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An epidermiological study on neonatal septicemia at Morogoro regional referral hospital, Tanzania
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2014) NDAWEKA, NURU BE DA
Neonatal septicaemia remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in neonates worldwide and majority of the cases are in developing countries. This cross sectional study was conducted between December 2013 and March 2014 with the aim of determining the epidemiology of neonatal septicaemia among the neonates admitted at Morogoro Regional Referral Hospital. The study was subdivided into two sub sections which are retrospective and prospective. In retrospective section records of neonates hospitalized between month 2011 and month 2012 were used. In prospective study a questionnaire was administered to 303 mothers/caregivers on risk factors for neonatal septicaemia. Subsequently, blood samples from 303 neonates clinically suspected to have septicemia and pus swabs from 17 neonates with pus discharging umbilicus were collected for bacterial culture and sensitivity testing to commonly used antibiotics using standard methods. Retrospective results showed that the prevalence of neonatal septicaemia is 53.7% while prospective study showed a prevalence of 13.5%. The significant risk factors for neonatal septicaemia were age, weight, sex, umbilical cord discharge and poorly cared cord. Whereas, maternal factors associated with neonatal septicaemia were fever, excessive vaginal examination and caesarean section. Mortality rate due neonatal septicaemia was significantly high (12.7% retrospective and 7.9% prospective). Commonly isolated bacteria were Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp. and Pseudomonus auriginosa which showed multi-drug resistance. This study shows that the magnitude of neonatal septicaemia is high and therefore deliberate measures aimed at minimizing the problem need to be taken
Sawnwood substitution in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and its linkage to environmental conservation
(Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography, 2016-01-16) Mgana, Joseph; Nyamoga, Greyson
There is an increased trend of global awareness and discussions on the contribution of building designs and materials in global warming and greenhouses gases emissions. The use of wood materials in the construction sector is also increasing hence linked to forest industries and conservation, building sector, global warming and global climate change. The construction sector contributes directly and indirectly to environmental degradation and greenhouses gases emissions. With the current global awareness on climate change and adaptation, the substitution of wood products in the construction sector in Tanzania is inevitable. Despite its signiicant growth, the substitution of sawnwood by different alternatives in Tanzania is not well examined. Therefore, this study forecasted the substitution of sawnwood for year 2016, 2021 and 2026 for Dar es Salaam using income elasticity of demand to explain the effects of these substitutions to the environment. The consumption of sawnwood in none storey buildings, medium category and high category buildings were 2.69 m 3 , 3.1 m 3 and 5.3 m 3 respectively. In 2012, Dar es Salaam consumed a total of 8,706.9 m 3 of sawnwood for doors and window frames in about 2878 new buildings. Kinondoni district consumed 42.2%, Ilala district 34.8% and Temeke district 23% of the total sawnwood. The per capita sawnwood consumption for building in Dar es Salaam in 2012 was 2.7 m 3 while for aluminium was 46.2 m 2 . Windows showed high substitution of sawnwood compared to doors with aluminium being the main substitute material. The forecasted per capita consumption of sawnwood and aluminium materials for buildings in 2026 was 3.4 m 3 and 86.8 m 2 respectively. Sawnwood consumption in none storey buildings is increasing as a results of high rate of urbanization and economic growth hence increased number of middle-income population which causes an increased demand and construction of houses for residential purposes. The increased demand for construction materials have negative impacts to the environment where these materials are harvested. We recommend further research on the effects of substitution of sawnwood and the promotion of lesser-known and underutilized sawnwood species to strengthen wood industry in Tanzania due to the current high demand of sawnwood and high substitution rates.
Building an agricultural extension services system supported by ICTs in Tanzania: Progress made, Challenges remain
(IJEDICT, 2013-04) Sanga; Kalungwizi, V. J.; Msuya, C. P.
The conventional agricultural extension service in Tanzania is mainly provided by extension officers visiting farmers to provide agricultural advisory service. This system of extension service provision faces a number of challanges including the few number of extension officers and limited resources. This article assessess the effectiveness of an impact-driven, radio-based extension service delivery system that has been introduced in some rural areas of Tanzania. The system aims to enable extension officers to reach many farmers with minimum efforts. However little is known about the effectiveness of this new extension service delivery system. Structured questionnaire, focus group discussion, interviews and participant observation were used to collect data from 55 small holder farmers who who had been receiving an impact-driven, radio- based extension services through Farmer Voice Radio project. Additional data were collected from interviewing extension officers and from archives of participating community radio stations. The results indicate that in some rural areas, farmers have started sharing agricultural information and best practices. Some farmers have also started to change their farming practices. This brings a new finding that farmers can adopt and practice easily what is aired by their fellow farmers in the community radio stations.
Impact of Socio-economic Activities around Lake Victoria: Land Use and Land Use Changes in Musoma Municipality, Tanzania
(Kamla-Raj, 2011) Ngaga, Yonika M.; Boon, Emmanuel K.; Giliba, Richard A.; Musamba, Emmanuel B.
Wetlands are amongst the most productive ecosystems of the Earth. Despite its potential in supporting people’s livelihood in Tanzania, Lake Victoria is being converted into other land uses. This paper evaluates the impacts of main socio-economic activities on Lake Victoria in Musoma Municipality. Primary data were gathered by administering the questionnaire to a sample of 220 households. Participatory rural appraisal techniques, participant observation and checklist were employed in data collection. The land use types and land use changes was examined through analysis of satellite imageries. This was attained by making use of ArcGIS10 and ERDAS Imagine 9.1. The socio-economic data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The land use/cover identified were Lake Victoria, CBD, infrastructures, Kitaji swamp, fishing areas, settlement, farms, industrial areas, tarmac road and recreational areas. Findings show that there is a strong relationship (r =91.3%; p=0.001) between the anthropogenic activities and land use type/ changes. These activities have caused the deterioration of wetland area along with its values at the average rate of 6.5 hayr -1 which was observed in 2001 to 2008. Lack of awareness on the role of wetlands was found to impede the participation of local people to Lake Victoria conservation. Thus, this study recommends that, natural resources management (including wetlands) should be integrated in the curriculum of all education levels to foster awareness raising campaign on role of wetland benefits to local people’s livelihoods.
Impact of projected climate change on agricultural production in semi-arid areas of Tanzania: a case of Same district
(African Crop Science Society, 2012) TUMBO, S.D.; KAHIMBA, F.C.; MBILINYI, B.P.; RWEHUMBIZA, F.B.; MAHOO, H.F.; MBUNGU, W.B.; ENFORS, E.
Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions in the World to climate change because of widespread poverty and limited adaptive capacity. The future climate change is likely to present an additional challenge to the agricultural sector. Therefore, the effects of climate change on the current agronomic management practices were investigated using Same District, Tanzania as a case study area. APSIM software was used to investigate the response of maize (Zea mays L.) yield to different agronomic management practices using current and future (2046 - 2065) climate data. The climate change projections data from global climate models were downscaled using self-organising maps technique. Under the conventional practices, results show that during long rainy season (from March to May) there is yield decline of 13% for cultivar Situka, no change for cultivar Kito and increase of 10% and 15% for cultivars Sc401 and TMV1, respectively. Under the recommended practices, cultivars TMV1 and Sc401 are projected to register a 10% yield increase whereas cultivars Situka and Kito are projected to register a decrease of 10% and 45%, respectively. Also, under both conventional and recommended management practices, results showed that during short rainy season (from October to December/January) all cultivars are projected to register between 75% and 146% increase in maize yields. This implies that future climate change is going to have positive effects on current management practices during short rainy seasons and it will have negligible impact during long rainy seasons.
Global perspective for foot and mouth disease control
(2014-03) Astudillo, V.M; Rweyemamu, M.M.
The world distribution of foot and mouth disease (FMD) is almost a mirror image of the global economic structure. In general, industrialised countries are free while the disease is endemic in developing countries. In recent years, several incursions of FMD have been recorded in countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), all of which have been financially and socially costly to eliminate. At the same time, this single disease bars many developing countries from participation in formal trade, both regionally and internationally. However, recent studies have predicted an unprecedented high demand for animal protein, which can only be met through enhanced participation of developing countries in trade in livestock products. Accordingly, globalisation trends will exacerbate the exclusion of poor communities and countries from markets unless a long-term strategy is implemented to progressively build market opportunities for these countries, without placing the livestock of industrialised countries at undue risk from FMD and other major transboundary animal diseases. The authors submit that there is sufficient knowledge of FMD to make an international initiative for the progressive control of FMD a viable objective. Consequently, a four-stage pathway is proposed for developing a global FMD programme. The proposed strategy involves a build-up of the epidemiology and global status of FMD, including establishing an international early warning system, a risk-reduction phase to lower the incidence of FMD in the primary endemic areas and a control phase leading to the creation of zones of assured FMD-freedom. The authors also propose that an international FMD programme be co-ordinated, based on the experience of the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme, the Hemispheric Plan for the eradication of FMD for the Americas, the South-East Asia Foot and Mouth Disease control and eradication campaign and the European Commission for the Control of FMD.
Epidemiological patterns of foot-and-mouth disease worldwide
(Transboundary and emerging diseases, 2008-04) Rweyemamu, M; Roeder, P; Mackay, D; Sumption, K; Brownlie, J; Leforban, Y; Valarcher, J.-F; Knowles, N. J; Saraiva, V
Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is a clinical syndrome in animals due to FMD virus that exists in seven serotypes, whereby recovery from one sero-type does not confer immunity against the other six. So when considering intervention strategies in endemic settings, it is important to take account of the characteris- tics of the different serotypes in different ecological systems. FMD serotypes are not uniformly distributed in the regions of the world where the disease still occurs. For example, the cumulative incidence of FMD serotypes show that six of the seven serotypes of FMD (O, A, C, SAT-1, SAT-2, SAT-3) have occurred in Africa, while Asia contends with four sero-types (O, A, C, Asia-1), and South America with only three (O, A, C). Periodically there have been incur- sions of Types SAT-1 and SAT-2 from Africa into the Middle East. This paper describes the global dynamics for the seven sero-types and attempts to define FMD epidemiological clusters in the different regions of the world. These have been described on a continent by continent basis. The review has reaffirmed that the movement of infected animals is the most important factor in the spread of FMD within the endemically infected regions. It also shows that the eco-system based approach for defining the epidemiolo- gical patterns of FMD in endemic, which was originally described in South America, can apply readily to other parts of the world. It is proposed that any coordinated regional or global strategy for FMD con- trol should be based on a sound epidemiological assessment of the incidence and distribution of FMD, identifying risk sources as either primary or second- ary endemic eco-systems.
Occurrence of fungal infections in Rufiji tilapia and hybrids of female Nile tilapia and male Rufiji tilapia at different salinities
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2019) Seleman, R.
Fungal diseases are prevalent in fish and have the potential of limiting productivity in aquaculture. This study aimed to isolate and determine fungal infections in hatchery with female Rufiji tilapia and their hybrids of male Rufiji tilapia and female Nile tilapia. An experimental study design was conducted to determine the occurrence of fungal infections and to characterize the isolates of Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger. Fish samples were randomly collected from the hatchery at the Institute of Marine Sciences Mariculture centre in Pangani. In the sampled fish the gills, gastrointestinal tract and skin were collected. The morphological and physiological tests were employed to isolate and identify fungi using SDA. The lactophenol detached crystal cotton blue was used for characterization of fungi. The Rufiji tilapia stocked at different salinities were infected by A. niger and A. flavus at 72.4 % and 17.1% (n = 61) respectively. The prevalence of A. niger and A. flavus in water of tilapia and hybrids was 37.4 % and 10.6% respectively. Rufiji tilapia and hybrids were infected by A. niger and A. flavus at 37.9 % and 6.5 % (n = 62) respectively. For PCR based analysis, fragments of bp400 and 895 were detected for A.flavus and bp290 for A.niger. Despite the percentage variations for fungal isolates in some of the fish, overall, there was a significant (P0.05) reduction of prevalence of fungal infections with increasing salinities. In the hybrids, an increase in salinity did not influence the prevalence of Aspergillus species (P0.05). Increase in salinity has no influence on the growth of A. flavus in fish organs of Rufiji tilapia. Conventional methods are time-consuming and less sensitive; PCR methods provide more specification and high sensitivity of the target organism. Different salinities of 15, 25 and 35 are potential for mariculture since they cannot support the existence of A. niger unlike A. flavus, which showed significant difference in fish organs.
Ecological niche modeling as a tool for prediction of the potential geographic distribution of Bacillus anthracis spores in Tanzania
(International Society for Infectious Diseases, 2018-11-27) Mwakapeje, E.R.; Ndimuligo, S.A.; Mosomtai, G.; Nyakarahuka, L.; Nonga, H.E.; Mdegela, R.H.; Skjerve, E.; Ayebare, S.
Anthrax is caused by the spore-forming, Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The aim of this study was to predict the potential distribution of B. anthracis in Tanzania and produce epidemiological evidence for the management of anthrax outbreaks in the country. Methods: The Maxent algorithm was used to predict areas at risk of anthrax outbreaks based on the occurrence and environmental data in Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions; the model was later transferred to predict the entire country. Seventy percent of the occurrence data were used to train the model, while 30% were used for model evaluation. Results: Four regions of northern Tanzania are predicted to have a high risk for anthrax outbreaks, while the southern and western regions had low-risk areas. Soil type (56.5%), soil pH (23.7%), and isothermally (10.4%) were the most important variables for the model prediction, and the most significant soil types were solonetz, fluvisols, and lithosols. Conclusions: A strong risk level across districts of the Tanzania mainland was identified in this study. A total of 18 districts in Tanzania Mainland are predicted to be at very high risk of an anthrax outbreak occurrence. These findings are important for policymakers to effectively mount targeted control measures for anthrax outbreaks in Tanzania
Risk factors for human cutaneous anthrax outbreaks in the hot-spot districts of Northern Tanzania: an unmatched case control study
(Royal Society Open Science, 2018-09-05) Mwakapeje, E.R.; Nonga, H.E.; Mdegela, R.H.; Skjerve, E.; Høgset, S.; Softic, A.; Mghamba, J.
Bacillus anthracis is an aerobic, Gram-positive and sporeforming bacterium, which causes anthrax in herbivores. Humans get infected after coming into contact with infected animals’ products. An unmatched case–control study was conducted to identify the importance of demographic, biological and/or behavioural factors associated with human cutaneous anthrax outbreaks in the hotspot areas of Northern Tanzania. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to both cases and controls. The age range of participants was 1–80 years with a median age of 32 years. In the younger group (1–20 years), the odds of being infected were 25 times higher in the exposed group compared to the unexposed group (OR¼ 25, 95% CI ¼ 1.5–410). By contrast, the odds of exposure in the old group ( 20 years) were three times lower in the exposed group compared to the unexposed group (OR ¼ 3.2, 95% CI ¼ 1.28–8.00). Demographic characteristics, sleeping on animal’s skins, contacting with infected carcasses through skinning and butchering, and not having formal education were linked to exposure for anthrax infection. Hence, a One Health approach is inevitable for the prevention and control of anthrax outbreaks in the hotspot areas of Northern Tanzania.

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