Faustin Lekule

Sokoine University of Agriculture | sua · Department of Animal Science and Production (DASP)

Taenia solium is found throughout sub-Saharan Africa and co-endemic with schistosomiasis in many regions. Taenia solium leads to taeniosis and neurocysticercosis - the leading cause of preventable epilepsy globally. This study aimed to assess the effects of the National Schistosomiasis Control Programme on prevalence of T. solium and porcine cystic...

This study evaluated the effect of mass drug administration (MDA) with praziquantel administered to school-aged children (SAC) combined with 'track and treat' of taeniosis cases in the general population on the copro-antigen (Ag) prevalence of taeniosis. The study was conducted in 14 villages in Mbozi and Mbeya district, Tanzania. SAC made up 34% o...

This study was carried out to compare the growth rate, lactation performance and tolerance to gastrointestinal nematode infection of Toggenburg and Norwegian breeds in Kongwa district, Tanzania with a semi-arid environment and Mvomero district with a sub-humid environment. Milk production of does, nematode eggs per gramme of faeces (EPG) and packed...

Attempts to control Taenia solium in low-income countries have been unsuccessful or unsustainable. This could indicate a 'missing link' in our understanding of the transmission dynamics of the parasite and possibly the magnitude of environmental contamination. We aimed to identify risk factors associated with porcine cysticercosis using a case-cont...

A cross-sectional study was carried out to determine risk factors for prevalence of common endo- and ectoparasites of pigs kept by smallholder farmers in Mbozi and Mbeya (Rural) districts of Mbeya Region, in Tanzania. A total of 482 pigs from 220 households of 16 villages, eight in each district were randomly selected and examined. Prevalence of Ta...

An on farm experiment was carried out to assess the effects of production systems on the performance of local pigs kept by smallholder farmers. Six villages from Mbeya and Mbozi districts, Tanzania were purposely selected based on the prominent pig production systems: free range, semi-confinement and total confinement. Fifteen pig keeping household...

Abstract Background Porcine cysticercosis is an emerging agricultural problem in sub-Saharan Africa. This has been documented primarily through cross-sectional studies, however detailed knowledge of the transmission dynamics of this disease in sub-Saharan Africa is lacking. This study aims to describe seasonal variations in sero-prevalence of antig...

A study was carried out to determine farmers' preferences for goat breeds, desired traits, management and breeding practices in agro-pastoral communities of central and eastern Tanzania. A total of 552 goat keepers from semi-arid and sub-humid areas were involved. Information on goat flock size, breed preferences, breeding practices, traits preferr...

STROBE checklist. (DOC)

Taenia solium cysticercosis/taeniosis is emerging as a serious public health and economic problem in many developing countries. This study was conducted to determine prevalence and risk factors of human T. solium infections in Mbeya Region, Tanzania. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 13 villages of Mbozi district in 2009. Sera of 830 people...

A comparative study was conducted with pre- and post-intervention assessments on the same subjects to evaluate a health education intervention administered to smallholder pig farmers in Iringa Rural (n = 750) and Chunya (n = 700) districts, southern Tanzania. A total of 366 respondents (249 in Iringa Rural, 117 in Chunya) undertook a self assessmen...

The feasibility of using Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) as an ingredient in cassava chip based diets fed to commercial egg strain chickens and its effects on their production and egg quality were investigated. Eighty laying birds comprising of ten birds per replicate and two replicates per treatment were assigned to four isocaloric and isonitrog...

Moringa oleifera has being studied in human nutrition because of its nutritional benefits. However, its hypocholesterolemic potential, as attested to by traditional medical practitioners has not been extensively studied. Due to controversies as to the role of eggs in cardiac related diseases, research has continued to focus on ways in reducing the...

The suitability of including Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) as a feed ingredient in cassava (CC) based broiler diets was evaluated. Seven isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets represented as treatments 1 (maize meal based-control), 2, 3, 4 (20% CC and 0, 5, 10% MOLM) and 5, 6, 7 (30% CC and 0, 5, 10% MOLM) were fed to 378 broiler chicks for 49 day...

Veterinary, medical, agricultural and socioeconomic researchers met in Nairobi in October 2009 to review their research information on porcine cysticercosis / taeniosis and plan how to translate this information into intervention research for control of this serious but neglected zoonotic disease.

The nutritive values of three grasses (Cynodon plectostychus, Panicum maximum, Pennisetum purpureum), three creeping legumes (CL) (Calopogonia muconoides, Macroptilium atropurpureum, Neonotonia wightii) and three multipurpose trees (MPTs) (Leucaena leucocephala, Gliricidia sepium, Morus alba) native to Eastern Tanzania, collected during two seasons...

The fifth general assembly meeting on cysticercosis/taeniosis was held at the Faculty of Medicine, Eduardo Mondlane University, in Maputo, Mozambique, from 11-13 October 2007. The meeting was organised by the Cysticercosis Working Group in Eastern and Southern Africa (CWGESA) in cooperation with the Medical and Veterinary Faculties of Eduardo Mondl...

Short-term preference studies were carried out with growing calves based on diets of local grass forages found in Turiani division, Morogoro, Tanzania. Four intact crossbred male calves aged 7 - 8 months and weighing 82.75 kg were used. Four grass species were provided either singly [ Panicum maximum (T1), Panicum trichocladum (T2), Pennisetum purp...

Local knowledge is an important asset for smallholder farmers who operate differently in diverse crop and livestock production systems in the tropics. Various methods are needed for its acquisition, analysis, storage and communication. While local knowledge of livestock feeds and other resources is abundant, amalgamation of the positive aspects of...

Mineral elements constitute a relatively small amount of the diet of animals but they are vital to animal health, reproduction and productivity. The concentrations of minerals in 129 blood samples from zero grazed dairy cows (Friesian or Ayrshire crosses of Tanzania Shorthorn Zebu aged between 4 and 7 years) and feed resources (forages, maize bran,...

Smallholder farmers have considerable understanding of locally available resources that they normally use in crop and livestock production. This was demonstrated in a study about the utility of local knowledge in forage quality evaluation for a mixed livestock production system in Turiani division, Morogoro region, Eastern Tanzania. Participatory r...

Optimal utilization of local feed resources for improved livestock productivity in many production systems in the tropics is limited by scanty information on nutritive potential of forages including minerals. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of season on concentration of macro and micro minerals of nine forage species: three gra...

A study to compare the effects of supplementing Delonix elata, Grewia similis, Tamarindus indica and sunflower seed cake on intake and growth rate of dual-purpose goats fed low quality Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) hay was carried out. Twenty-eight male goats aged five to seven months (mean weight 12.933.94 kg) were randomly allocated to four di...

Indigenous pigs in Tanzania are descendants of earlier European introductions. However, a lack of systematic breeding plans, poor husbandry practices, genetic drift and possibly mutation have led to pigs of varied phenotypes. A study undertaken in Mbeya region showed that the predominant management system practised was free ranging and occasionally...

Two experiments were carried out to evaluate the nutritive value of Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM). In experiment 1, the effect of substituting Moringa oleifera for cottonseed cake (CSC) on milk yield and composition of cross bred cows fed napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) as basal diet was determined. In experiment 2, dry matter degradability...

To minimise the risk of cysticercosis in pigs it is necessary to raise pigs in confinement. The prevailing production system using free-range pigs is apparently very resilient although economic studies have shown that these traditional production systems are wasteful and unprofitable due to poor feed conversion, high mortality rates, low reproducti...

Studies with a farming systems perspective in view were conducted in agro-pastoral areas of semi-arid central Tanzania to investigate feeding values of indigenous browse species as described by goat keepers based on their accumulated knowledge. A significant difference was observed between men and women respondents in relation to the number of tree...

Summary The Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA)-Makerere University (MU) ENRECA project based at Sokoine University has initiated Farming Systems Research activities in some villages in Morogoro, Tanzania. A locally based NGO through an integrated approach has disseminated a number of technologies including distribution of dairy heifers (and ze...

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of feeding diets containing leucaena leaf meal (LLM) and ferrous sulphate supplementation to pigs. Four diets, containing 0, 100, 200 g kg⁻¹ LLM and 200 g kg⁻¹ LLM treated with 4 g kg⁻¹ ferrous sulphate, were compared. In the first experiment, four castrated male pigs (average weight 20 kg) were...

The chemical composition of some tropical feedstuffs and digestion coefficients obtained using pigs are given. Considerable variation was found in both chemical composition and content of metabolizable energy (ME) within some by-products, i.e. maize hominy feed, wheat bran, sun-flower cake, cottonseed cake. On average for all feedstuffs a 2.2% decr...

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the nutritive value of sorghum var. serena known to be a high tannin variety (HTS). In the first experiment 16 female pigs weighing 23.5 kg on average were allotted to 2 dietary treatments; germinated and ungerminated sorghum diets. The experiment lasted for 5 weeks during which time, feed intake and gro...

Sixteen barrows and 16 gilts of average liveweight 40 kg were fed on diets containing 0, 10, 20 or 30% copra cake. The copra cake replaced an equal weight of soyabean-maize meal in the diet. The rates of gain were 705, 719, 543 and 438 g/day and the ratios of feed per unit of gain were 3·21, 3·11, 3·83 and 4·91 for 0, 10, 20 and 30% copra cake diet...