Publications by authors named "Benjamin Emikpe"

Article Synopsis
  • * Out of 397 guinea fowls sampled, 24.7% tested positive for avian influenza antibodies, with adult birds showing higher rates than younger ones.
  • * The findings emphasize the need for ongoing monitoring of avian influenza in guinea fowls to prevent virus spread and suggest nationwide surveillance to better understand its prevalence in Ghana.
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Article Synopsis
  • - Rabies is a major public health concern in Ghana, particularly in rural areas with limited healthcare access, as it mainly spreads through bites from infected dogs and leads to numerous deaths each year.
  • - Current efforts, like dog vaccination campaigns, face significant limitations due to low vaccination rates, poor surveillance, and inadequate cooperation between sectors.
  • - The paper advocates for implementing One Health principles, which connect human, animal, and environmental health initiatives, to enhance rabies control in Ghana and aim for elimination by 2030.
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Article Synopsis
  • Conventional oral vaccine delivery in poultry faces challenges like vaccine breakdown in the GI tract and the requirement for cold storage.
  • The study explored the use of cashew-alginate microbeads, developed through ionotropic gelation and freeze-drying, to create a more stable and protective vaccine delivery system.
  • Results showed that these microbeads maintained vaccine effectiveness for three months without cold storage, indicating their potential for improving oral vaccine delivery in chickens.
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Incidence data from 17-year veterinary neoplasm surveillance and registration were reviewed. Most of the neoplastic cases diagnosed in Nigerian veterinary teaching hospitals (VTHs) were in the avian (49%) and canine species (44%). Fewer cases were recorded in the equine (3.

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Asides direct gastrointestinal exposure, inhalation route is another major xenobiotic exposure pathway to the gastrointestinal tract via mucociliary escalator. This triphasic study assesses cement dust inhalatory exposure effect on the possible alterations of the gastrointestinal tissues and secretion. 72 male, sixteen (16) weeks old Wistar rats were randomized into 3 different phases of 24 animals.

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Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Cancer stands as one of the leading causes of death worldwide according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and it has led to approximately 10 million fatalities in 2020. Medicinal plants are still widely used and accepted form of treatment for most diseases including cancer in Ghana. This review presented Cryptolepis nigrescens (Wennberg) L.

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The status of Infectious bursal disease (IBD) in indigenous chickens and backyard poultry in Rwanda has not been previously elucidated. This cross-sectional study was to determine the seroprevalence of infectious bursal disease in indigenous chickens and to identify the associated factors. The study was been done in three districts in the Eastern province of Rwanda where blood from 364 indigenous chickens were collected.

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Toxoplasmosis has been reported in Nigeria using several diagnostic tools with high prevalence in humans and some food animals. Rodents have been recognised as vital intermediate hosts of Toxoplasma gondii. However, there is paucity of information on the occurrence of T.

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Objective: This study determines the seroprevalence and associated factors of rabies in unvaccinated dogs in Sierra Leone.

Background: Rabies control is poorly coordinated in Sierra Leone which was ranked as the third hungriest country in the world. Due to limited access to rabies vaccines, the need for comprehensive serological data on dogs for control of the disease is expedient.

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The microbial phytase, derived from Buttiauxella gaviniae, Yersinia mollarettiv and Hafnia spp., is proven to be safe for avian and porcine feeding and promotes their overall growth performance. Here, we have evaluated microbial phytase's effects on the growth, bone mineral content, antioxidant status, immune responses and the resistance of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fed with high soybean meal-based diets against Aeromonas hydrophila infection.

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This study was designed as a cross-sectional study to find out the prevalence and associated risk factors of burnout among veterinary students at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi-Ghana. A total of 74 veterinary students served as the respondents and were given online questionnaires which comprised questions on emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP) and reduced personal accomplishment (RPA). Data obtained were analysed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square test and regression analysis.

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Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic disease of economic importance found worldwide, and it is caused by , which affects a wide range of hosts. High prevalence of toxoplasmosis has been reported in rodents, and they are considered very important in the circulation and maintenance of the disease. However, epidemiologic studies of the disease in rodents are generally scarce in the Tropics.

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Environmental exposure to vanadium has been on the increase in recent time. This metal is a known toxicant. The current study was conducted to investigate the reproductive toxicity of sodium metavanadate (SMV) in male African giant rats.

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This study aimed at assessing the knowledge base and perception of telemedicine among veterinary students in Ghana.  It involved a cross sectional survey and online structured questionnaires were administered to 114 veterinary students to access their knowledge of telemedicine and the perceived utilisation, benefits, complexity and disadvantages of telemedicine. Descriptive statistics analysis was performed on the data collected using SPSS version 20 and Pearson Chi-square test was used to determine the significant association between categorical variables which were grouped.

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Ethnopharmacological Significance And Aim: Hura crepitans is commonly used to treat liver diseases in Nigeria and Ghana. Previous studies have supported its ethnomedicinal use in protecting the liver. The present study aimed at assessing the effect of H.

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This research explores, through active surveillance, influenza A prevalence at different production levels in the Greater Accra region of Ghana, a study area with previous outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus. The prevalence of influenza A was determined by rtRTPCR. This was achieved by screening 2040 samples comprising tracheal and cloacal swabs from chicken, ducks, pigeons, guinea fowls, and turkeys.

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Dog-mediated rabies is responsible for approximately 60,000 human deaths annually worldwide. Although dog slaughter for human consumption and its potential risk for rabies transmission has been reported, mainly in some parts of Western Africa and South-East Asia, more information on this and factors that influence dog meat consumption is required for a better understanding from places like Ghana where the practice is common. We tested 144 brain tissues from apparently healthy dogs slaughtered for human consumption for the presence of rabies viruses using a Lyssavirus-specific real-Time RT-PCR.

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Background: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is among the leading causes of viral hepatitis in most developing countries. Zoonotic acquisition of HEV genotype 3 from swine has come into focus more recently. Available studies on HEV in Ghana and other countries in the region do not provide enough information towards understanding the epidemiology of HEV in human and animal populations.

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Our previous ex-vivo and in vivo investigations have established immunopotentiating property of Khaya senegalensis and Cedrela odorata gums; however the safety of the use of this gum combination in chicken has not been described. Hence this study evaluates the haematological profile of chickens vaccinated with Newcastle disease vaccine delivered through the oral and ocular routes using gums from Cedrela odorata and Khaya senegalensis as delivery agents. 252 one-day old chickens were grouped gum-vaccine oral (GVOR), vaccine oral (VOR), gum-vaccine ocular (GVOC), vaccine ocular (VOC), gum oral (GOR), gum ocular (GOC), no-gum-no-vaccine but challenged (NGNV/C), no-gum-no-vaccine unchallenged (NGNV/U).

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Sodium fluoride (NaF) is one of the neglected environmental pollutants. It is ubiquitously found in the soil, water, and environment. Interestingly, fluoride has been extensively utilized for prevention of dental caries and tartar formation, and may be added to mouthwash, mouth rinse, and toothpastes.

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Background: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major cause of human hepatitis worldwide. Zoonotic genotypes of the virus have been found in diverse animal species with pigs playing a major role. Putative risk of zoonotic infection from livestock particularly swine in Sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana is poorly understood due to scarcity of available data, especially HEV sequence information.

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The application of bioinformatics to vaccine research and drug discovery has never been so essential in the fight against infectious diseases. The greatest combat of the 21st century against a debilitating disease agent SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) virus discovered in Wuhan, China, December 2019, has piqued an unprecedented usage of bioinformatics tools in deciphering the molecular characterizations of infectious pathogens. With the viral genome data of SARS-COV-2 been made available barely weeks after the reported outbreak, bioinformatics platforms have become an all-time critical tool to gain time in the fight against the disease pandemic.

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Canine sarcopticosis is a highly infectious and debilitating parasitic skin disease of dogs. Its diagnosis stands challenging as the golden standard of diagnosis; skin scraping microscopy is characterized by several diagnostic variations. Study thus employed several alternate diagnostic approaches using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) on skin scrapings and skin biopsies.

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This study reports the influence of (PPR) vaccination on the clinico-pathological outcomes of PPR in the face of an outbreak. Twenty-two West African dwarf goats procured for a different study started showing early signs of PPR during acclimatization. In response, PPR vaccine was administered either intranasally with phytogenic mucoadhesive gum (Group A; = 6) or without gum (Group B; = 6); subcutaneously (Group C; = 6) or not vaccinated (Group D; = 4) and studied for 21 days.

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This study investigated dexamethasone-treatment, shedding routes, tissue antigen distribution, and pathology of caprine Brucellosis. Eighteen non-pregnant goats were randomly grouped into A, B, and C. Group A was administered dexamethasone for 7 days at 2 mg/kg before inoculating 0.

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