Village-Indigenous Chicken Bacterial Carriage after the Heavy Rains of 2018, Kenya: Indicator on Environmental Contamination with Pathogenic/Zoonotic Bacteria.

Food borne diseases are one of the major human disease conditions worldwide. Most of them are of bacterial origin and chickens are a major source of such bacteria; they are consumed at high rate worldwide and tend to harbor the zoonotic bacteria without showing signs of illness. Running rain water tends to increase environmental contamination, since it carries various substances from one area to another; this results in village-indigenous chickens picking more bacteria from the environment as they roam/scavenge around for food.

Vaccination of household chickens results in a shift in young children's diet and improves child growth in rural Kenya.

Childhood growth faltering remains unacceptably high in sub-Saharan Africa. Rural communities dependent on household food production with limited off-farm income or liquid assets to bridge seasonal food availability are especially vulnerable. A cross-sectional survey in Siaya County, Kenya identified 23.

Impact of routine Newcastle disease vaccination on chicken flock size in smallholder farms in western Kenya.

Background: Poultry represent a widely held economic, nutritional, and sociocultural asset in rural communities worldwide. In a recent longitudinal study in western Kenya, the reported mean number of chickens per household was 10, with increases in flock size constrained principally by mortality. Newcastle disease virus is a major cause of chicken mortality globally and hypothesized to be responsible for a large part of mortality in smallholder flocks.

Mortality as the primary constraint to enhancing nutritional and financial gains from poultry: A multi-year longitudinal study of smallholder farmers in western Kenya.

Background: Chickens are a widely held economic and nutritional asset in rural Africa and are frequently managed by women. Despite potential benefits of larger flock sizes, the average number of chickens kept at the household level is reported to be low. Whether this reflects decision-making to maximize benefits per unit labor by voluntary reduction of chicken numbers by consumption or sale versus involuntary losses due to mortality is a significant gap in knowledge relevant to improving smallholder household welfare.

Effect of immunosuppression on newcastle disease virus persistence in ducks with different immune status.

This study was carried out to verify the possibility that ducks are sources of Newcastle disease (ND) virus infection for chickens in mixed flocks. Immunosuppressed (IS) and non immunosuppressed (NIS) birds, at three different antibody levels (medium, low and absent) were used; the titres having been induced through vaccination, and Immunosuppression done using dexamethazone. Each of the 3 respective groups was further divided into 2 groups of about 12 ducks each: one challenged with velogenic ND virus; the other not challenged.

Viral nucleoprotein localization and lesions of Newcastle disease in tissues of indigenous ducks.

Localization of Newcastle disease viral nucleoprotein and pathological lesions was evaluated in tissues of 55 indigenous ducks (45 experimentally infected and 10 sentinel ones). In addition, ten Newcastle disease infected chickens were used to ensure that the virus inoculum administered to the ducks produced the disease in chickens, the susceptible hosts. Ducks were killed on day 1, 4, 8 and 14 post-infection.