Rabies kills prevent it.

 

 Rabies a deadly fatal but preventable viral disease that affects warm blooded animals and can also affect man being a zoonotic disease. The rabies virus is transmitted through bite of an infected animal, the saliva is the medium of infection. The virus usually transferred through bites from infected animals or from salivary secretions from infected animals on wounds,cuts and scratches. 

This mode of infection is usually common in the dumb form of rabies ,where the animal is docile, shy but drooling saliva. This form of rabies is the most dangerous as the animal is not a suspect, but rather the owner is cuddling and stroking the pet and coaxing it to eat and be social. The exposure to the drooling saliva usually results in transmission of the virus through mucous membranes, minor cuts and tiny bites,with the owner not seeking medical attention. 

 The furious form of rabies is the most common and recognizable type,where the animal is very violent,drooling saliva, barking and chasing things or people. The animal with this form of rabies are usually sneaky,creeping up behind victims or suddenly charging out at animals or humans in his path. 

When a pet owner notices a sudden change that is violent ,with the animal barking,howling at moving objects,snapping and biting stuff and drooling of saliva,such animal should be reported to animal control for quarantine. 

 When bitten by a dog ,cat monkey or bat carry out the following ; 1) wash the area with soap and water for at least 15 minutes and apply alcohol to the site and go to the hospital for post exposure rabies prophylaxis. 

The animal in question should be quarantined, while the person is getting the shots. People that have died as a result of rabies, is because they did not seek medical attention early,or the pet owner gave false report about the vaccination status ,thus giving the victim false hope that the pet is not rabid. 

 This is the sad case of a boy bitten by a dog who supposedly had an up to date vaccination record,but alas!!! tragedy struck..

The bumble bees use nicotine to fight off parasites.

Bumblebees that have been infected by parasites seek out flowers with nicotine in the nectar, with the aim to fight off the infection. Nicotine slows the progression of disease in infected bees but has adverse effects when consumed by healthy bees. The bumblebees are not the only animal that uses nicotine as a defense mechanism, the house sparrows also relies on nicotine to fight off infection by using cigarette butts in their nests to ward off mites. Bumblebees infected with parasite always chose sugar solution with nicotine in it than one without, infected bumblebees that consumed nicotine delayed the progress of the infection for a few days, showing lower levels of parasites than those that had not taken the nicotine laced sugar solution.

Sugar treat for bees creates a positive emotion state.

Scientists have discovered that when bumblebees drink a small droplet of really sweet sugar water, they behave like they are in a positive emotion-like state.The results published in the journal Science shows that after bumblebees drink a small droplet of really sweet sugar water, they behave like they are in a positive emotion-like state. Biologists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) findings suggest that insects have states that fit the criteria of emotions and open up new avenues for research into positive emotions in relatively simple nervous systems. The researchers trained bees to find food at a blue flower and no food at a green flower, and then tested the bees on a new blue-green flower. Bees that drank a small droplet of sugar water prior to the test took less time to land on the ambiguous-coloured flower. The other experiments showed that this behavior wasn't due to bees just getting more excited or searching faster. This indicates that the sweet sugar water may be causing a positive emotion-like state in bees, similar to humans and other animals.

Machine learning can help stop food poisoning by predicting bacteria strain.

A study carried out by researchers at the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which focused on harmful strains of E. coli bacteria could help public health officials to target interventions and reduce risk to human health. The study showed that machine learning can predict strains of bacteria likely to cause food poisoning outbreaks, the researchers used software that compares genetic information from bacterial samples isolated from both animals and people. The software learns the DNA signatures that are associated with E. coli samples that have caused outbreaks of infection in people. It can then pick out the animal strains that have these signatures, which are therefore likely to be a threat to human health. The E. coli strains live in the guts of people and animals without causing illness but E. coli O157 causes more serious human infections. Cows carry E. coli O157 and serve as the main reservoir for this toxic bacteria. The animals excrete the bacteria in their faeces but do not become ill. This makes it difficult to spot which herds and animals are carrying strains that are likely to cause disease in people. The team trained the software on DNA sequences from strains isolated from cattle herds and human infections in the UK and the US. Once trained, the computer is able to predict whether an E. coli strain is likely to have come from a cow or a person. The team used the approach to predict that less than ten percent of the E. coli O157 cattle strains are likely to have the potential to cause human disease. Interventions to stop the spread of the disease by use of vaccines could be targeted at herds with these strains to minimize the risk of outbreaks in people. This study shows the potential of machine learning approaches for identifying these strains early and prevent outbreaks of this infectious disease.

Lagos to hold maiden edition of food security summit.

The Lagos State Government has concluded plans to organize a world class summit, tagged: ‘The Lagos Food Security Summit and Exhibition.’ This is in furtherance of its commitment to optimally explore its agricultural value chain potentials and ensure food security for its teeming populace, The Special Adviser to the Governor on Food Security, Mr Sanni Okanlawon at a news briefing at Alausa, in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria on Tuesday said that that the summit was being organized to institutionalize a food security framework that would guarantee sustainable food security for its growing population. “The summit which is scheduled to hold at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja from Thursday 10th to Friday 11th November, 2016 is designed to realign emerging realities with new global trends on food safety, food processing, food storage, food handling, funding of agri-business and agric-insurance”. Okanlawon added that the summit, with the theme: “Actualizing Sustainable Food Security in Lagos: A New Comprehensive Agenda,” will attract major stakeholders from the Agricultural sector and academics as well as prospective foreign and local investors, media, civil society and policy makers in government. This is a great way to invest “The Summit is expected to provide a veritable platform for discourse on various investment opportunities in agriculture and agro-allied business in the State with the aim of stimulating private investment in the sector and ultimately optimize its vast agro-processing and agro-allied potentials.” more The issue of food security is a global concern and more countries are turning to agriculture to change their economic terrain. Investing in agriculture and agribusiness ventures is a sure way to push any economy going south. The food summit

The rabies scourge, action plan.

Rabies scourge: Health ministry to vaccinate dogs across Ghana. In commemorating the world rabies day ,Health minister Alex Segbefia says his ministry will begin a nationwide vaccination of dogs against rabies. The ministry is preparing to roll out the programme in 2017 when it would have submitted a vaccination budget to the Finance ministry. The one world one health approach to eliminate the scourge of rabies is a great idea.

The fact that children are often victims of these scourge makes it even more important to forge an alliance to stop the virus. Dogs are the source of the vast majority of human rabies deaths, contributing up to 99% of all rabies transmissions to humans mostly in Asia and Africa. At least 40% of people who are bitten by suspect rabid animals are children under 15 years. 

The vaccination of dogs,cats and monkeys is a vital key to stop the scourge of the rabies virus,every responsible pet owner should vaccinate their pets against rabies. The annual vaccination of pets against rabies will prevent this threat to life of man and other animals which might act as carriers of the virus and further propagate the virus. 

Prevention by vaccination is much better and cheaper as lives will be saved because there is no cure for the disease. The war on rabies in Ghana is through a two pronged approach according to the health minister ;One is to increase the availability of vaccines to cure infected humans. 

The ministry has therefore ordered a new batch of vaccines .2) In a more pro-active approach to tackle rabies, the minister said “you must actually just vaccinate the dogs”. He said the ministry will go round region by region, identify and vaccinate dogs against rabies.He also said there is the need for a sensitization for dog-owners to tag their pets.  

 In Nigeria,the scourge can be prevented by education,mass vaccination of dogs and provision of affordable human diploid anti rabies vaccine.

 The enforcement of stray dog laws and dog licensing with tags will go a long way to check the scourge of the rabies virus. Pet owners should be held accountable for the health status of their pets,and must show documentation as regarding vaccination status. 

 Empowerment of animal control officers, especially at local government levels will help eliminate the scourge. 

The generation of adequate data as regarding number of dog per zone/local government/state will give a clear picture of our pet population, the area of concentration /major foci of these pets which will  assist in proper planning for budgeting for vaccination programmes. more #rabies #endrabies #savechildren #vaccinate #pets.

Rabies: A case of dog bite .

Rabies a deadly but preventable disease is a menace that our society has to eliminate and put steps in place to eradicate the virus completely. Rabies usually affect warm blooded animals such as dogs,cats,monkeys,raccoons,skunks,bats ,horses and cattle. The virus usually transferred through bites from an infected animal, various species have been linked to the transmission of virus with variations from country to country. 

The sylvatic cycle of the virus in the wild is actually what is propagating the virus in urban areas.The issue of interaction between wild and domesticated animals usually with stray dogs and cats as the major carriers of the virus is an identified route of infection. Pet importation has also opened up another route of possible transmission of the virus, pets should be quarantined and all records verified before allowing them in the country. 

The issue of stray dogs and cats is a risk factor here in Nigeria, most rabies cases in man have been traced to bites from strays mostly affecting children below 15 years of age. A recent case of a young boy bitten by a stray dog typifies what happens in most situations; Boy bitten by dog, the parents did not notify any hospital or health center.

 The boy started exhibiting signs of rabies such as hydrophobia,biting and licking body like a dog,signs of madness and in this state also bit the mother while trying to restrain the child. The boy was taken to the hospital at this stage,but it was too late for any intervention. The mother though bitten did not think anything of the incident until the child died when some questions were poised to her, now she is undergoing treatment also her baby as she is nursing currently.

 A simple washing  of the bite wound with soap and a lot of water before seeking medical care, would have saved the boy's life. The fight against rabies is not a one-man- show all hands must be on deck to support the movement. 

There are key steps to take to achieve a rabies free status; 1) Education about rabies and steps to take when bitten especially at the rural level. 2) Enforcing the laws on stray dogs and other animals. 3)Mass vaccination campaign with free vaccination for pets. 4) Provision of the human diploid vaccines in hospitals,primary health centers and mobile clinics at affordable rates to encourage people to seek medical attention when bitten by dogs,cats and monkeys. Rabies is preventable ,see how to stay safe with animals. Play this game