ABSTRACT In our experiment, coconut and palm oil supplementation was added to the diet of broiler chickens to prove the hypothesis that medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) can reduce the occurrence of potential pathogens (Clostridium perfingens, Coliform) in gut microflore and therefore improve bird welfare. Cobb 500 cockerels were divided in five groups. Control birds were fed commercial broiler diet, while birds in the four treatment group diets were supplemented with coconut, palm oil, or a combination of the two, respectively. As a positive control, sunflower oil supplementation was included in the diet of the fifth group. During the 28 days of the study (from 14 to 42 days of life), 5 samplings were scheduled, when excreta samples were taken from the litter to analyse total microbial count and the number of Clostridia, Coliforms, and Salmonella. According to the results of microbiological analysis, coconut oil supplementation led to the continuous decline of Clostridium perfringens numbers until they vanished by the end of the experimental period. A similar but faster decline was found as a result of palm oil and the combined (palm oil+coconut oil) treatment. However, the number of Coliforms and total microbial count changed only slightly by the end of the study. No Salmonella spp. was present in the samples throughout the experiment. Altogether, coconut and palm oil supplementation has a beneficial effect on the microbiological composition of poultry litter.

The present work describes the chemical constituents of Odontadenia lutea (Vell.) Markgr. leaves and the toxicities of its extract and fractions against Atta sexdens rubropilosa Forel (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Chromatographic procedures of the ethanolic extract resulted in the identification of the triterpene β-amyrin, the flavonoid rutin, two fatty acids palmitic and linolenic, and one glyceroglycolipid 3-O-(9,12,15-octadecatrienoyl)-glyceryl-β-D-galactopyranoside, which are known compounds, but they are described for the first time in the Odontadenia genus. The known triterpenes lupeol and α-amyrin were also identified. Structural identification of the compounds was performed by analysis of IR, ESI-MS, and 1D and 2D NMR spectra. The toxicity of its extract and fractions from O. lutea leaves was tested against leaf-cutting ants Atta sexdens rubropilosa Forel by employing ingestion bioassay procedures. The hexane fraction (2 mg mL-1) decreases the average survival of ants from sixteen to six days, causing 98% mortality on the 14th day and 100% at the end of the experiment.

BACKGROUND: Most childhood deaths occur within the first 2 months of life. Simple symptoms and signs that reliably indicate the presence of severe illness that would warrant urgent hospital management are of major public health importance. OBJECTIVES: To describe the disease profile of sick young infants aged 0 - 59 days presenting at King Edward VIII Hospital, Durban, and to assess the association between clinical features assessed by primary health workers and the presence of severe illness. METHODS: Specific clinical signs were evaluated in young infants by a health worker (nurse), using a standardised list. These signs were compared with an assessment by an experienced paediatrician for the need for urgent hospital- or clinic-based care. RESULTS: Nine hundred and twenty-five young infants were enrolled; 61 were <7 days old, 477 were 7 - 27 days old, and 387 were 28 - 59 days old. Illnesses needing urgent hospital management in the age group <7 days were hyperbilirubinaemia (43%) and sepsis (43%); in the age group 7 - 27 days they were pneumonia (26%), sepsis (17%) and hyperbilirubinaemia (15%), and in the age group 28 - 59 days they were pneumonia (54%) and sepsis (15%). The clinical sign most consistently predictive of needing urgent hospital care across all groups was not feeding well. Among those over 7 days old, a history of difficult feeding, temperature >37.5ºC and respiratory rate >60 per minute were also important. CONCLUSIONS. The simple features of feeding difficulties, pyrexia, tachypnoea and lower chest in-drawing are useful predictors of severity of illness as well as effective and safe tools for triaging of young infants for urgent hospital management at primary care centres. Neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia, pneumonia and sepsis are the common conditions for which young infants require urgent hospital-based management.