Publications by authors named "Christian Borgemeister"

The genus Alphavirus harbors arboviruses of great concern, such as the Chikungunya virus and the equine encephalitis viruses. Transmission of pathogenic alphaviruses by mosquitoes could be influenced by insect-specific alphaviruses such as Eilat virus (EILV). However, insect-specific alphaviruses are rarely found in wild mosquitoes and only a few have been described in the literature.

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Diet quality is influenced by multiple individual factors, but their relative strength and importance remain unclear. We investigate the associations between five domains of individual factors (economic, cognitive, aspirational, situational and consumer behaviour) and diet intake of adolescents in Accra, Ghana. A cross-sectional survey among Junior High School (JHS) students (n = 409, mean age 14.

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Urban green infrastructure (GI) plays a crucial role in improving air quality by removing pollutants and reducing emissions from structures. However, in Ethiopia, inadequate GI planning, largely due to limited awareness among planners and policymakers, can undermine the benefits of GI and worsen urban air quality issues. In this study, we demonstrate how the GI strategy approach can enhance air quality and assess the negative impacts of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) emitted by certain tree species in Ethiopia, using Hawassa as a case study.

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Assessment of Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) components is crucial for understanding regional climate and water resources, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions like Afghanistan. Given the scarcity of ground-based data, this study leverages remote sensing datasets to quantify water storage changes. We integrated Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-on (GRACE-FO) data with WaterGap, Global Land Water Storage (GWLS), Catchment Land Surface Model (CLSM), and climate variables (precipitation, temperature, potential evapotranspiration) using artificial neural networks (ANN) and random forests (RF).

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Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) causes disease outbreaks in livestock and humans; however, its inter-epidemic circulation is poorly understood, similar to other arboviruses affecting cattle such as bluetongue virus (BTV) and epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV). Serum samples were collected in Baringo County, Kenya from 400 cattle, accompanied by a risk factor questionnaire. Serological tests were then conducted to determine the exposure of cattle to RVFV, BTV, and EHDV.

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In West Africa, malaria is one of the leading causes of disease-induced deaths. Existing studies indicate that as urbanization increases, there is corresponding decrease in malaria prevalence. However, in malaria-endemic areas, the prevalence in some rural areas is sometimes lower than in some peri-urban and urban areas.

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The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (JE Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), an invasive agricultural pest, has significantly impacted crop yields across Africa. This study investigated the relationship between temperature and FAW life history traits, employing life cycle modeling at temperatures of 20, 25, 28, 30, and 32°C. The development time for eggs, larvae, and pupae varied from 0-3 days, 10-18 days, and 7-16 days, respectively.

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The impact of invasive species on biodiversity, food security and economy is increasingly noticeable in various regions of the globe as a consequence of climate change. Yet, there is limited research on how climate change affects the distribution of the invasive Asian citrus psyllid Kuwayama (Hemiptera:Liviidae) in Ghana. Using maxnet package to fit the Maxent model in R software, we answered the following questions; (i) what are the main drivers for distribution, (ii) what are the -specific habitat requirements and (iii) how well do the risk maps fit with what we know to be correctly based on the available evidence?.

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COVID-19 caused profound societal changes to cope rapidly with the new circumstances. The food market changed its quantity, quality, form, and frequency dynamics. Consequently, food-eating habits and lifestyles like physical exercise likely experienced changes.

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We aimed to determine whether place of residence in the German urban food environment is associated with habitual dietary intake (energy, macronutrients, and food groups) and body mass index (standard deviation score of BMI and BMI-SDS). Our hypothesis was that place of residence may explain some variation in dietary intake and nutritional outcomes. For the cross-sectional analyses of DONALD study data, we grouped participants according to their geocoded residence in the north or south of Dortmund.

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Article Synopsis
  • Buruli ulcer (BU) is a neglected tropical disease primarily affecting rural areas in Africa, South America, and Asia, leading to severe skin and tissue damage, along with social stigma for patients.
  • The disease is caused by a pathogen that produces a mycolactone toxin, resulting in necrosis and can escalate from a painless skin nodule to serious complications involving muscles and bones.
  • While antibiotics and surgery are common treatments, the review suggests that indigenous African plants could offer alternative remedies and emphasizes the need for further research into socio-economic and environmental factors influencing BU management.
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The research and development needed to achieve sustainability of African smallholder agricultural and natural systems has led to a wide array of theoretical frameworks for conceptualising socioecological processes and functions. However, there are few analytical tools for spatio-temporal empirical approaches to implement use cases, which is a prerequisite to understand the performance of smallholder farms in the real world. This study builds a multi-agent system (MAS) to operationalise the Sustainable Agricultural Intensification (SAI) theoretical framework (MASSAI).

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Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a mosquito-borne viral hemorrhagic disease that affects humans and livestock. In Kenya, the disease has spread to new areas like Baringo County, with a growing realization that the epidemiology of the virus may also include endemic transmission. Local knowledge of a disease in susceptible communities is a major driver of prevention and control efforts.

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Each year, Africa loses half of its harvest to pests (insects, pathogens, nematodes, weeds). To offset these losses and improve food security, pest management needs to be revamped urgently. Based on a synthesis of all 58 pest management projects conducted by IITA in its 55-year history, we advocate here for the implementation of the five following key climate-smart interventions, which have been shown to increase yields and decreasing CO outputs compared to the current practices that are largely based on the use of synthetic pesticides: 1.

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Background: Understanding how local communities perceive threats and management options of wild edible plants (WEPs) is essential in developing their conservation strategies and action plans. Due to their multiple use values, including nutrition, medicinal, construction, and cultural as well as biotic and abiotic pressures, WEPs are exposed to overexploitation, especially within arid and semiarid lands, and hence the need to manage and conserve them. We demonstrate how an understanding of indigenous communities' perceptions could be achieved through an integrated participatory approach involving focus group discussions (FGDs) and field plot surveys.

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Intensive urban agriculture is expanding in Cameroon, which increases the risks of environmental pollution, particularly in the lowlands. This study assessed the seasonal characteristics of some potentially toxic elements and their ecological risks during the dry and wet seasons in urban agricultural soils in four lowlands in Yaoundé. The area and seasonal variation of some potentially toxic elements (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, and Ni) were evaluated using mixed-effects modeling.

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The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae), is an efficient vector of "Candidatus Liberibacter" species, the causative agents implicated in citrus greening or huanglongbing (HLB). HLB is the most devastating citrus disease and has killed millions of citrus trees worldwide. Classical biological control using Tamarixia radiata Waterston (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) against ACP has been successful in some regions.

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The impact of invasive alien pests on agriculture, food security, and biodiversity conservation has been worsened by climate change caused by the rising earth's atmospheric greenhouse gases. The African citrus triozid, Trioza erytreae (Del Guercio; Hemiptera: Triozidae), is an invasive pest of all citrus species. It vectors the phloem-limited bacterium "Candidatus Liberibacter africanus", a causal agent of citrus greening disease or African Huanglongbing (HLB).

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Background: The impacts of multicomponent school water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) interventions on children's health are unclear. We conducted a cluster-randomized controlled trial to test the effects of a school WaSH intervention on children's malnutrition, dehydration, health literacy (HL), and handwashing (HW) in Metro Manila, Philippines.

Methods: The trial lasted from June 2017 to March 2018 and included children, in grades 5, 6, 7, and 10, from 15 schools.

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The African coconut beetle Oryctes monoceros and Asiatic rhinoceros beetle O. rhinoceros have been associated with economic losses to plantations worldwide. Despite the amount of effort put in determining the potential geographic extent of these pests, their environmental suitability maps have not yet been well established.

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One Health (OH) has gained considerable prominence since the beginning of the 21 century, among others, driven by the recent epidemics and the increasing importance of zoonotic diseases. Yet, despite the holistic and multidimensional nature of OH, to date, most emphasis has been on the interactions between animal and human health, with considerably less attention to environmental and plant health. However, there is growing evidence that the challenges of climate change, growing food and nutritional insecurity, and biodiversity loss can best be addressed within the context of the OH framework.

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Introduction: Diarrhoea, malnutrition, and dehydration threaten the lives of millions of children globally due to inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH). Our study aimed to identify environmental and behavioural risk factors of these health outcomes among schoolchildren in Metro Manila, Philippines.

Materials And Methods: We analysed data from a multistage cluster sample of schoolchildren in grades 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 (ages ~10-15 years old) to investigate WaSH facilities and hygiene practices.

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