Mosquito traps laced with human scent help fight malaria .

Dutch and Kenyan scientists have designed a unique mosquito trap which uses human odour to attract the malaria-carrying insects, helping cut the number of cases dramatically, researchers said Wednesday. A three-year study in Kenya found the special traps baited with synthetic smell helped to catch 70 per cent of the local malaria mosquito population, and led to a 30 per cent drop in cases in households using the devices. Published in The Lancet, the research was carried out on the Kenyan island of Rusinga with the participation of all 25,000 residents. “The odour-baited trap may also offer a solution to diseases like dengue fever and the Zika virus,” Wageningen University in The Netherlands, which led the research, said in a statement. Both dengue and Zika are caused by parasites carried by a different kind of mosquito to the malaria-bearing one, but which is also attracted by human smell. The trap also reduces the need to rely on pesticides to control mosquitoes, which are becoming increasingly resistant to such chemicals. Using pesticides is also dangerous to agriculture. “Beating malaria without using insecticides is my ultimate dream,” said Willem Takken from Wageningen University in The Netherlands. He led the study along with researchers from the Kenyan International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. The solar-powered traps were laced with human pong and placed either outside or inside homes on the island, on Lake Victoria. Mosquito nets and anti-malarial drugs were also used to combat the disease. Since the traps need electricity to work, the researchers installed solar panels on the houses as there is no electricity grid on the island. In an added benefit for the local people, the panels could also power two light bulbs, and charge mobile phones. “Every minute, a child dies of malaria. This disease costs Africa twelve billion dollars a year” in health-care costs and lost production, the Dutch university said. Malaria is caused by parasites transmitted to people through the bites of infected female mosquitoes. There is currently no vaccine and some 438,000 people died last year from the disease, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).culled from .themalaymailonline.com

Chilling mystery illness leaves boy, 4, crying tears of BLOOD and eyes bulging out of sockets.

A little boy suffers from bleeding EYES after he was suddenly struck by a mystery illness. Sagar Dorji, four, was a normal, happy little boy until just a few months ago. But suddenly his eyes started to regularly bulge and bleed, leaving the poor youngster writhing in pain. Sagar, who was born to family of labourers, is from Lakhimpur in the northeastern state of Assam, India. Heartbrokingly, mum Kusum Dorji is forced to helplessly watch her son suffer. "He was a healthy boy until recently. The problem started two-three months ago," she said. "First, his eyes got swollen and looked bloodshot. Then it started peeping out of the socket and bleeding. The child has been moved to a state-run hospital - but his family doesn't have the £140 required for medical tests before starting his treatment. Sagar Dorji Child with bleeding eyesSagar Dorji suffers immense pain from the condition. The doctors, who are reportedly treating him for cancer, refused to comment on Sagar’s case. Moved by the plight of the Dorjis, local well-wishers are trying to raise the cash for his medical bills. Mrs Dorji has put out a plea for help on the internet, posting: "I appeal to all kind-hearted people to help me save my son.Continue

Agriculture through the lens of Former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The interest of the former president Obasanjo in agriculture dates back to his childhood in a small farming settlement near Abeokuta, the capital of Nigeria’s Ogun State. At age of five, he was accompanying his dad to the fields where they planted cassava, maize, plantain, oil palm and other crops. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo recalls that his father was considered the most successful farmer in their village at that time and he must have reasoned it out that agriculture is indeed an untapped goldmine. He never lost his fire for agriculture although he moved to the city, the green revolution was within him. He saw the future a far off and he knew that the key to that he had envisioned was in agriculture. . Agricultural policies and programmes to boost declining food production in the country such as the Feed the Nation (OFN) was initiated by General Obasanjo in 1976 ,to encourage more people to venture into agriculture to initiate growth and development of sector and economy. The vision for agriculture as a tool for wealth creation,entrepreneurship, economic growth made him register at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Ibadan to learn the art of farming as an apprentice for three months shortly after he left office, he explained that to be a successful farmer "hands-on" policy is important. A successful farmer must be ready to lay hands,get involved with the "nitty-gritty" ,this is where the passion for farming is important. Every venture,business requires a passion for you to push through and experience that your vision becomes a reality. Today his farm is a success and of course he is a successful farmer. Obasanjo farms is a household name in Nigeria, the farm has contributed to the development of agriculture in the country and Africa. The farm, established 30 years ago, took off with two layer houses comprising 100,000 birds each and five broiler houses of 12,000 each, with two feed mills of three tons per hour each. The large farm, which has up to 7,000 workers started with four bulldozer operators. Today, Obasanjo makes money from his Ota Farm, with branches in Ibadan and Igbo-Ora, Oyo state, employs many people and a major contributor to development in agriculture,agribusiness ,food production and processing.

A farmer and his featherless chicken.

Nicholas Ochiko, a farmer in Kakamega county, the pains of having to cover his hen with a blanket every brooding season is becoming too much to bear. He has had to keep the hen under a tight watch since others in the spacious compound keep pecking her - probably on the thought of a large piece of meat moving around. The hen - hatched in March 2015 with five others- bothers him not only with the brooding challenge, but also with the ridicule of his witty neighbors who keep taunting them about the strange bird. It also leaves the house at around 8am and returns as early as 4pm, meaning that someone has to be home early to ensure the hen gets to its nest to avoid the cold weather. Ochiko, a resident of Mwibwi village, Matawa sub-location, Mumias is appealing to government to help him understand why the hen has remained featherless since it was hatched. "The other five chicks it was hatched with were normal. They had full feathers. But this one had little feathers around its neck, head and wings. Those on the neck and part of the wings have withered off," Ochiko said. It started laying eggs in September 2015. We keenly observed to see the type of chicks it would hatch. They came out normal with feathers despite the condition of their mother," he explains. The hen has hatched twice and is in the third phase of laying eggs. Lilian Andeso, Ochiko's wife said that the hen normally lays eight eggs, which it tends well - failing to hatch one or two every season it broods. She says the family was shocked at first when the chick was hatched without feathers. "We observed it grow without knowing whether it was a hen or a cock; until it started laying eggs. That is when we established that it was a hen," said Andeso. "I think it feels cold and waits until there is sunshine before it can leave the house. The hen also fears being touched on the skin," she adds and prefers wandering alone.The family wants the hen acquired by the livestock department for use in demonstrations at agricultural forums. Mumias sub-county livestock development officer Antony Mwangi said it was normal to have such a hen. "The coding for feathers was suppressed genetically, leading to hormonal deficiency," the vet said. culled from the-star.co.ke

A strange calving experience reveals a two headed calf with three ears.

Residents of Chepkokwo village in Elgeyo Marakwet woke to a rude shock after a cow calved a two-headed calf with three ear. According to the owner Jane Cheboi, the cow was normal during its gestation period. Cheboi said she called a veterinary officer immediately after the cow went into labour but was shocked when it gave birth to a "unique creature". "When he arrived, the officer Chege Munderu advised me that the cow has to undergo some operations considering its serious condition," she said. She said they were surprised after the calf with shocking features was delivered. "The calf was already dead in utero and the distressed cow also died afterwards. continue

Growing Population Needs Less Waste, Not More Food.

Italian architect Carlo de Sanctis went to a friend’s wedding on the outskirts of Rome two years ago, he did not expect to find himself discussing food waste. As the party was winding down, de Sanctis and his friends ended up wondering what the waiter next to them would do with the uneaten food he had started to collect. “We asked him what they were going do with all this leftover food and he showed us the garbage. We couldn’t believe all this excellent food would simply get wasted,” he said, still in disbelief. De Sanctis felt compelled to act. With his friends, two lawyers and a web designer, he set up Equoevento, a Rome-based non-profit that collects uneaten food from events and delivers it to charities for distribution to the hungry. “On one side you have so much leftover food, and on the other side there is no food at all. We saw every day that there were so many people that didn’t have enough food,” de Sanctis told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, explaining that “equo” means “equal” in Italian. Between 30 percent and 40 percent of food produced around the world is never eaten because it is spoiled after harvest and during transportation, or thrown away by shops and consumers. According to U.N. figures , almost 800 million people worldwide go to bed hungry every night. The problem has become so serious that halving world food waste by 2030 was included as a target for global development goals adopted by world leaders in 2015. From Italy to Germany and Brazil to Kenya, a growing number of enterprises are rescuing food that would otherwise go into landfills to feed those in need - a trend some experts say may be the answer to the mountains of food waste created daily. Equoevento has so far distributed 200,000 meals from food collected from some 400 events. Entirely run by volunteers, experts say reducing food waste is not only a moral imperative but a way of curbing emissions of planet-warming gases linked to agriculture which accounts for about 20 percent of overall greenhouse gas emissions. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has calculated that global food waste would be the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter if it were treated as a country. In Kenya, a different kind of initiative is taking root; one that uses produce deemed too ugly for Western supermarket shelves, such as wonky carrots, curved cucumbers and dimpled apples. Nairobi-based enterprise Enviu aims to turn some 5 tonnes of “imperfect” produce into 78,000 school meals a day under a pilot programme it is developing with the World Food Programme’s (WFP) new innovation hub. The FAO notes that about a third of all food, by weight, is spoiled or thrown away worldwide as it moves from where it is produced to where it is eaten, costing up to $940 billion per year globally. “Around 10 percent of the European Union’s fresh fruits and vegetables come from Kenya, and when produce makes it to the airport it gets sorted there for the cosmetic standards,” said Robert Opp, head of innovation at WFP. “An estimated 25 percent of that food, about 75 tonnes a day, is rejected,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Using rejected food would mean farmers no longer losing income and more children getting fed, he added. “There’s a massive amount of food wasted every year and there’s still hunger, so if we can make the food systems more efficient, reduce the wastage and improve distribution - that’s a good thing for the fight against hunger,” Opp said. As efforts to cut food waste spread around the globe, athletes at this month’s Rio Olympics will play a part, perhaps without even knowing it. Refetto-Rio, an initiative by two chefs, Italian Massimo Bottura and Brazilian David Hertz, aims to turn excess food from the Olympic Village into meals for the hungry. This May 6, 2016 photo shows meat sandwiches during one of many food-testing exercises of the Olympic menu in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Diners will choose from five different buffets: Brazilian, Asian, International, Pasta and Pizza, Halal and Kosher, and everyone gets to dig into 40 varieties of Brazil’s exotic fruits like caju, acai, carambola, caqui, goiaba and maracuja. While initiatives like Equoevento or Refetto-Rio are on a relatively small scale, experts say every little helps. Brian Lipinski, food programme associate at thinktank World Resources Institute (WRI), said piecemeal approaches combined with national policies on food waste were necessary to achieve a meaningful reduction in food waste. “Maybe the impact from one of these non-profits that are picking up some excess food and donating it is small on its own, but it’s really one of the only ways to go about addressing this sort of waste right now,” he said. Lipinski also said it was time to stop focusing on how to produce more food for the world’s growing population and instead concentrate on efforts to reduce food waste. In Europe, the European Commission has proposed that member states develop national strategies to prevent food waste by at least 30 percent by 2025. Germany has been a leader on the issue. In 2012, the German government launched a “too good for the trash” campaign and the country has also pioneered “food-sharing”, using the internet to distribute produce recovered from store rubbish while still in good condition. In 2015, France introduced legislation banning big supermarkets from destroying unsold but edible food. Failure to comply could expose supermarket managers to two years in jail and fines of 75,000 euros ($83,850). And last week Italy passed a law that makes it easier for supermarkets to donate unsold food to charities, in an effort to reduce waste.“There’s still too little awareness about food around the world,” said de Sanctis while checking his phone to see which of his volunteers had signed up for the next food pick-up. “People don’t plan what to eat and there’s a lot of waste in people’s homes. We have to educate people about food waste because it’s a real problem.”culled from huffingtonpost.com

Kenya kicking out rabies with Sh1.5 billion.

The ministries of Health and Agriculture are expected to spend Sh1.5 billion in a mass dog vaccination exercise across five counties in a campaign aimed at eradicating rabies by 2030. Livestock PS Andrew Tuimur said the pilot exercise will be in Makueni, Siaya, Kitui, Machakos and Kisumu counties. “The campaign will also focus on education to create awareness because a lot of people, especially in the rural areas, are not aware of the dangers rabies poses yet they spend a lot of time with dogs,” Tuimur said. Tuimur spoke on Friday during the launch of the National Rabies Elimination Coordination committee which will oversee the vaccination. The campaign is supported by various partners that include the European Union, the Africa Network for Animal Welfare and the Kenya Medical Research Institute. Statistics indicate that one person dies every nine minutes from rabies globally with Kenya accounting for 2,000 of the 60,000 deaths annually.Africa and Asia account for 95 per cent of the global fatalities. Rabies is an acute and highly viral infectious disease that affects the central nervous system. It is mainly spread through dog bites. The disease is nearly 100 per cent fatal if not treated. It is ranked among the top five zoonotic diseases for prevention and control in Kenya. In a statement, Health PS Nicholas Muraguri appealed for collaborative efforts between the government and non-state actors in availing resources towards vaccination. Speaking at the same venue, Kariuki Njenga from the Kenya Research Institute said the exercise, which has already kicked off in Makueni county, targets half a million dogs. “The dog vaccination part of it requires just about Sh360 million. That means if we are able to control rabies in the country, we will save a lot of money,” Njenga said. contributed by the-star.co.ke/news