Publications by authors named "David Shamaki"

The burden of human schistosomiasis, a known but neglected tropical disease in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been worrisome in recent years. It is becoming increasingly difficult to tackle schistosomiasis with praziquantel, a drug known to be effective against all , due to reports of reduced efficacy and resistance. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the antischistosomal potential of phytochemicals from against proteins that have been implicated as druggable targets for the treatment of schistosomiasis using computational techniques.

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Arboviruses are important public health threats in many regions of the world. Nigeria has experienced outbreaks of arboviruses over the past decades, leading to concerns of widespread endemicity, which are frequently misdiagnosed. This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of dengue virus (DENV) (a flavivirus) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) (an alphavirus) infections in three major population centers of Nigeria.

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Canine rabies poses a significant risk to humans and animals in Nigeria. However, the lack of reliable tools to evaluate the performance of existing canine rabies control programs to inform public health policy decisions poses a severe obstacle. We obtained canine rabies surveillance data from the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) and supplemented these data with rabies diagnoses reported in the published studies from Nigeria.

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Porcine circovirus-2 (PCV-2) is associated with several disease syndromes in domestic pigs that have a significant impact on global pig production and health. Currently, little is known about the status of PCV-2 in Africa. In this study, a total of 408 archived DNA samples collected from pigs in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia between 2000 and 2018 were screened by PCR for the presence of PCV-2.

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Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious viral disease that mainly affects goats and sheep in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and threatens Europe [R.E.1].

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Article Synopsis
  • Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a contagious viral disease affecting mainly goats and sheep in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, caused by the PPR virus (PPRV) with four genetic lineages.
  • A study conducted on 429 small ruminants in Nigeria from 2017-2020 found 90 samples from lineage IV and one from lineage II, showing significant genetic diversity.
  • The phylogenetic analysis revealed at least four sub-clusters of lineage IV, indicating widespread circulation of various PPRV strains in Nigeria and neighboring countries, making disease control challenging in the region.
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In December 2018, suspected outbreaks of equine influenza (EI) were observed in donkeys in Sokoto State, in the extreme northwest of Nigeria bordering the Republic of the Niger. Equine influenza virus (EIV) subtype H3N8 was the etiologic agent identified in the outbreaks using real-time RT-qPCR and sequencing of both the partial haemagglutinin (HA) gene and the complete genome. Since then the H3N8 virus spread to 7 of the 19 northern states of Nigeria, where it affected both donkeys and horses.

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Article Synopsis
  • The HPAI subtype H5N6 has been detected in wild birds and poultry globally since 2013, with limited information from Africa.
  • A study has reported the first identification of this virus subtype in a duck from a live bird market in Nigeria.
  • The genomic analysis shows that this H5N6 virus is closely related to strains from Europe (2017-2018), suggesting a recent introduction of the virus into Africa.
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Peste des petits ruminant (PPR) is a highly contagious, infectious viral disease of small ruminant species which is caused by the peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV), the prototype member of the Morbillivirus genus in the Paramyxoviridae family. Peste des petits ruminant was first described in West Africa, where it has probably been endemic in sheep and goats since the emergence of the rinderpest pandemic and was always misdiagnosed with rinderpest in sheep and goats. Since its discovery PPR has had a major impact on sheep and goat breeders in Africa and has therefore been a key focus of research at the veterinary research institutes and university faculties of veterinary medicine in Africa.

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Capripox virus infections are endemic diseases of livestock in Nigeria, but there are limited data on molecular characterization of circulating viruses. In this study, we investigated field outbreaks of Capripox virus infections in Nigeria via partial sequencing of viruses obtained from field samples. Eleven selected samples, collected from 2000-2016 from cattle (9), sheep (1) and goat (1) in three states in Nigeria and Capripox virus genome positive by PCR and real-time qPCR, were characterized using our newly developed partial sequencing protocol.

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Background: Rabies is endemic in Nigeria with clinical cases reported mainly in dogs and occasionally in livestock from all the geo-ecological zones of the country. Detection of rabies virus antigen in puppies at the age of five to ten weeks and in apparently healthy dogs shedding the virus in their saliva have been reported in some parts of Nigeria.

Material And Method: This report describes a clinical rabies in a set of eight weeks old puppies confirmed by antigen detection using the direct fluorescent antibody test (DFAT), the direct rapid immunohistochemical test (DRIT), and RT-PCR.

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Avian influenza viruses (AIV) potentially transmit to swine as shown by experiments, where further reassortment may contribute to the generation of pandemic strains. Associated risks of AIV inter-species transmission are greater in countries like Nigeria with recurrent epidemics of highly pathogenic AI (HPAI) in poultry and significant pig population. Analysis of 129 tracheal swab specimens collected from apparently healthy pigs at slaughterhouse during presence of HPAI virus H5N1 in poultry in Nigeria for influenza A by RT-qPCR yielded 43 positive samples.

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Background: Sixty (60) male West African Dwarf goats were reported with clinical signs of enlarged lymph nodes, scabs on the mouth, nose and ears. Two of the goats died and post mortem examination reveals enlarged submandibular lymph nodes and vesicular lesions on the tongue. Clinical diagnosis of Orf has been reported in Nigeria but this report is the confirmatory diagnosis of Orf in a suspected outbreak in an experimental farm in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria using molecular techniques.

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Article Synopsis
  • Genetic analysis of fourteen Nigerian avian influenza isolates revealed a cleavage site characteristic of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), with specific amino acid substitutions noted in one isolate.
  • Phylogenetic analysis identified two main clusters of HPAI H5N1, with Cluster I closely related to viruses from neighboring West African countries and Cluster II closely associated with viruses from Europe and other West African nations.
  • The findings highlight the ongoing HPAI outbreaks in Nigerian poultry and emphasize the need for continual monitoring and characterization of HPAI isolates due to their zoonotic risk.
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Torque teno sus virus 1 (TTSuV1a/TTSuV1b) infection is present in pig herds worldwide. This study investigated the prevalence of TTSuV1a/TTSuV1b infections in domestic pigs from some slaughterhouses in Nigeria as well as coinfection with African swine fever virus (ASFV) and described the phylogeny in relation to global strains. One hundred and eighty-one (181) blood samples from four slaughterhouses were used for the study and viral nucleic acid detection was carried out by PCR.

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Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus (PPRV) is a highly contagious, fatal and economically important viral disease of small ruminants that is still endemic and militates against the production of sheep and goats in endemic areas of the world. The aim of this study was to describe the viral strains within the country. This was carried out by collecting tissue and swab samples from sheep and goats in various agro-ecological zones of Nigeria.

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Background: Rabies causes 55, 000 annual human deaths globally and about 10,000 people are exposed annually in Nigeria. Diagnosis of animal rabies in most African countries has been by direct microscopic examination. In Nigeria, the Seller's stain test (SST) was employed until 2009.

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Peste des petits ruminants, caused by the peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV), is a highly contagious and economically important transboundary viral disease of domestic and wild small ruminants and a major hindrance to small-ruminant production in Nigeria. The seroprevalence and distribution of PPRV antibodies in small ruminants in rural households, farms, live animal markets and slaughter slabs across the six different agro-ecological zones of Nigeria were determined. A total of 4548 serum samples from 3489 goats and 1059 sheep were collected in 12 states.

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Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), a viral disease of sheep and goats, is endemic in Nigeria. There are reports indicating the involvement of peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV), the causative agent of PPR, in a camel respiratory syndrome in Africa. Considering that camels share the same grazing land and drinking points with other ruminants, this study was undertaken to determine the seroprevalence and extent of PPRV antibodies in Nigerian camels.

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We found serologic evidence for the circulation of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus among dromedary camels in Nigeria, Tunisia, and Ethiopia. Circulation of the virus among dromedaries across broad areas of Africa may indicate that this disease is currently underdiagnosed in humans outside the Arabian Peninsula.

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Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) diagnosis from suspected samples from sheep and goats was carried out. Buffy coat, tissues, and oculo-nasal swabs were analyzed using nucleoprotein (NP3/NP4) and fusion protein (F1/F2) gene primers, respectively. Analysis of the sample types and primer set revealed that buffy coat are the best type of samples for PPR diagnosis and the use of two set of primers will increase the number of positives.

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Background: The use of medicinal plants in the treatment of diseases has generated renewed interest in recent times, as herbal preparations are increasingly being used in both human and animal healthcare systems. Diarrhoea is one of the common clinical signs of gastrointestinal disorders caused by both infectious and non-infectious agents and an important livestock debilitating condition. Plateau State is rich in savannah and forest vegetations and home to a vast collection of plants upheld in folklore as having useful medicinal applications.

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Background: Peste des petits ruminants is an endemic disease of sheep and goats in Nigeria and vaccination has been the method of control but sporadic outbreaks have been reported. This study was carried out to characterize PPR viruses from outbreaks in 2007 and 2009 from Kaduna and Plateau States.

Results: Of the 33 clinical samples analysed, 51.

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Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an important economically transboundary disease of sheep and goats caused by a virus which belongs to the genus Morbillivirus. This genus, in the family Paramyxoviridae, also includes the measles virus (MV), canine distemper virus (CDV), rinderpest virus (RPV), and marine mammal viruses. One of the main features of these viruses is the severe transient lymphopaenia and immunosuppression they induce in their respective hosts, thereby favouring secondary bacterial and parasitic infections.

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