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A serological study was conducted between October, 2019 to February, 2020 to investigate the prevalence of Brucellosis in sheep and goats in Yobe State. A total of 415 serum samples were collected from three, randomly selected Local Government Areas of the three Senatorial Districts of the State. The samples were first subjected to Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT). Positive samples were further subjected to Serum Agglutination (SAT) and 2Mercapto-Ethanol (2ME) tests. For the Ovine species, the seroprevalence rates were 9.87, 3.61 and 1.68% for RBPT, SAT and 2ME, respectively. The corresponding rates for Caprine were 6.74, 1.44 and 1.68%. Generally, SAT followed by 2ME were better in discriminating between positive and negative animals and thus reducing the chances of false positive/negative. Chi square test was used to determine significance between proportions among species, breeds and sex within RBPT and, management within SAT were statistically significant (P

According to the Global System for Mobile Alliance (GSMA), in 2017, there were around 3.3 billion people connected to the mobile Internet. This represented an upward surge in global coverage compared to previous years. However, more than one billion people are still not covered by mobile broadband networks, representing what is termed “the coverage gap”. Uncovered populations typically live in rural locations with low population densities, low per-capita income levels and weak or non-existent enabling infrastructure, and thus, closing the mobile coverage gap seems to be more of an economic challenge, than a pure technical one. This paper presents an overview of the need for rural and remote coverage, both from an operator and consumer as well as government perspective. It then presents the major challenges, and necessary actions to be taken by industry, Government and other stake-holders to drive rural and remote coverage by significantly lowering the cost of network roll-out and increase incentives for such deployments. The paper therefore, presents a technical and business case for the use of “Small Cells” in conjunction with satellites with a view to opening up huge markets via collaboration between the mobile operators and satellite system owners, while offering significant improvements in the coverage and capacity needs of remote, rural or underserved end-users in a cost-effective and scalable manner. Detailed insights to these two technologies are presented, including the innovations to overcome technical and regulatory challenges. Lastly, some real-life deployments are given and the paper concludes with some recommendations for Government and network operators presented.

With global population predicted to rise continuously (from 7.2 billion to between 9~10 billion people by the year 2050), the world would need to produce almost twice the amount of food as it does today to sustain such human needs. This coupled with recent environmental/climatic changes and urbanization would continue to place enormous burden on the available land, water and energy resources required for both crop and animal farming which is even more critical for developing regions, such as Sub-Saharan Africa due to arid lands, poverty, extreme hunger and endemic diseases. Hence, there is an urgent need for more effective, intensification and industrialization of the region’s agricultural sector to improve food supply. Internet-of-things (IoT) is a new and attractive family of technologies capable of modernizing Africa’s agricultural sector in line with best practices to improve productivity and minimize cost with reduced energy consumption. This paper intends to kick-start discussions around IoT-based solutions in livestock farming in Nigeria, with a view to addressing issues of cattle rustling as well as improved livestock health-care and better herd management through real-time monitoring. The proposed solution leverages LoRaWAN (Long-range Wireless Access Network) technology, whereby very low-power sensors with extremely long-range are attached to the cattle, and communicate with a gateway for linking to the cloud/satellite network to the internet for data processing and analytics. Such a system is also ideal for rural/remote areas where there is limited or no cellular network and internet coverage, which is where most Nigerian farms/ranches may be located. The paper sheds some light on some real-life use cases, benefits and challenges of deploying such smart systems and provides some recommendations/action points for all relevant stake-holders towards a sustainable implementation in Nigerian agricultural sector

In a study to determine the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) of pastoralists in Katsina State of Nigeria in relation to tuberculosis, 592 pastoralists were selected from two Local Government Areas (LGAs) from each of the three senatorial districts of the State. Two Wards were also selected from each of the LGAs. The study showed that 96.76% of the respondents knew 5 animal diseases while 8.27% and 4.05% knew 10 and 15 animal diseases respectively. Also, 71.60% of them knew tuberculosis in animals and man and also its Treatment Centres. Their sources of knowledge of these diseases included Veterinarians, (28.50%), hospitals (6.70%), friends (4.56%), fellow herdsmen (3.37%), and electronic media (31.25%). Signs of tuberculosis they knew in cattle included coughing (61.48%), weight loss 18.90%, death 16.80%, and others (6.70%). They indicated its methods of transmission in animals to included ingestion 15.20%, drinking contaminated water 36.60% and closeness with other animals (10.49%). In man they included drinking contaminated milk 36.48% in addition to consumption of contaminated meat 33.10% and closeness to infected individuals30.40%. With regard to their attitude to tuberculosis, 87.80% of the respondents were eating roasted meat and drinking milk daily along with taking milk directly from the udder of their cattle (35.10%) and consuming sheep and goats’ milk (30.40%). Practices of respondents’ indicated54.50% of them managing their cattle under extensive system and used community ponds to water their animals. Consequently, there is need for public enlightenment towards the dangers of tuberculosisKey words: Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, Tuberculosis, Katsina State.

The study was aimed at evaluating the changes in haematological parameters and erythrocyte osmotic fragility in lame and aged horses administered with resveratrol supplement (Equithrive joint®). A total of 16 horses of both sexes, aged 18 ± 0.65 and showing lameness grade 3 were used for the study. The horses weighed 350-450 kg and comprised 8 horses which were administered with resveratrol supplement for 4 weeks and 8 others, which served as controls and given only Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strain used as carrier in the supplement. Blood samples were collected from each horse before supplementation and at weekly intervals for 4 weeks of the experiment. Haematological parameters and erythrocyte osmotic fragility were determined by standard methods. Equithrive joint® increased significantly (P ˂ 0.05) packed cell volume, haemoglobin concentration and erythrocyte counts in the treated horses while total leucocyte, neutrophil and eosinophil counts decreased significantly (P ˂ 0.05) in the treated horses compared with the untreated horses. Erythrocyte osmotic fragility test showed decreased haemolysis in the treated horses. The result indicated that equithrive joint® a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent maintained the membrane integrity of red blood cells and may be of value in aiding horses move with ease during ageing.Keywords: Horses, erythrocyte osmotic fragility, haematological parameters, resveratrol, ageing, lameness