The burden of ticks in semi-arid lands of Ethiopia is not as pronounced as in some more humid areas of the continent. Nevertheless, the increasing recourse to chemicals smuggled by illegal traders has led to serious problems, including poisoning of humans and animals, discontinuous and irrational treatment regimens, tick-resistance to acaricidal products, loss of traditional knowledge and weakening of social structures. In order to encourage a resumption of the long-established ethnoveterinary practices, a survey on plants locally used in tick control was undertaken, and plant species used in other parts of the continent for the same purpose were considered. On these bases, 28 plant species or varieties were collected in the study area: Acacia seyal var. seyal, Adenium somalense, Aloe calidophila, Aloe parvidens, Azadirachta indica, Boscia angustifolia, Calotropis procera, Calpurnia aurea, Cissus quadrangularis, Commiphora erythraea, Cordia africana, Croton macrostachys, Croton megalocarpus, Datura stramonium, Euphorbia candelabrum, Euphorbia tirucalli, Ficus sycomorus, Ficus thonningii, Lantana camara, Maerua triphylla, Ocimum suave, two varieties of Ricinus communis (one with green fruits and another with red ones), Solanum incanum, Solanum somalense, Sterculia rhynchocarpa, Tagetes minuta and Vernonia amygdalina. In general, leaves were collected and used. However, due to the scarcity of foliar material, the whole plant of T. minuta and O. suave, the whole stem of A. somalense and C. quadrangularis, the branches of E. candelabrum and E. tirucalli, the bark in the case of A. seyal, C. erythraea and S. rhynchocarpa, were examined. After drying and grinding, the plant material was extracted with hexane and acetone, and made up to different concentrations to test the relevant repellent and toxic properties on adult Rhipicephalus pulchellus unfed ticks. For every bioassay, four replications, each using ten ticks, were performed. For the repellency bioassays, ticks were placed on a rectangular polystyrene platform stuck in a plastic basin and surrounded by water, in order to prevent them from moving away. Two glass rods, each provided with filter paper at the top and at the base, were inserted at opposite edges of the platform. The two filter papers of one rod were impregnated with the testing solution (i.e. solvent plus extract) at different concentrations while those of the other rod were treated with the pertinent extractant (hexane or acetone). Because of their inherent tendency to climb, most of the ticks settled onto the rods (mainly at the top), and their distribution was different depending on the repellency capacity of the extracts. The relevant data were then converted into repellency indexes using the formula [(Nc - Nt)/(Nc + Nt)] x 100, where Nc refers to the number of ticks on the control rod and Nt to the number of ticks on the test rod (Lwande et al., 1999; Pascual-Villalobos and Robledo, 1998). For the toxicity bioassays, 1 ìl of the extract at different concentrations was placed onto each tick and the mortality or weakening ratio was recorded after 24 hours. Because of the intrinsic toxicity of hexane, only acetone extracts were used for these assays. Due to the efficacy in extracting volatile compounds, hexane extracts had, for 24 plant species, better repellent properties than acetone extracts. Moreover, at a concentration of 10%, four species had negative repellency indexes with hexane extracts and five with acetone ones. At such concentration, these extracts therefore seemed to attract the ticks rather than repel them. At a concentration of 10%, thirteen hexane and five acetone extracts had repellency indexes > 50. At a concentration of 5%, only five hexane extracts and no acetone ones exceeded this value. Finally, only one species had a repellency index > 50 with the hexane extract at a 1% concentration. The plants showing good repellency indexes with at least one of the two solvents were A. calidophila, C. quadrangularis, C. erythraea, C. macrostachys, C. megalocarpus, D. stramonium, L. camara, M. triphylla, O. suave, the two varieties of R. communis and T. minuta. Amomg them, from a practical point of view, it is suitable to concentrate on O. suave, T. minuta and, to a certain extent, A. calidophila. In fact, C. quadrangularis, C. erythraea, C. macrostachys, D. stramonium, M. triphylla and the two varieties of R. communis had good repellent properties using hexane extracts at 10%, but not at 5%. Because trees like C. erythraea, C. macrostachys, C. megalocarpus and M. triphylla are highly valuable in a very dry environment, an excessive exploitation can put them in danger. Since D. stramonium, L. camara and R. communis are toxic plants, their extracts can be a serious threat for both humans and animals. Furthermore, L. camara is one of the worst weeds in the world, making it very inappropriate for lands already subject to the problem of bush encroachment. For all these reasons, T. minuta and O. suave appear to be the most promising plants; moreover, they are very well known in Southern Ethiopia and occur widely all over the area. On the contrary, A. calidophila is limited to just some places and the cultivation of Aloe species needs special attention, so it is not very suitable for people with a nomadic lifestyle. Concerning the toxicity bioassays, C. aurea extracts yielded by far the best results. In fact, all the ticks used had severe movement impairment when put in contact with acetone extracts at the concentrations of 20% and 10%. At a 5% concentration, 85% of the ticks had the same symptoms. In a separate test, a 10% water extract had a similar effect on 30 ticks out of 40, demonstrating the ease of extraction and application of the active compounds. The plant is well known, mainly by the Borana pastoralists, and is resistant to drought. It is also well able to grow in overgrazed areas, and its cultivation does not require special skills. Some of the extracts of other species gave good or fair results in the toxicity bioassays but, apart from S. incanum, only at a very high concentration (20%). Further studies may include isolation and characterization of the active compounds from the best species, setting up of a suitable plan for livestock treatment, and organization of a production and distribution cycle of appropriate phytomedicines in the pertinent pastoral area. / Dissertation (MSc (Veterinary Science))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Paraclinical Sciences / unrestricted

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:33:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LeideAPS_DISSERT.pdf: 986741 bytes, checksum: e18d4b42b9411720a51bd3f7786fa126 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-25 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / Cyanobacterial blooms are common in eutrophic reservoirs in Brazilian northeastern semi-arid. Given this reality, the present study aimed to analyze the effect of potentially toxic cyanobacterial blooms in Gargalheiras reservoir (semi-arid) on the cladocerans Ceriodaphnia dubia and Daphnia gessneri. In vitro chronic bioassays were performed with reservoir water dilutions from August/2011 to May/2012 and the following effects were evaluated on: intrinsic rate of population growth (r), reproductive parameters (age of first reproduction and fecundity per capita) and cladocerans movements. Phytoplankton was dominated by Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii and Planktothrix agardhii and saxitoxin and microcystin were detected in reservoir water. In most months C. dubia showed differences in r between control (absence of cyanobacteria) and treatments, and has shown negative effects on reproductive parameters. In all months paralysis of swimming movements was observed in C. dubia when both C. raciborskii and saxitoxin (cyanotoxin neurotoxic) were present in water. While C. dubia was sensitive to the reservoir water containing cyanobacteria, D. gessneri showed less intense negative effects in r and reproductive parameters. Furthermore, D. gessneri showed no paralysis of swimming movements. These results support the hypothesis in the literature that D. gessneri is resistant to the Cylindrospermopsis effects. The clone‟s life history may be a key to understand the results. The C. dubia clone, isolated from eutrophicated environment, is in the lab for ten years and it is an exotic species in Brazil. D. gessneri is a common species in the country and this clone was isolated from the Gargalheiras reservoir (where there are constant blooms of potentially toxic cyanobacteria) a year ago. Perhaps the recent contact with cyanobacteria explain the higher resistance presented by this D. gessneri clone. In conclusion, the cladocerans studied have different levels of sensitivity to cyanobacteria, characterizing species-specific responses / Flora??es de cianobact?ras s?o frequentes em reservat?rios eutr?ficos do semi-?rido do nordeste brasileiro. Diante dessa realidade o presente trabalho objetivou analisar o efeito de flora??es de cianobact?rias potencialmente t?xicas do reservat?rio Gargalheiras (semi-?rido brasileiro) sobre os clad?ceros Ceriodaphnia dubia e Daphnia gessneri. Foram realizados ensaios cr?nicos in vitro com dilui??es de ?gua do reservat?rio de agosto/2011 a maio/2012 e foram avaliados efeitos sobre: taxa intr?nseca de crescimento populacional (r), par?metros reprodutivos (idade da primeira reprodu??o e fecundidade per capita) e movimenta??o dos clad?ceros. O fitopl?ncton foi dominado por Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii e Planktothrix agardhii e houve detec??o de saxitoxina e microcistina na ?gua do reservat?rio. Na maioria dos meses C. dubia apresentou diferen?a em r entre controle (aus?ncia de cianobact?rias) e tratamentos, al?m de ter apresentado efeitos negativos nos par?metros reprodutivos. Observou-se ainda um efeito de paralisia dos movimentos natat?rios de C. dubia em todos os meses, concomitante ? presen?a de C. raciborskii e saxitoxina (cianotoxina neurot?xica) na ?gua. Enquanto C. dubia apresentou-se sens?vel ? ?gua do reservat?rio contendo cianobact?rias, D. gessneri apresentou efeitos negativos menos intensos em r e nos par?metros reprodutivos. Al?m disso, esta esp?cie n?o teve os movimentos paralisados. Esses resultados apoiam a hip?tese levantada na literatura de que D. gessneri apresenta resist?ncia aos efeitos da Cylindrospermopsis. A hist?ria de vida dos clones pode ser uma chave para compreens?o dos resultados. O clone de C. dubia, isolado de ambiente eutrofizado, est? em laborat?rio h? dez anos e essa ? uma esp?cie ex?tica no Brasil. D. gessneri ? uma esp?cie comum no pa?s e este clone foi isolado h? um ano do reservat?rio Gargalheiras, onde h? constantes flora??es de cianobact?rias potencialmente t?xicas. A hip?tese mais prov?vel ? que o contato recente deste clone de D. gessneri com cianobact?rias tenha lhe conferido maior resist?ncia. Conclui-se que os clad?ceros estudados apresentam diferentes n?veis de sensibilidade ?s cianobact?rias, caracterizando respostas esp?cie-espec?ficas

Studies in the USA have reported that species of meiobenthic copepods can be used as bioindicators of sediment-associated contaminants. The main objective of this research project was to develop and validate methods to assess the effects of estuarine pollution, using the marine benthic copepod Robertsonia propinqua as a bioindicator of environmental health in New Zealand intertidal / estuarine areas. Cultures of R. propinqua were set up and maintained in the laboratory and individuals used in 96h acute and full life-cycle chronic bioassays using the pre-selected contaminants atrazine and zinc sulphate. From the 96h acute experiments it was found that the lethal doses at which 50% mortality occurred (LC50) for exposed nauplii and adult individuals were 7.5 mg/L and 31.8 mg/L, respectively for atrazine and 1.7 mg/L and 2.7 mg/L, respectively for zinc sulphate. This indicated that the nauplii life stage was more sensitive than were the adult life stages for exposure to both contaminants. Based on the 'trigger' values reported (atrazine = 0.013 mg/L, zinc = 0.015 mg/L) in the Australian and New Zealand guidelines for fresh and marine water quality, which provide values at which concentrations of contaminants can occur in the environment before they begin causing effects on aquatic fauna, it is unlikely that the calculated LC50s in the current research will induce biological effects in exposed copepods in the short-term. The calculated LC50 results were then used to further investigate the effects of chronic exposure of sediment-associated contaminants on the complete life-cycle (egg-reproductive adult) of R. propinqua. In a laboratory-based full life-cycle toxicity test, field-collected sediments from polluted sites in the Auckland and Bay of Plenty regions reduced reproductive output (nauplii and copepodite production) of R. propinqua individuals, but the number of males and females, gravid females, clutch size per female and the number of eggs produced were not affected by either the polluted or non-polluted (reference) sediment samples from both field regions. Field investigations of meiofauna community composition in polluted and non-polluted field sites were carried out in 2004 in the Auckland and Bay of Plenty field regions in New Zealand. Greater sediment organic content and a correspondingly deeper redox potential discontinuity layer occurred in all polluted field sites compared with the non-polluted sites. However, species composition could not be used to characterise polluted and non-polluted sites, as there were no dominant taxa which were representative of these sites. The results presented in this thesis indicate that R. propinqua has strong potential to be a good candidate species as a bioindicator of environmental contamination. Furthermore, the full life-cycle toxicity test could be used as a rapid test to detect immediate changes in individual reproduction and development as well as long-term population effects. The technologies developed as part of this research may eventually provide additional tools for commercial environmental consultancies and may compliment existing standard operating procedures for environmental assessments involving pollution of estuarine ecosystems.