Annual Research & Review in Biology

Monkeypox virus is DNA virus of Orthopoxvirus. The Monkeypox is zoonosis disease first diagnosed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970 and originally transmitted from Vertebrate Reservoir. In 1796, Edward Jenner was the first physician achieved vaccine and prove its efficacy through exposing James Phipps to smallpox after immunization. The current study revises the vaccine efficacy and mortality rate of monkeypox. It is mainly transmitted from Squirrels to human and cause mortality rate ranging from 2.7 to 10.1%. Globally, it estimated 4.4% the mortality rate of Monkeypox cases. Based on current review study, the effectiveness of smallpox vaccine in preventing the monkeypox is quite variable due to several selective clinical cases criteria such as history taking and clinical features and laboratory investigation, which modify the statistical result of the vaccine efficacy. The current study clarifies the faults of calculation by eliminating several reasons and estimating the effectiveness of vaccine in the household and find it to be 16.3% whereas total Vaccine efficacy is 0.6%. Using preventive measures are the first line to avoid infection therefore healthcare workers must adhere to infection control precautions. A current study warns scientists to create monkeypox vaccine rather than depending on smallpox vaccine effectiveness due to lacking of current vaccine effectiveness evidence and treatment.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of birth defect causing more deaths in the first year of life than any other birth defect. Medical practice in a third-world country is faced with numerous challenges, created by poor health facilities and the unavailability of basic imaging studies at the community level where the majority of the poor resides. We present a case series of 4 neonates with a ratio of 1: 3 admitted into the neonatology unit of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria. Two of the patients were delivered at home by a traditional birth attendant via spontaneous vertex delivery and the rest two were booked cases in a private and obstetric unit of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. Their age ranged were 18 hours to 27 days of life and their common presentation were poor sucking, difficulty in breathing, central cyanosis and failure to thrive. A fetal echocardiogram was carried out for one of the cases and there was strong clinical suspicion of congenital heart disease but the precise type is unknown. The other three could not afford the necessary investigations required. They were all oxygen-dependent till death. Pathologic-anatomic findings showed a rare Critical congenital heart defect of the univentricular heart chamber of various types for the three cases and a case of TGA. The Immediate cause of death for all four cases was congestive cardiac failure.

Aims: Reproductive parameters are important tools for the sustainable management of halieutic species in the water bodies of its exploitation. This study intends to characterize the sexual maturity scale of swimming crab Callinectes pallidus, perform testicular and ovarian structures in order to develop a specific maturity scale.

Study Design: This study was carried out with macroscopic and microscopic observations of 394 specimens of crabs including 206 females and 188 males.

Place and Duration of Study: The specimens used in this study were collected monthly from March to July 2018 from small scale fisheries of Lake Nokoué (Benin).

Methodology: At the laboratory, each crab specimen is identified and its sex determined. Grids for describing each sexual maturity stage of the crab C. pallidus were developed based on the Zairon et al. (2015) scale. Histological sections of female and male gonads were analyzed in order to certify the different stages of sexual development noted from the macroscopic study.

Results: Macroscopic analysis of external and internal anatomy and histological study of male and female gonads of C. pallidus allowed to establish a sexual maturity scale with 5 stages in females and 4 stages in males respectively. Macroscopic observations made with a binocular magnifying glass allowed to describe the characteristic features of the sexual development cycle of the species. The histological study confirmed the results of the macroscopic analysis. Significant difference was recorded between the mean oocytes diameters of the different oocyte development stages (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The outcomes of this constitute an important database for the assessment of the reproductive parameters of the species in the water bodies of its exploitation. The stages IV and V are the mature steps in the female development whereas the stages III and IV are that of the male. It is recommended to allow C. pallidus reach the sexual maturity size (5,95 cm for female and 6,38 cm for male) before their exploitation to ensure the sustainable management of the species.

Due to rapid industrialization and market demand of vibrant textile products, the natural textile dyes have been replaced by the synthetic textile dyes. These synthetic dyes are released in environment with textile wastewater resulting in a major environmental pollution, especially in aquatic ecosystem. Hence, aquatic organisms like fish are highly vulnerable to the pollution caused by dyes of textile wastewater. This study was designed to evaluate the deleterious effects of Basic Red-18 (BR-18) dye on behavior, survivability, haematology and histology of Tilapia fish (Tilapia mossambica) and to minimize these deleterious effects of BR-18 dye by bioremediation with the novel bacteria isolated from textile wastewater. The isolated novel bacteria was identified as Mangrovibacter yixingensis strain AKS2 by 16s rRNA sequencing (Accession no. OM189530). The 30% and 70% mortality rates were observed in fish exposed to commercial BR-18 dye at concentrations of 100 and 200 ppm respectively. Interestingly, the mortality rate of fish was decreased significantly to 10% and 20% when fish were exposed to 100 and 200 ppm BR-18 dye respectively after bioremediation with M. yixingensis strain AKS2. Fish exposed to tap water and bioremediated BR-18 dye solution exhibited typical behavioral responses, whereas fish exposed to commercial BR-18 dye solution exhibited anomalous behavior. Fish subjected to commercial BR-18 dye solution displayed decreased RBC, Hb, but increased WBC levels, demonstrating the dye's haemotoxicity. Contrary, no remarkable haematological toxic effect was found when fish were exposed to bioremediated BR-18 dye indicating the non-toxic character of the bioremediated dye metabolites. Similarly, extensive histological abnormalities in the gill, liver, intestinal, stomach, and heart tissues were seen when fish was cultured in commercial BR-18 dye, but the abnormalities were less significant when fish were raised in bioremediated BR-18 dye. Altogether, it can be concluded that BR-18 dye are toxic to fish, but this toxicity can be minimized by bioremediation with M. yixingensis strain AKS2.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc., Zingiberaceae), a cultivated annual herbaceous plant is one of the most important spices consumed in the world with many medicinal properties. It is an income-generating plant for its production. This study aims to document endogenous knowledge on speculation as well as an agro-morphological characterization in order to make it better known and to reveal its potential to the whole world. The ethnobotanical data obtained by a semi-structured survey conducted from a questionnaire in six (06) municipalities in southern Benin made it possible to determine the local taxonomy of Ginger, the cultural practices and the different uses of the species. Ginger has been introduced in Benin for decades and in all the area study. The local names for the species as well as its uses, vary according to locality. As for the agro-morphological characterization, a complete random block device composed of five sub-plots was used. The experimental data allowed us to obtain three classes with all the accessions collected. Ginger cultivation is widespread in the study area with production on a small area. The cultivation techniques adopted do not follow any defined technical itinerary and the production tools are often rudimentary. The cultivation of ginger is therefore limited despite its multiple medicinal and economic potential. The institutions in charge of agriculture do not have data concerning the cultivation of ginger in southern Benin.

Background: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a bi- or triphasic disease comprising of the chronic phase (present at diagnosis in approximately 85% of patients) which can easily be controlled with conventional chemotherapy, followed by unstable accelerated phase and terminating in a blastic phase. The treatment of CML has evolved over the years The availability of the tyrosine kinase inhibitors has distinctly changed the disease course for patients with Ph+ and/or BCR-ABL1+  (CML). This study aims to determine the demographics and overall survival patterns of CML patients in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH)l.

Methods: The study is a retrospective study of twenty-two (22) CML patients seen and managed at the UCTH from June 2014 to August 2021. Male/female distribution was 9/13, with a median age of 42 years. Overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) were determined using the Kaplan-Meier techniques. The data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2016 and IBM SPSS version 21.

Results: Total of 22 CML patients were seen over the 8-year-period of review. The mean age was 42.63, median age 42, and modal age was 37 years respectively. There were 9 males and 13 females. 20 of the patients were in the chronic phase while 2 were in the terminating blastic phase. The presence of mutation was seen in two patients while the remaining 20 showed no mutation. Of the patients, 6 were dead and 16 are alive at the time of review. The overall survival period ranges from 12 to 84 months. The survival distributions for mutation and state of the disease (chronic or blastic) were not statistically significantly different, X²= 3.204, p = 0.073.

Conclusion: There is inconsistency in the demographic and overall survival pattern of chronic myeloid leukaemia in our environment. Further study is needed to identify the factors which can help to improve the overall survival pattern in our environment.

Background and Aims: Manotes expansa Sol. ex Planch. and Aframomum alboviolaceum (Ridl.) Schum.  are two plants belonging respectively to the family Connaraceae R.Br. and Zingiberaceae Martino widely used in traditional medicine for the treatment of eye diseases, fever, headaches, gastritis as well as asthma. The aim of the present study is the valorization of these two plants collected in the Democratic Republic of Congo by a quantitative and qualitative analysis of secondary metabolites and mineral elements in their leaves.

Materials and Methods: The determination of secondary metabolites in the leaves of Manotes expansa and Aframomum alboviolaceum was carried out by UV-Visible spectrophotometry and X-ray fluorescence spectrophotometry for the identification and quantitative analysis of mineral elements.

Results: The results showed that the leaves of these two plants are rich in phenolic compounds, i.e. 442.2 mgEqAG/g for the leaves of A. alboviolaceum, 370.64 mgEqAG/g for the red leaves and 282.64 mgEqAG/g green leaves of M. expansa. Although being part of the same plant, the red and green leaves of M. expansa presented a totally different phytochemical profile. The contents of condensed tannins, anthocyanins and flavonoids are respectively 0.3%, 0.68% and 3.29% for the leaves of A. alboviolaceum; 0.58%, 0.36% and 6.89% for the red leaves, and 0.65%, 0.26% and 7.55% for the green leaves of M. expansa.  The mineral content in the leaves of both plants remains dominated by the high concentration of potassium (K), calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Manganese (Mn) and Iron (Fe).

Conclusion: The high content of phenolic compounds and essential trace elements makes the leaves of M. expansa and A. alboviolaceum potential candidates to alleviate several health problems in Africa in general and particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The role of apicultural education as a catalyst for reducing rural poverty among bee farmers was investigated in Ini Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The survey research design was used in achieving this. To adequately and appropriately execute the project, some objectives were formulated. From these objectives, research questions were generated and hypotheses formulated accordingly to guide data gathering and analysis. The instrument for data gathering was a four point close ended questionnaire from which 150 bee farmers and 50 extension agents were selected to respond to items in the questionnaire using the census approach.  Data collected from their responses were subjected to two forms of descriptive analysis. The first was percentage descriptive analysis which was used to x-ray the biodata.  Second, mean and standard deviation were used to treat the research questions.  The third method used is the independent t-test on the three man hypothesis of the study. The result of the analysis warranted the rejection of the three null hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance with 198 degrees of freedom using 1.96 as the critical f value. The results showed that 98 percent of bee farmers who had received apicultural education through extension services produced had more honey yield due to increase awareness on modern bee keeping techniques, adequate processing information and marketing strategies which invariably increased their income. Based on the findings made in this research, it was concluded by  that giving the farmers and rural dwellers apicultural education such as training them on how to construct apicultural equipment, producing of honey, producing and processing of bee wax into other products such as polish, candles etc. will enhance their performance in bee farming and thus alleviate their poverty.