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Prevalence of leptospirosis in livestock, rodents, and shrews in Kilwa district of Southern Tanzania
No full textMSc. DissertationLeptospirosis is a globally resurgent zoonotic disease that affects
both humans and animals, with occurrences widespread in tropical
and sub-tropical regions. Tanzania, located in Sub-Saharan Africa,
is among the tropical countries grappling with the burden of
leptospirosis in both human and animal populations. Following the
reporting of 20 confirmed symptomatic cases and 3 deaths, the
Tanzanian Ministry of Health (MoH) declared the outbreak of
leptospirosis on July 5, 2022. The main objective of this cross-
section study was to determine the prevalence of leptospirosis by
using the Microscopic Agglutination Test in Rodents, shrews and
livestock (Cattle, Goats, and Sheep) in Kilwa district of southern
Tanzania. Blood samples were collected from 100cattle, 120goats,
20 sheep and 202 small mammals (Rodents and shrews) in Kilwa
district in selected villages for decanting sera. The serum samples
harvested were tested against five Leptospira live antigens to detect
Leptospira antibodies through Microscopic Agglutination Tests. In
this study, five leptospiral antigens that were reported in Tanzania
were employed such as Sokoine, Pomona, Hebdomadis, Lora, and
Grippotyphosa. The overall prevalence of leptospirosis in cattle was
26%=95%CI=0.1774-0.3573, in goats was 27.5%=95%CI=0.1975-
0.3640, in sheep was 30%=95%CI=0.1189-0.5428 .and prevalence
of small mammals was 14.36%=95%CI=0.0983-0. 1996. Among the
small mammals, 61.2% of the sample tested positive for leptospiral
serovars and were from Mastomys natalensis, making it a more
prevalent species. Serovars Sokoine was more prevalent than all
tested serovars. Most of the antibody titers obtained ranged from
1:20 to 1:80, suggesting prolonged infection. Livestock
demonstrated also a high prevalence of leptospirosis with serovar
Sokoine being the most prevalent serovar.
Some of the
leptospirosis antibodies were low, suggesting chronic infection, but
others tested with high titers, which suggested new infection of
leptospirosis, especially in goats. Logistic regression was also
performed to determine the association between Leptospiral antibody infection and different characteristics such as sex, location,
host, and serovars with P= 0.0086. There was a significant
association between the leptospiral infection and serovars Sokoine
and Grippotyphosa with P=0.0073, nevertheless, there was no
significant between the disease with other characteristics such as
sex, host, location and serovars This present study suggests that
leptospira infection is a matter of public health concern as it is
associated with different burdens from animals and humans,
decreased livestock economy to livestock keepers due to the death
of livestock animals, and decline in milk production, death of people
following outbreak as it reported in Tanzania. Increased contact
between human and their animals suggests possible transmission of
leptospirosis in Kilwa district the southern, Tanzania. Therefore,
control of the disease is inevitable to reduce the burden of the
disease.The African Centre of Excellence II Rodents Biosensor Technolog
Prevalence of leptospirosis in livestock, rodents, and shrews in Kilwa district of Southern Tanzania
No full textMSc. DissertationLeptospirosis is a globally resurgent zoonotic disease that affects
both humans and animals, with occurrences widespread in tropical
and sub-tropical regions. Tanzania, located in Sub-Saharan Africa,
is among the tropical countries grappling with the burden of
leptospirosis in both human and animal populations. Following the
reporting of 20 confirmed symptomatic cases and 3 deaths, the
Tanzanian Ministry of Health (MoH) declared the outbreak of
leptospirosis on July 5, 2022. The main objective of this cross-
section study was to determine the prevalence of leptospirosis by
using the Microscopic Agglutination Test in Rodents, shrews and
livestock (Cattle, Goats, and Sheep) in Kilwa district of southern
Tanzania. Blood samples were collected from 100cattle, 120goats,
20 sheep and 202 small mammals (Rodents and shrews) in Kilwa
district in selected villages for decanting sera. The serum samples
harvested were tested against five Leptospira live antigens to detect
Leptospira antibodies through Microscopic Agglutination Tests. In
this study, five leptospiral antigens that were reported in Tanzania
were employed such as Sokoine, Pomona, Hebdomadis, Lora, and
Grippotyphosa. The overall prevalence of leptospirosis in cattle was
26%=95%CI=0.1774-0.3573, in goats was 27.5%=95%CI=0.1975-
0.3640, in sheep was 30%=95%CI=0.1189-0.5428 .and prevalence
of small mammals was 14.36%=95%CI=0.0983-0. 1996. Among the
small mammals, 61.2% of the sample tested positive for leptospiral
serovars and were from Mastomys natalensis, making it a more
prevalent species. Serovars Sokoine was more prevalent than all
tested serovars. Most of the antibody titers obtained ranged from
1:20 to 1:80, suggesting prolonged infection. Livestock
demonstrated also a high prevalence of leptospirosis with serovar
Sokoine being the most prevalent serovar.
Some of the
leptospirosis antibodies were low, suggesting chronic infection, but
others tested with high titers, which suggested new infection of
leptospirosis, especially in goats. Logistic regression was also
performed to determine the association between Leptospiral antibody infection and different characteristics such as sex, location,
host, and serovars with P= 0.0086. There was a significant
association between the leptospiral infection and serovars Sokoine
and Grippotyphosa with P=0.0073, nevertheless, there was no
significant between the disease with other characteristics such as
sex, host, location and serovars This present study suggests that
leptospira infection is a matter of public health concern as it is
associated with different burdens from animals and humans,
decreased livestock economy to livestock keepers due to the death
of livestock animals, and decline in milk production, death of people
following outbreak as it reported in Tanzania. Increased contact
between human and their animals suggests possible transmission of
leptospirosis in Kilwa district the southern, Tanzania. Therefore,
control of the disease is inevitable to reduce the burden of the
disease.The African Centre of Excellence II Rodents Biosensor Technolog
Prevalence of Leptospira antibodies in cattle, sheep, and goats in Kilwa District, Tanzania: a risk to public health
Get PDFBackground: Leptospirosis is a global zoonotic infection affecting both humans and animals in tropical and subtropical countries, including Tanzania. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of leptospirosis in livestock in Kilwa Southern Tanzania.
Methods: A cross-sectional investigation was undertaken from January to March 2023 to establish the prevalence of leptospirosis in livestock in Kilwa district, southern Tanzania. A total of 100 blood samples from cattle, 120 blood samples from goats, and 20 blood samples from sheep were sampled from different selected sites for serum harvesting. Through a microscopic agglutination test, the collected serum samples were tested against five live leptospiral antigens to detect leptospiral antibodies. Common five reported serovars in Tanzania were used in this study such as leptospiral serovars Sokoine, Pomona, Grippotyphosa, Hebdomadis, and Lora.
Results: The overall prevalence of leptospirosis in cattle was 26.0%=95%CI=0.1774-0.3573, in goats was 27.5%=95%CI=0.1975-0.3640, and in sheep was 30.0%=95%CI=0.1189-0.5428. Both livestock hosts demonstrated high prevalence with serovar Sokoine being the most prevalent serovar over others. Most of the antibody titers obtained suggested prolonged exposures of this livestock to leptospirosis infection and only a few antibody titers especially from goats suggest recent infection of leptospirosis Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the association between different characteristics and disease. A significant (P=0.0086) association was obtained between disease prevalence and different characteristics such as location, sex, host, and serovars.
Conclusion: Increased human-livestock contact raises the risk of disease transmission to both humans and animals. Reducing this disease burden, especially in low-income countries like Tanzania where livestock are key to income and food security, is essential. Vaccinating livestock with locally adapted strains can significantly reduce leptospirosis transmission.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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