Zoology and Environmental Biology

A study of prevalence, knowledge, attitude and management practices of malaria and typhoid fever co-infection was carried out among residents of Obuda-Aba, Abia State, Nigeria, between July and September, 2014. Venepuncture technique was used for collection of the blood samples. A total of 245 persons comprising 120 males and 125 females were examined. Field stained thick and thin blood films were used to detect malaria parasites in the samples. Typhoid fever was diagnosed from each blood sample using Widal test kit. Out of the 245 persons sampled, 95(38.78%) tested positive for malaria, 105 (42.86%) tested positive for typhoid fever, 45(37.50%) were co-infected with malaria and typhoid fever among the males and 55(44.00%) were co-infected with malaria and typhoid fever among the females. Co-infection of malaria and typhoid fever was highest in the age group of 61-75 years, 4(100%) among the males and highest in the age group of 16-30 years, 15(83.33%) among the females. On the perception of the possible causes of malaria and typhoid fever, 24 respondents reported excessive fried oil as the cause while 17 respondents stated excessive intake of alcohol. On the perception of the sign and symptoms associated with malaria and typhoid fever, 77 respondents stated loss of appetite, 67 respondents stated fatigue and 70 respondents stated headache. On the practices available for protection against malaria and typhoid fever, 54 respondents reported routine treatments with drugs, 21 respondents stated good sanitary measures while 33 respondents reported access to safe food and water. There is need for massive health education campaign to educate the residents of Obuda-Aba to correct the wrong perception they have about malaria and typhoid fever for effective treatment and control of the diseases. Keywords: malaria, typhoid fever, co-infection, knowledge, attitude, practices

A comparative study of haematological changes in West African Dwarf bucks experimentally infected with Trypanosoma brucei and Trypanosoma vivax and changes caused after treatment with (Diminaze®) was carried out using twenty three (23) bucks for a period of 18 weeks. Eight bucks were infected with T. brucei, another eight with T. vivax and seven kept as control. They were divided into three groups and housed in separate fly proof pens. All animals were fed commercial concentrate at 12-14% crude protein, fresh grasses, water and salt licksad-libitum. Data on parasitaemia, rectal temperature, weight and haematological investigations were determined before infection, during infection and after treatment. T. bruceiinfected bucks developed chronic trypanosomiasis while T. vivax infected bucks developed an acute phase of trypanosomiasis. Clinical disease was characterised by intermittent pyrexia, slight drop in body condition and irregular parasitaemia and these was more severe in the T. vivax infected bucks.There was a significant difference (P<0.05) in the mean values of PCV, Hb concentration, RBC, MCH and MCV but a non significant difference (P>0.05) in MCHC post infection (PI) in all infected bucks when compared with the control bucks. However, treatment with (Diminaze®) led to a remarkable improvement with all parameters investigated. The results of this investigation showed that T. vivax was more pathogenic than T. brucei and caused more severe pyrexia, parasitaemia and anaemia (As indicated by a greater decline of PCV, Hb concentration and RBC counts). Treatment with Diminaze® improved blood components and restored cellular functions to the preinfection state by reversing the negative effect of infecting trypanosomes.

The effectiveness of powdered leaves of Imperata cylindrica (Spear grass), Sida acuta (Wire weed), Chromolaena odorata (Siam weed) and Gmelina arborea (Gmelina) at different dosages (0, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 g) against Sitophilus zeamais infesting stored maize grains was assessed. Treatments were mixed with 100 g of maize grains (landrace, Esa' mayewangha), infested with 30 adults S. zeamais and stored in 200 ml glass jars with perforated lids. The setup was maintained under ambient conditions (25-30 0 C and 70-90% RH) between April and June, 2017. Mortality assessment was at 2, 4 and 6 days after treatment (DAT). The trial was laid out in a completely randomized design (CRD) and replicated four times. Analysis of variance showed that Cypermethrin caused significantly higher mortality than the tested plant powders. Cumulative mortality of adult S. zeamais significantly (P ≤ 0.05) increased with increased treatment dosages and durations of storage. There were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher mortality in maize grains treated with 7.5 g/100 g of S. acuta (55.00 and 64.17%) and I. cylindrica (53.33 and 60.00%) compared with C. odorata (44.17 and 50.83%) and G. arborea (35.83 and 40.00 %), respectively at 4 and 6 DAT.

The effectiveness of powdered leaves of Imperata cylindrica (Spear grass), Sida acuta (Wire weed), Chromolaena odorata (Siam weed) and Gmelina arborea (Gmelina) at different dosages (0, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 g) against Sitophilus zeamais infesting stored maize grains was assessed. Treatments were mixed with 100 g of maize grains (landrace, Esa’ mayewangha), infested with 30 adults S. zeamais and stored in 200 ml glass jars with perforated lids. The setup was maintained under ambient conditions (25 - 300C and 70 - 90% RH) between April and June, 2017. Mortality assessment was at 2, 4 and 6 days after treatment (DAT). The trial was laid out in a completely randomized design (CRD) and replicated four times. Analysis of variance showed that Cypermethrin caused significantly higher mortality than the tested plant powders. Cumulative mortality of adult S. zeamais significantly (P ≤ 0.05) increased with increased treatment dosages and durations of storage. There were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) hi...

The study examined the role of Human Rights institutions in the country in addressing the problem of child abuse. The objective of this study is causes, types and effects of child abuse on the child, the family and the nation. The work is meant to draw closer attention on this increasing scourge and access measures of addressing to preserve the fundamental human rights of the child as entrenched under the Nigeria Child Right Act. In the study, the researcher defined what child abuse is; the various forms of child abuse, and also identified some of the causes and consequences of child abuse as a reflection of the societal problem and its impact on the life of the child. The study also evaluated the extent of damages it does to the abused child and the Nigerian society. In order to gather relevant data and information on the subject matter, the researcher used the questionnaire as data collection instrument, which was administered on 200 respondents within the FCT which is the limit of the scope of the study. A self constructed questionnaire titled Child Abuse Questionnaire (CAQ) was administered on the students after validation. The instrument has construct validity coefficient of 0.756 and reliability coefficient of 0.95. The statistical technique that was used to analyse the data collected was Chi-Square distribution test. The result of the analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between poverty and economic deprivation and child abuse in Nigeria. Also the study revealed that child abuse is still very prevalent in Nigeria and also that religious and cultural influences contribute to child abuse in Nigeria. The result revealed that the Rights institutions are not doing enough to arrest the problem of child abuse and that the child right act is not working in Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

This research examines local government administration and rural or community development in Nigeria with emphasis on the institutions, agencies, policies and strategies employed to bring about the much needed rural development in the country. It goes further to assess the impacts of the various efforts made by both the domestic and foreign governments and international organizations, institutions, agencies and non-governmental organizations to bring about real development at the grassroots level. In the attempt to do this, clarification of concepts like development, rural areas, and rural development was carried out, which formed the theoretical basis of the analysis. It was found out that efforts made by the Nigerian government though several strategies like the nation’s development plans from colonial era to date which were ex-rayed did not bring about meaningful development. Similarly international organizations and regional strategies have not lead to any significant improvement in the living conditions of the rural dwellers and rural development in general. It was also found out that a number of issues such as corruption and mismanagement, faulty planning from above rather than bottom-up approach; pursuance of the colonial and neo-colonial economic and social policies which were anti people among other factors led to failure of the rural development efforts. The research therefore concludes among other things that for rapid and sustained rural development to take place, the lopsided and urban based development process must be reversed to rural based and bottom-up approach, government to continue to create conducive environment for rural development to thrive, change of attitudes and orientation by all and sundry, particularly the leadership class in Nigeria in order to minimize corruption and mismanagement of resources. Therefore, for rural development to be realistic and enduring, these measures should be given priority attention, especially at the implementation stages.. Consequent upon these findings, the researcher among other recommended that: local government staff should be well supervised, co-ordinated, motivated, screen occasionally and be encouraged for more performance, the inhabitants and indigenes of the community should contribute their own quota and finally, local government should be given political, financial and administrative autonomy.

The present study investigated the effects of first record of co-infection of three Clinostomum sp.; Clinostomum Complanatum (Rudolphi, 1819), C. tilapiae (Ukoli, 1966), and Euclinostomum hetereostomum (1809) in Tilapia zilii. There was differential parasitic effects resulting in selection for relatively better adaptiveness to host's microhabitats, more population size, and frequent host location of these parasites during the one year survey (in Opi Lake, Nigeria. Prevalence of 9.4 % was recorded in C. complanatum, 10.4 % in E. heterostomum and 4.8% in C. tilapiae. The parasites were recovered from three major microhabitats of buccal cavity, skin and eye.

DNA barcoding is a widely used molecular approach for species cataloging for unambiguous identification and conservation. In the present study, DNA barcoding of some West African mammals were performed with six new mitochondrial CO1 sequences for Civettictis civetta, Tadarida nigeriae, Orycteropus afer, Heliosciurus gambianus, Equus africanus asinus and Funisciurus anerythrus which are absent in public databases such as BLAST/NCBI and BOLD. Sequence identifications were made by comparing unknown sequences against the DNA barcodes of known species through distance-based tree construction and alignment probing. The sequences have been deposited to GenBank/NCBI.

The present study was aimed at evaluating the effects of different concentrations of the most commonly used fish antimicrobial drug, chloramphenicol (CAP), on the behavior and hematological parameters of Clarias gariepinus. Fish specimens were exposed to three (2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 mg L À1 ) sublethal concentrations of CAP and a control. Abnormal behavioral changes were observed in fish exposed to higher concentration of CAP. Blood erythrocytes were sampled on days 1, 5, 10 and 15 postexposure to evaluate hematological parameters. Results showed concentration-and time-dependent significant increase in packed cell volume after day 5 of exposure (p50.05). Hemoglobin values also significantly decreased from day 5, whereas values of mean cellular volume significantly decreased throughout the experimental period (p50.05). A mixed trend was observed in the mean values of red blood cells, white blood cells, mean cellular hemoglobin and mean cellular hemoglobin concentration as well as neutrophils. Activities of lymphocytes were significantly increased in all CAP-treated fish during the exposure period, whereas no significant differences were observed in values of monocytes, eosinophils and basophils among the treatment groups and control. Consequently, precautions must be taken, especially when high concentrations of CAP are used in long-term treatments of C. gariepinus in aquaculture.

In ever competitive environment of nature, evolution of most attributes of an organism -anatomy, physiology, and behaviour are determined by the environment through selection. The same is the microhabitats of Sarotherodon melanotheron where three Clinostomatids; Clinostomum tilapiae, Clinostomum complanatum, and Euclinostomum heterostomum, were recovered from Opi Lake (GPS N06.75275 . f i . l t t r * , E007 49104 * ), were studied from (using multiple fishing gear techniques; cast nets, hook and line, and seine nets (150 mm -200 mm), showed signi icant d fference (p < 0 05) in all other anatomical parts but the distance between ora and ventral suckers. The prevalence was low; (20.8 %) was recorded in C. complanatum, (6.4 %) in E. heterostomum and (21.1 %) in C. tilapiae. But mean intensity was high which was suggestive of heavy parasite burden; C. complanatum (2.7), C. tilapiae (5.8) and E. heterostomum (5.1). In the rank-abundance curve for parasite communities C. tilapiae was more abundant than the other two species. Differential parasitic implications was due o selection for relatively better adaptiveness to host's microhabitats, more population size, better host location, and larger body size. Consequently, this resulted in a trade-off between larger morphometric parts and population size among the parasites.

Abstract
Histopathology of fish in a concomitant infection of three different species of clinostomatid metacercariae: Clinostomum
tilapiae, Clinostomum complanatum, and Euclinostomum heterostomum has become necessary due to its want of
knowledge. Description of enormous debilitating skin damages, occasional deaths, unilateral exophthalmus, and
degeneration of skin, myositis, haemorrhages, eosinophils, necrosis and economic destruction of Tilapia zillii values by
these metacercariae were studied. These parasites dry body weights (mg); C. complanatum (0.0071 ± 0.0023b) and E.
heterostomum (0.0067 ± 0.0023b) did not show any significant difference (P < 0.05 %), whereas C. complanatum and E.
heterostomum showed significant difference with C. tilapiae (0.0050 ± 0.0015a). The effects of hydrological regime showed
that reduced rains (153.54 ± 109.42 cm3) and floodplain influenced the occurrence of these digenean parasites which
peaked during dry season months (Nov 2007 ! March 2008) when the habitat contracted.
Keywords: Clinostomatids, concomitant infection, histopathology, hydrological regime, Tilapia zilii