Assessing the microbial diversity and proximate composition of smoked-fermented bushmeat from four different bushmeat samples.

The ever-increasing demand for wildlife-derived raw or processed meat commonly known as bushmeat, has been identified as one of the critical factors driving the emergence of infectious diseases. This study focused on examining the bacterial community composition of smoked and fermented bushmeats, specifically grasscutter, rat, rabbit, and mona monkey. The analysis involved exploring 16Sr RNA amplicon sequences isolated from bushmeat using QIIME2. Microbiome profiles and their correlation with proximate components (PLS regression) were computed in STAMP and XLSTAT, respectively. Results indicate the predominance of Firmicutes (70.9%), Actinobacteria (18.58%), and Proteobacteria (9.12%) in bushmeat samples at the phylum level. Staphylococcus, Arthrobacter, Macrococcus, and Proteus constituted the core microbiomes in bushmeat samples, ranked in descending order. Notably, significant differences were observed between the bacterial communities of bushmeat obtained from omnivores and herbivores (rat and mona monkey, and grasscutter and mona monkey), as well as those with similar feeding habits (rat and monkey, and grasscutter and rabbit) at the family and genus levels. Each type of bushmeat possessed unique microbial diversity, with some proximate components such as fat in rat samples correlating with Staphylococcus, while proteins in Mona monkey correlated with Arthrobacter and Brevibacterium, respectively. The study underscores public health concerns and highlights probiotic benefits, as bushmeat samples contained both pathogenic and beneficial bacteria. Therefore, future research efforts could focus on improving bushmeat quality.

Exposures and Health Risks Associated with Elements in Diets from a Gold Mining Area.

There has been a concern of metal contamination from the mining areas which could expose the population to toxic metal through consumption of food products in the regions. Therefore, the study was conducted to analyze 18 elements using X-ray fluorescence analyzer and to assess for metal exposure through dietary intakes. Dietary recall survey instrument was used to collect consumption, demographic, and anthropometric data from 308 consumers in life-stage groups: toddlers, adolescents, and adults. Cassava, maize, rice, tomato, and yam indigenous diet samples (66) from the gold mining regions of Ghana were obtained by purposively sampling from street vendors. Principal component analysis was used to apportion pollution source. Health risks due to dietary elements were quantified using US EPA probabilistic protocols for cancer and non-cancer disease endpoints. Deficiency and overage risks of essential elements were tested against reference nutrient intakes. The element-diet-location mode of principal component analysis separated cassava and maize diets as significant vehicles for both essential and toxic elements apportioned to mining pollution source. The chronic daily intake trend revealed a preponderance for arsenic (maize: toddlers 0.009, adolescents 0.025 adults 0.010 mg/kg-d) and lead (maize: toddlers 0.009, adolescents 0.026, adults 0.010 mg/kg-d) exposure through maize diets compared to cassava diets. The hazard quotient showed (HQ > 1) life-stage risk differentiation for barium, although there were cumulative and pervasive health risks for all age groups based on the hazard index (Ag, Ba, Cd, Co, Hg, Mn, Mo, Sb, Sn, Sr, U, V, W, and Zr). The likely cancer risk (mode) for all life-stage groups (3 × 10-6-1 × 10-2) were also high in that they exceeded the 1 × 10-6 safety threshold. The modal margin of exposure (MoE < 1) alerted high public health concern due to lead-induced toxicities among all life-stage groups through all diet vehicles. Regarding nutritional adequacy, there were possible overage risks associated with selenium, including deficiency risks for calcium, potassium, and zinc for all life-stage groups. Toddlers and adolescents were susceptible to iron deficiency risks through cassava diets and iron overage risks through maize diets.

Iron status predicts cognitive test performance of primary school children from Kumasi, Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Good nutritional status of school-aged children is crucial in achieving improved cognition. The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between nutritional status and cognition of school-aged children in the Kumasi metropolis, Ghana. METHODS: 389 children were selected from ten government-owned schools. Socio-demographic and anthropometric data were collected. Blood samples were collected and analyzed for nutrients levels. Dietary intakes were assessed using food frequency questionnaire and previous day's nutrients intake. Cognition test was performed using the Ravens Colored Progressive Matrix (RCPM). RESULTS: Mean age of participants was 8.9±1.4 years, mean RCPM score was 17.9±5.4. More girls scored RCPM below the 40th percentile (45.5%) than boys (33.7%), while mother's level of education significantly associated with RCPM percentiles of the children (p = 0.037). Four dietary patterns were generated from food frequency data, and scores of the second pattern, depicting vegetables, non-fruits, bread and cereals, showed a weak negative correlation (r = -0.132, p = 0.026) with previous day's dietary zinc intake. Cognitive status did not vary by anthropometric and dietary patterns. More anemic (54.4%) than non-anemic (33.3%) children were below the 40th RCPM percentile. Mean previous day's intake for folate (p<0.001), vitamin B6 (p = 0.018), iron (p<0.001), and zinc (p = 0.001) differed significantly between the cognitive test score percentiles of the children. Spearman rank correlation showed weak positive associations between RCPM score and hemoglobin (r = 0.246, p = 0.003) and serum ferritin (r = 0.176, p = 0.036). Binary regression analysis showed anemic children (aOR = 0.4; 95%CI = 0.2-0.8, p = 0.014), compared with non-anemic had decreased odds, while boys, compared with girls had increased odds (aOR = 2.0 95%CI = 1.0-4.0, p = 0.035) for scoring above the 50th RCPM percentile. CONCLUSIONS: Iron status, especially hemoglobin levels, correlated with the cognitive performance of school-aged children in the metropolis. Thus nutritional strategies aimed at reducing iron deficiency anemia are needed.