Issue 2

Traditional Chinese and Iranian medicine are ancient medical and health care systems that still forms an important part of diagnosis and treatment systems in Iran, China and other parts of the world. The integration of these two systems and modern biomedicine is also an important issue. Iranian and Chinese traditional medicines recommended for health promotion and well-being. Chinese herbal drugs have been described by medieval Muslim medical scholars such as Tabari, Rhazes, Haly Abbas, Avicenna and Jurjani (1137 CE). Traditional Chinese and Iranian medicine play an important role in sustainable agriculture and food systems, it also offers a holistic approach to prevent diseases while making appropriate use of organic and herbal products especially growth by small-scale family farmers. Both Iranian and Chinese traditional medicines may help to balance temperature, and both can be health prevention and preservation. Traditional healing practices consist of Islamic religious text based practices, Islamic worship practices and folk healing practices, Islamic religious text based practices are included spiritual healing, medicinal herbs, applied therapy and dietary prescriptions. At present, herbal medications or related products in the global market are derived from Chinese herbs, Indian herbs, Iranian herbs, Arabic herbs, and Western herbs. Herbal remedies may also be classified into three categories, namely, modern herbs, theoretical herbs, and empirical herbs, in accordance with their nature/characteristics and the nature of current usage. Traditional Chinese and Iranian medicines are inexpensive and available to all and they also focus more on fitness than illness.

Blight is an important disease that cause devastating yield loss now a days. That’s why, an investigation was carried out at the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), Barishal for screening of lentil germplasms against stemphylium blight in terms of yield and yield attributes. To find the best genotype, 40 moderately stemphylium resistant lentil lines/ genotypes were used and their different yield contributing characters were analysed. In this study, it has been observed that the long delay of 1st flowering was recorded in BD-5982 and BD-5996 while early flowering in BD-3927 and BARI masur-7. The highest 50% flowering days was recorded in BD-3983, BD-4024, BD-4053 etc. and lowest in BD-3922. Long maturation period of 111.5 days was recorded in BD-4024 and that of short maturity date was recorded in BD-3924 and BD-3927. The highest plant height was observed in BD-3974 and lowest was in BD4127. The maximum number of branches per plant was observed in BD-3936 and BD-4024 and minimum was found in BD-4097. Maximum number of pods per plant was recorded in BD-3922 and minimum number of pods per plant was in BD-4053. The lowest number of seeds per pod was recorded in BD-4053. The highest 100 seed weight was recorded in BD-5986 and the lowest was observed in BD-4127. Maximum biological yield was recorded in BD-4053 and minimum was in BD-5989. The highest and lowest grain yield was recorded in BD5983 and BD-4024, respectively. This finding will help researcher to develop new variety in near future.

Rotaviruses are considered as a major cause in the etiology of diarrhea in young calves worldwide and it causes calf morbidity, mortality and substantial economic losses in the dairy industry. This study reports the determination of the disease burden and first evaluation of associated risk factors of rotavirus infection in calves in Bangladesh. A cross sectional survey was carried out for the approximation of prevalence and associated risk factors of rotavirus infection in neonatal calves in South-eastern part of Bangladesh. From July 2015 to May 2016 a total of 411 calves under the age of 6 weeks from 210 dairy farms were selected using probability sampling scheme. Rotavirus infection was diagnosed from calf fecal samples using a commercial ELISA kit. Different farm and calf level factors were tested by mixed effect multivariable logistic regression models to differentiate factors significantly contributing to the high burden of rotavirus infection in calves in the study area. Overall prevalence of rotavirus in calf feces, irrespective of diarrheic and non-diarrheic, was estimated as 5.11%. Among the hypothesized risk factors, samples from winter season showed higher odds of having the infection compared to summer (OR=6.04). Likewise, higher odds ratios were observed in: >3 weeks of age group compared to ≤ 3 weeks (OR=2.87), taking of first colostrums after 30 minutes to 2 hours of birth in contrast to within 30 minutes (OR=13.92), and finally, calves from 3^rd to 4^th parity compared to 1^st to 2^nd parity (OR=6.79). Enteric diseases are a vital health problem in calves that interrupts production benefits with reduced weight gain and increased mortality rates and moreover it has potential to spread. Therefore, it is imperative to determine the disease burden and responsible risk factors to execute effective preventive measures among the population at higher risk.

The study was performed to isolate and characterize some selected bacteria from skin lesion of sheep, goat and cattle of different rearing condition. Intensive and semi-intensive housing systems were considered for this study. A total of (n=60) skin wound swab and pus samples were collected for this study during the study period. Among them (n=30) samples were collected from intensive farms and (n=30) samples were collected from semi-intensive farms. Staphylococcus aureus infections were found 70% skin lesion for sheep, 30% for goat and 60% for cattle and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections were found 5% skin lesion for sheep, 15% for goat and 15% for cattle. Semi-intensive farm animals were more infected by bacteria than intensive farm animals. Staphylococcus aureus affected 53.33% in intensive farm animal and 66.67% in semi-intensive farm animal. Pseudomonas aeruginosa affected 10% animal in intensive housing system and 13.33% in semi-intensive housing system. The organisms were isolated and characterized by morphological, cultural and biochemical characteristics and identified by polymerase chain reaction. Staphylococcus aureus produced yellowish colony in nutrient agar and golden yellow colony in mannitol salt agar. Positive isolates were produced β–hemolysis in blood agar. Pseudomonas aeruginosa produced characteristic colony in nutrient agar but not produce pigment. Pseudomonas aeruginosa produced colorless colony in MaCconkey agar, violet colony in EMB agar and produced hemolysis in blood agar. Staphylococcus aureus showed Gram positive, cocci shaped and grapes like arrangement and Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed Gram negative, short rod shaped. Staphylococcus aureus fermented five basic sugars and produced gas and Pseudomonas aeruginosa fermented dextrose and mannitol. Both organisms were catalase positive, only Pseudomonas aeruginosa was oxidase positive. Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were further characterized by PCR amplification of toxA gene primer. Staphylococcus aureus skin infection treatment was noticed more effective by erythromycin and gentamicin and Pseudomonas aeruginosa skin infection treatment more effective by ciprofloxacin and gentamicin. Both the organisms were found to be amoxicillin resistant. This is the first and preliminary report of molecular characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from skin lesion of sheep, goat and cattle associated with a different rearing condition of the animals in Bangladesh.

Maintaining proper hygiene during menstruation prevents certain reproductive illnesses. For female athletes, they need to put an extra effort to keep themselves healthy at this time because of their daily strenuous activities. In this study, we assessed the level of knowledge, attitude and practices about menstrual hygiene management among adolescent trainee athletes. A cross-sectional study was carried out among adolescent trainee athletes from BKSP. Samples were chosen conveniently from different sports departments. In total, 143 Female athletes who regularly menstruate were included. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to determine the level of knowledge, attitude and practices and their associated factors. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare means of outcome variables. The mean ± SD age of our participant was 14.31 ± 1.48. Majority of the participants were scared during their first menstruation (39.9%). Mothers were the main source of information (84.6%). Majority of the participants had poor knowledge (56.6%) and practices (68.5%) while the level of attitude was good (67.1) regarding menstruation. Age-group was associated with knowledge score (p=0.034) regarding menstruation while family income was associated with attitude (p=0.014). Educational level of father was associated with both knowledge (p=0.049) and attitude (p=0.010). Poor level of knowledge and practices were observed among the survey respondents, though the level of attitude was satisfactory. Mothers were the primary source of information regarding menstrual hygiene. It is important to provide menstrual hygiene education to the young athletes from a reliable and formal source.

Nymphaea lotus belongs to the family Nymphaeaceae and traditionally used in the treatment of aphrodisiac, anodyne, astringent, cardiotonic, sedative, demulcent, analgesic and as anti-inflammatory agent. The objective of the study was to evaluate the phytochemical, physicochemical analysis and safety margin of N. lotus rhizome with the hope of assisting in its standardization for quality, purity and safety. The powdered sample of the rhizome was extracted with aqueous and methanol and evaluated for physicochemical parameters of the plant. The extracts were subjected to qualitative and quantitative phytochemical analysis and acute toxicity study. The physicochemical parameters evaluated include: moisture content (7.4%), total ash (10.3%), water soluble (7.1%), acid insoluble (2.8%), ethanol extractive value (16.7%), and water extractive value (22.0%). The quantitative phytochemical analysis revealed that alkaloids (166.0 mg/g) was the highest phytochemical detected in the rhizome while the lowest was saponins (22.0 mg/g). LD₅₀ of both extracts was above 5000 mg/kg and did not cause mortality in all the tested rats. The results of this finding may be useful in laying down standards and for the compilation of a suitable pharmacopoeia parameters on N. lotus.

Despite efforts to eliminate female genital mutilation and cutting, the harmful practice has persisted in southwest Nigeria. There is an urgent need for accurate data highlighting predictors of the practice so that interventions to eliminate it can be effective. A population-based, cross-sectional survey of women in Ado – Ekiti Local Government Area was conducted to address this need. FGM/C prevalence was 67.2%, and 94% of the women interviewed were aware of the practice. Although most, 142 (39.3%), of the women heard of FGM/C from healthcare personnel, half, 181 (50.1%), of the respondents noted that healthcare providers performed the FGM/C in the community. Young and middle-aged women, of Yoruba extraction who were married, and multiparous, were significantly more likely to have undergone FGM/C. Also, the likelihood of having experienced FGM/C was more among women who were presently employed (irrespective of the class of occupation), had female children, and with a poor perception about FGM/C. After including characteristics with p < 0.05 into multivariate logistic regression model with practice of FGM/C as the dependent variable, perception about FGM/C (AOR: 0.42; 95% C.I.: 0.24 – 0.72; p = 0.002), employment as a skilled worker (AOR: 0.30; 95% C.I.: 0.13 – 0.69; p = 0.005) and being of Yoruba (AOR: 0.07; 95% C.I.: 0.02 – 0.25; p < 0.0001) and Igbo extraction (AOR: 0.15; 95% C.I.: 0.02 – 0.93; p = 0.042), were independently associated with the experience of FGM/C in the study population. Scaling up media involvement and inclusion of FGM/C facts in school texts and curricula, legal sanctions for erring healthcare workers, female re-orientation to correct wrong perception about FGM/C’s supposed benefits, and accurate data for targeted public health interventions are recommended.

Hematological indication is an important finding for pathophysiology analysis of biological science. This study was designed with the aim to investigate the effects of residual antibiotics on hematological parameters of broiler following discriminate and indiscriminate use. Broiler chicks were reared accordingly upto 30 days and on day 14 the chicks were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=6) namely control (group A), discriminate (group B) and indiscriminate (group C). At the age of day 16, amoxicillin treatment was started and continued for seven (7) days for in discriminate group (Group B) and fifteen (15) days for indiscriminate group. In case of discriminate group withdrawal period was properly maintained as nomenclature (Seven days) whereas, there was no withdrawal period in case of indiscriminate group. The hemoglobin (gm%) of control, discriminate, and indiscriminate group was 7.07±0.099, 6.97±0.095, and 6.90±0.124; Total erythrocyte count (TEC) 2.55±0.044 million/mm3, 2.53±0.038 million/mm3, and 2.50±0.026 million/mm3; Packed Cell Volume PCV (%) 19.83±1.302, 19.33±1.054, and 18.50±0.764 respectively. There was no significant difference on blood parameter found among the groups. Therefore, discriminate and indiscriminate use of amoxicillin has no bad effect on hematological parameters of broiler.

Repeat breeding reduces calf and milk production in crossbred cows. Serum lipid profiles in repeat breeding (RB) and normal cyclic (NC) cows were examined. Blood samples from 10 of each type cows were collected and TC, TG, HDL and LDL were estimated by spectrophotometer using enzymatic commercial kit. The serum TC in NC and RB were found within normal range (167.43 vs. 174.95mg/dl) (P>0.05). The TG in RB cows (121.92mg/dl) were significantly (P<0.05) higher than NC cows (115.03mg/dl). The HDL and LDL in NC (49.74 and 98.82mg/dl) and RB cows (46.40 and 103.09mg/dl) were found within normal range (P>0.05). Serum lipids have no effect on repeat breeding problem for crossbred cows.