Background Parasitic diseases are the main challenge of livestock production in the world. They are mainly controlled by the use of anthelmintic drugs. To be effective, the drugs should contain the appropriate amount of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and have the required physical characteristics. In this study, qualitative and quantitative assessments were performed to evaluate the quality of different brands of albendazole tablets legally circulating in pharmaceutical markets of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods Ultraviolet–Visible Spectroscopy (UVS), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) were used for identification. Quantitative analysis was performed by HPLC. United States Pharmacopeia standard was used as a control to evaluate the identity and content of the API in the samples. A total of 10 batches of albendazole tablets from six different brands were collected and evaluated. Results All brands of albendazole tablets, except one, had acceptable physical characteristics. There was gross contamination in one batch, weight variation in 4 (40%) batches, and absence of package insert in 2 (20%) batches. All three methods of evaluation (UVS, FTIR and HPLC) confirmed that all batches passed the identity test. Quantitative analysis showed that no batch had API above the acceptable limit. However, 30% of batches from three different brands contained lower amount of API per tablet than the acceptable limit. Conclusions All batches of albendazole circulating in the market in Addis Ababa did not fulfil either physical or chemical quality standards. The most important finding of this research was the presence of drugs with lower level of API than the acceptable limit. This can lead to treatment failure and favour the emergence of parasites that are resistant to drugs. Therefore, there should be a thorough evaluation of drugs before approval. The study also revealed the importance of occasional assessment of drugs circulating even in the legal market. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40360-019-0299-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A study was carried out on 59 clinically healthy Zebu x Friesian crossbred cows to determine the prevalence of subclinical endometritis, associated factors and its effect on the reproductive performance. Subclinical endometritis was diagnosed by endometrial cytology using uterine lavege technique and subclinical mastitis using CMT. The clinical, management and reproductive data were obtained from a weekly follow up visit of each cow for a period of 6 months after calving. The prevalence of subclinical endometritis, with ≥5% neutrophil count, was 47.5% and 30.5% at week 4 and 8, significantly decreasing (P=0.002) as postpartum period advanced. Body condition score at week 4 postpartum (OR=4.5, P=0.017) and regular cow exercise (OR=4.8, P= 0.026) were the significant risk factors while postcalving hygiene (P=0.06) was poorly associated. Subclinical endometritis was also directly associated with subclinical mastitis at both week 4 (OR= 4.5, P=0.012) and 8 (OR=3.6, P=0.031) postpartum. The risk of first service pregnancy (OR=5.1, P=0.004) was higher in cows negative for subclinical endometritis at week 8 postpartum and the proportion of cows that required more than 3 services was higher in cows with uterine inflammation. Also the proportion of cows diagnosed pregnant within 180 DIM was higher in cows with normal uterus at both week 4 (OR=10.3, P=0.001) and week 8(OR=21.8, P=0.001). These results indicated that subclinical endometritis was directly associated with poor body condition and subclinical mastitis and that it had negative effect on reproductive traits of dairy cows. This association may also reflect the possibility of translocation of bacteria/bacterial products from the uterus to the udder or vic-versa or else the presence of common cause for both endometritis and mastitis.

Background Medicines of poor quality are currently prevailing problems undermining the quality of health care services in veterinary and human medicine. In this study, physico-chemical quality of veterinary medicines was evaluated. Methods A total of 959 veterinary medicines samples were collected during routine regulatory activities, i.e. pre-registration, re-registration, consignment checking and post-marketing surveillance, in Ethiopia. The samples were transported to Animal Products, Veterinary Drug and Feed Quality Assessment Centre (APVD-FQAC), which is the quality control laboratory of the Veterinary Drug and Feed Administration and Control Authority (VDFACA) and stored until analysis. The samples were subjected to visual inspection and chemical analysis following the United States, European or British Pharmacopoeias, or manufacturer’s methods. Results The findings revealed that 12 (1.3%) of tested products showed defects in physical characteristics, packaging, or labelling information, while a total of 66 (6.9%) samples of the investigated products failed to comply with the Pharmacopoeias and supplier’s specification limit set for assay. Of these, 60 samples did not comply with the minimum assay specification limit. Conclusion Overall, 8.2% of the investigated veterinary medicine samples did not comply with the specification set for the investigated quality attributes and thus were categorized as of poor quality. This indicates the need for continued strengthening of regulatory functions.

Evaluation of the Newcastle disease (NCD) antibody level after different vaccination regime was conducted on 110 chickens: (32%) vaccinated and kept separated, (25.2%) unvaccinated and kept with vaccinated, (25.2%) were control groups. Four vaccination regime of chicken against NCD using live lentogenic stain, Hithcner B1 (at the age of 3 day old) and lasota (at the age of 27, 63, and 112th days of age) were used. The overall antibody level of ND in examined chickens using HI test was Log 2 4.42 in unvaccinated and mixed with vaccinated birds, Log 2 5.2 in vaccinated and mixed with unvaccinated chickens, Log 2 2.6 in control groups and Log 2 5.3 in vaccinated and kept separately. On the other hand chickens vaccinated four times at 3, 27, 63 and 112 days were found to be protective as that of common vaccination schedule (0, 18, 72, 132 and 216 day old age) in antibody level of Newcastle disease among different vaccination regime and frequencies. The result of the present study indicated that the protective antibody titter response was produced from the vaccination; hence, it is very crucial to vaccinate chickens with the full dose of vaccines against NCD in order to keep protected poultry population.