Abstractbackground and objective The high prevalence of numerous transfusion-transmitted infectious diseases such as HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis in sub-Saharan Africa affects blood safety for transfusion recipients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and incidence of transfusiontransmissible infectious diseases among blood donors in Burkina Faso.methods A retrospective study of blood donors' records from January to December 2009 was conducted. Prevalence and incidence of viral infections were calculated among repeat and first-time blood donors.results Of the total of 31 405 first-time volunteer blood donors in 2009, 24.0% were infected with at least one pathogen and 1.8% had serological evidence of multiple infections. The seroprevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis in first-time volunteer donors was 1.8%, 13.4%, 6.3% and 2.1%, respectively. In 3981 repeat donors, the incidence rate was 3270.2, 5874.1 and 6784.6 per 100 000 donations for anti-HIV-1, HBsAg and anti-HCV, respectively. These numbers varied significantly according to populations where blood is collected and blood centres in Burkina Faso.conclusion The relatively high prevalence of viral markers in first-time volunteers and remarkably high incidence of infections in repeat donors raise concerns regarding the safety of these donors and suggest that implementation of NAT might significantly improve the situation.

Diversity among 124 sorghum landraces from 10 villages surveyed in 3 regions of Burkina Faso covering different agroecological zones was assessed by 28 agromorphological traits and 29 microsatellite markers. 94.4% of the landraces collected belonged to the botanical race guinea (consisting of 96.6% guinea gambicum and 3.4% guinea margaritiferum), 74.2% had white kernels, 13.7% had orange and 12.1% had red kernels. Compared to the "village nested within zone" factor, the "variety nested within village within zone" factor predominately contributed to the diversity pattern for all nine statistically analysed quantitative traits. The multivariate analyses performed on ten morphological traits identified five landrace groups, and of these, the red kernel sorghum types appeared the most homogenous. 2 to 17 alleles were detected per locus with a mean 4.9 alleles per locus and a gene diversity (He) of 0.37. Landraces from the sub-Sahelian zone had the highest gene diversity (He = 0.38). Cluster analysis revealed that the diversity was weakly stratified and could not be explained by any biophysical criteria. One homogenous guinea margaritiferum group was distinguished from other guinea landraces. The red kernel type appeared to be genetically distinct from all other guinea landraces. The kernel colour was the principal structuring factor. This is an example of a homogeneous group of varieties selected for a specific use (for local beer preparation), mainly grown around the households in compound fields, and presenting particular agromorphological and genetic traits. This is the most original feature of sorghum diversity in Burkina Faso and should be the focus of special conservation efforts.

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en recherche agronomique pour le développement (Cirad), Unité propre de recherche (UPR) « Gestion des ressources génétiques et dynamiques sociales »,

The authors collected Sahelian sorghum landraces of Burkina Faso in 1984 and 74 of these accessions were characterized in 1985-1986 at Gampela in Burkina Faso (West Africa). The five races of cultivated sorghum were represented in this zone but 63.5% of the accessions were Guinea type. Great intra-and inter-accession variability was found. Plants were tall and had long panicles and small to intermediate seeds. There was a strong association between days-to-flowering, number of internodes, panicle length and height. The 100-kernel weight showed an antagonism with days to flowering and tillering. Multivariate analyses were made which enabled the accessions to be classified into four groups. The group most adapted to the sahelian zone, 'sahelian group', was semi-late, developed intermediate size of vegetative organs, had moderate tillering and had the best yield per plant.