic drug (cyclophosphamide) was also used to treat appropriate rat groups. Clinical examination of liver and spleen with hematological parameters were employed to assess the leukemia burden following analysis of the rat blood samples on Sysmex KX-21N automated instrument. Leukemia induction reflected in severe anemia and a marked leukocytosis over the control/baseline group. Liver and spleen enlargements were also observed in group exposed to benzene carcinogen. The in vivo antioxidative potential of EMO was evaluated using Malondialdehyde (MDA) and reduced glutathione (GSH) levels. The liver MDA and GSH levels obtained in benzene induced leukemic rats treated with EMO compared favorably with those obtained in similar treatments with the standard drug (p< 0.05). The extract demonstrated chemopreventive and anti-leukemic activities as much as the standard anti-leukemic drug (p>0.05) by ameliorating the induced leukemic condition in the affected rat groups owing to its bioactive constituents. This study reveals that the extract might be an active, natural and non-toxic anticancer drug lead.

Arcobacter, an emerging opportunistic food borne pathogen--A review.

BACKGROUND: Arcobacters, emerging aetiologic agents of food-borne diarrhoeal illness in humans and animals are more frequently isolated in meat, especially poultry meat, pork and beef. Though human infection may exist, it has not been documented in Nigeria. AIM: This review presents an update of scientific information in Nigeria on arcobacters as an emerging food-borne pathogen of public health significance in Nigeria. METHODS: A comprehensive reviews of literatures was adopted to give an update on scientific findings on the disease in Nigeria. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The review revealed scientific evidences attributing the cause of human and animal illness to Arcobacter spp. It also highlights efforts towards the development of animal models where in virulence and pathogenicity of primarily A. butzleri and A. cryaerophilus isolated from human diarrhoeal stool samples were tested. This in turn elucidated the public health significance of this emerging food-borne pathogen. The review canvases for more investigation as to the role of arcobacters in food contamination and unrecognised food-borne disease in Nigeria.

Serum biochemistry and heamatological changes associated with graded doses of experimental Arcobacter infection in rats.

UNLABELLED: BACKGROUND; Arcobacters have unusually wide range of habitats, and some species can be human and animal pathogens OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to assess the haematological and biochemical changes associated with experimental Arcobacter infection in adult albino rat. METHODS: The pathogenicity of Arcobacterbutzleri and A.cryerophilus, isolated from the caecal content of healthy chicken and confirmed by multiplex PCR was tested in albino rats (Rattusnovegicus). Seventy-five healthy adult male rats, subdivided into 5 rats per group, challenged orally with a single dose of 10⁻³ - 10⁻9 cfu/ml of bacterial strains and another group of five uninfected rats served as control. RESULTS: Experimental infection resulted in diarrhoea,electrolyte imbalance and alteration of heamatological values. The packed cell volume (PCV), platelets, neutrophils and lymphocytes of the experimentally infected albino rats were significantly higher than those of the control group. CONCLUSION: This study showed that Arcobacter could be a potential pathogen in albino rats while the selected haematological and electrolyte parameters may be good diagnostic indicators of the animal response to the bacterial infections.

Detection of Arcobacter in feces of healthy chickens in Osogbo, Nigeria.

Isolation of arcobacters in foods, with the highest prevalence reported in poultry, has underscored its importance as a potential food safety problem in recent years. To estimate its prevalence in live birds, fresh stool samples from healthy chickens were screened by enrichment and plating on Arcobacter selective medium containing cefoperazone, amphotericin B, and teicoplanin. Of 150 fecal samples, only 2 (1.3%) yielded Arcobacter. Species were identified with fluorescence resonance energy transfer PCR. Isolate no. 21 from a local flock shared 99% identity with the complete genome of A. butzleri RM4018 (CP000361.1). Isolate no. 4 from a layer hen shared 100% identity with a partial 16S rRNA gene sequence of A. cryaerophilus (EF064151.1). The low prevalence of Arcobacter in the fecal samples of healthy chickens concurs with earlier studies suggesting that Arcobacter appears to be a transient colonizer of poultry intestines and therefore might not be the major source of chicken carcass contamination.

Protective ability of locally extracted protein A against pathogenic organisms.

This study was conducted to find out the ability of Protein A obtained from a local isolate of Staphylococcus aureus to protect rats against infection by pathogenic organisms. A good amount (5000 microg) of Protein A was extracted from a small quantity (approximately 40 g) of Staphylococcus aureus culture using lysostaphin technique. This extract was found to have protective property against pathogenic Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in rats even at a low concentration of 50 microg. The crude Protein A extract also compared favourably with imported standard Protein A in the study.

Novel optimal temperature profile for acidification process of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus in yoghurt fermentation using artificial neural network and genetic algorithm.

The acidification behavior of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus for yoghurt production was investigated along temperature profiles within the optimal window of 38-44 degrees C. For the optimal acidification temperature profile search, an optimization engine module built on a modular artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithm (GA) was used. Fourteen batches of yoghurt fermentations were evaluated using different temperature profiles in order to train and validate the ANN sub-module. The ANN captured the nonlinear relationship between temperature profiles and acidification patterns on training data after 150 epochs. This served as an evaluation function for the GA. The acidification slope of the temperature profile was the performance index. The GA sub-module iteratively evolved better temperature profiles across generations using GA operations. The stopping criterion was met after 11 generations. The optimal profile showed an acidification slope of 0.06117 compared to an initial value of 0.0127 and at a set point sequence of 43, 38, 44, 43, and 39 degrees C. Laboratory evaluation of three replicates of the GA suggested optimum profile of 43, 38, 44, 43, and 39 degrees C gave an average slope of 0.04132. The optimization engine used (to be published elsewhere) could effectively search for optimal profiles of different physico-chemical parameters of fermentation processes.

The prevalence of bacterial resistance in clinical, food, water and some environmental samples in Southwest Nigeria.

The resistance pattern and mechanisms of bacterial isolates obtained from clinical origin, soil, industrial effluent, orange juice products and drinking water were studied using commonly used antibiotics. The microbial load of the water samples, industrial effluent and orange juice products were 1.0 x 10(1)-2.25 x 10(6), 2.15 x 10(5), and 3.5 x 10(4)-2.15 x 10(5) cfu mL(-1), respectively. The faecal coliform test revealed that only two out of twenty orange juice products had MPN of 2 and 20, the MPN of water ranged from 1-> or = 1800, while the effluent had MPN of > or = 1800. The bacterial isolates that were isolated include E. coli, S. aureus, P. vulgaris, S. marcescens, S. pyogenes, B. cereus, B. subtilis, Micrococcus sp., Klebsiella sp., P. aeruginosa, and Enterobacter sp. Also, clinical and soil isolates of P. aeruginosa were used in the study. Among the eight antibiotics tested for resistance on five strains of each bacterium, seven different resistance patterns were observed among the bacterial isolates obtained from water, effluent and orange juice products. Among the clinical and soil isolates of P. aeruginosa, four multiple-drug resistance patterns were obtained. Thirty strains of E. coli and S. aureus were tested for beta-lactamase production and fourteen strains, seven each of E. coli and S. aureus that had high Minimum Inhibitory Concentration values (MIC) for both Amoxycillin and Cloxacillin were positive.

Activity pattern of natural and synthetic antibacterial agents among hospital isolates.

The antibacterial pattern of tetracycline and bactrim was compared with that of the chloroform extract of two Pseudomonas strains using ten hospital strains each of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. There was no perfect correlation between isolate source, antibiotic type and sensitivity. Both the synthetic and natural antibiotic agent exhibited antibacterial activities against resistant hospital isolates at high concentrations.

Antimicrobial effectiveness of six paradols. 1: A structure-activity relationship study.

The pattern of antimicrobial effectiveness of (0)-, (2)-, (3)-, (4)-, (8)- and (9)-paradols was studied. (3)- Paradol was more active than the other homologues with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 1 mg/ml when tested against Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Botryodiplodia theobromae. At 0.2 mg/ml, (3)-paradol completely inhibited the spore germination of Trichophyton mentagrophytes and after 3 h of exposure at 0.5 mg/ml, it inhibited the growth of a heavy inoculum of Staphylococcus aureus (1 X 10(9) cells/ml).