Adequate preparation for highly pathogenic infectious disease pandemic can reduce the incidence, prevalence and burden of diseases like COVID-19 pandemic. An antidote to the spread of the disease is adequate preparation for its control since there is no proven curative measure yet. Effective management of identified cases, social distancing, contact tracing and provision of basic infrastructure to facilitate compliance with preventive measures, testing are proven management strategies. Although these measures seem to be the best options presently, it is important to pay attention to ethical issues arising from the implementation process to ensure best practice. While disease epidemic is not alien to human societies, lessons from previous outbreaks are vital for addressing future outbreaks. For effective control of this pandemic, there should be a clear definition of social distancing in terms of distance and space in line with the WHO definition, adequate provision of basic amenities, screening and testing with specific criteria for selecting those to be screened. Also, there should be a free testing procedure, access to treatment opportunities for those who test positive, ethical free contact tracing practice, respect for the autonomy of those to be tested, and global best practice of open science, open data and data sharing practices. In conclusion, a framework/guideline for epidemic/pandemic ethics guidance should be developed while an ethical sensitive communication manual should be prepared for public engagement on epidemic and pandemic.

Background: Castration is one of the frequent management practices in large animal husbandry and burdizzo castration has been shown to produce fewer long-term behavioral signs of pain and distress than banding. Castration is known to reduce virility and aggression due to the elimination of testicular androgens. Methods: This is a comparative study of hematological and biochemical parameters in intact, acute and chronically castrated West African dwarf goats. Twelve adult West African Dwarf bucks weighing between 8 to 14 kg randomly divided into 3 groups of intact, acute and chronic castrated. They were castrated using burdizzo castrator. Hematological and biochemical parameters were estimated by standard laboratory procedures. Results: There were significant decreases (P<0.05) in the PCV, Hb, RBC, WBC and MCH of acute and chronically castrated goat compared to the control group. The MCV and platelets increased significantly in acute and chronically castrated goat; while the neutrophil and lymphocyte showed no significant changes. The result also showed no significant changes in Na , AST and Creatinine. Mg 2+ and ALT significantly increased in chronically castrated goats compared with the acutely castrated goats while Zinc increased significantly (P<0.05) in acute castrated compared with the control goats. Conclusions: Therefore, from this study, either acute or chronic castration in goats have no detrimental effect on blood electrolytes, but mainly deter the hematopoietic process in the animal owing to testosterone and androgen depletion in castrate animals.

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