Lack of protection against rabies in neighbourhood dogs in some peri-urban and rural areas of Ogun and Oyo states, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Rabies is a highly fatal zoonosis that causes severe destruction to the central nervous system and remains underreported in developing countries like Nigeria. OBJECTIVES: The increasing close contact between dogs and their owners or neighbours suggest a need for investigation of the protective level of rabies virus (RABV) antibodies in dogs. METHODS: Sera from 150 apparently healthy neighbourhood dogs from some peri-urban and rural areas of Ogun and Oyo states, southwestern Nigeria were analyzed for the presence of RABV antibodies using the indirect ELISA technique. These dogs were kept as pets, used for hunting or sold for human consumption. RESULTS: The results showed that none of the dogs had optimal RABV antibody titres, 25 (16.7%) had sub-optimal antibody titres while 125 (83.3%) were negative. Detection of sub-optimal RABV antibody levels in these unvaccinated dogs suggests that they might have been exposed to rabies or rabies-related viruses. Data obtained from interviews conducted revealed that 21.3% of the dog owners were informed about rabies but neglected vaccination while 44.7% were uninformed. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that these dogs lacked protective levels of RABV antibodies and thus constitute a public, health threat. This finding underscores the need for dog anti-rabies vaccination campaigns covering peri-urban and rural areas as well as the promotion of large scale public enlightenment programmes on rabies in Nigeria.

Studies on the toxicity of an aqueous extract of the leaves of Abrus precatorius in rats.

The toxic effects of an aqueous extract of Abrus precatorius were studied in 20 male white rats over a period of 18 days. The rats were divided into four groups of five rats per group. Those in Group A served as controls while the rats in Groups B, C and D were dosed per os with 400 mg/kg, 800 mg/kg and 1 600 mg/kg of the extract, respectively. Blood samples were collected for haematological and biochemical analysis and specimens of the liver, kidney and testes were taken for histopathological studies. The study showed that the extract of A. precatorius caused decreased levels of packed cell volume, haemoglobin concentration, red blood cell count, white blood cell count, mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular haemoglobin. The extract also resulted in increased levels of total serum protein, albumin, alanine amino transaminase, aspartate amino transferase, alkaline phosphatase and total bilirubin. Histologically, testicular degeneration characterized by decreased numbers of lining cells of the epithelium as well as reduction in sperm cells with presence of scattered Sertoli cells were noted. The study thus showed that aqueous extract of Abrus precatorius is toxic and caution should be exercised in its use for medicinal purpose.

Serological evidence of chicken anaemia virus infection in Nigerian indigenous chickens.

Serum samples from 20 out of 180 (11.1%) apparently healthy Nigerian indigenous chickens were negative for antibodies against chicken anaemia virus using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Of the 160 positive sera (88.9%), 12 (7.5%) had titres ranging from 1500-3000, 46 (28.8%) had titres from 3000-5000 while 102 (63.8%) had titres between 5000-11000. The overall mean titre value was 5845 +/- 2402. This appears to be evidence of a natural outbreak of the infection since the chickens had no history of vaccination against any poultry disease.