Avoiding meat contamination at slaughterhouses is crucial for food safety; consumers' awareness and concern for the type of food they eat has attracted global attention and redirected research interests towards food safety. The practical hygiene in the slaughterhouse operations play key role in the safety and wholesomeness of meat. A cross sectional survey was carried out on 60 slaughterhouses in Ibadan, Oyo and Ogbomosho, in Oyo State, South Western Nigeria. A well-structured pre-tested checklist was administered and scored; data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics and ttest to separate significant differences between abattoirs and slaughter slabs. This study revealed that for the 50 items scored, only four [environmental cleanliness (66.7%), washing of slaughtering tools and equipments (60%), access to facility to wash hands and shoes (71.7%), and appropriateness of slaughterhouse location (58.3%)] were partially observed. The remaining 46 are non-existent or poorly implemented. However, only 9 out of the 23 items of the practical hygiene and level of cleanliness compared between the surveyed abattoirs and slaughter slabs, showed significant (p < 0.05) differences. These are garbage disposal (p<0.001), washing of slaughtering tools and equipments (p<0.001), disinfection of the slaughterhouse (p<0.014), disinfection of premises (p<0.001), and disinfection of infrastructure and equipments (p<0.002). Others are, availability of sufficient and clean water (p<0.001), good hygiene (p<0.033) and also, hands washing after slaughtering (p<0.001) and hands disinfection (p<0.001). The surveyed abattoirs performed better than slaughter slabs in hygiene and level of cleanliness. But nevertheless all evidences of unhygienic practices and predisposing risk factors across the surveyed slaughter locations would serve as critical points for the distribution of contaminated meat to the public, and also serve as medium for occupational disease acquisition. Hence the issue of food safety is called to question. There is the need for workers training on operational hygiene and occupational zoonoses.

This study was conducted to characterise phenotypically helmeted Guinea fowls in three agro-ecologies in Nigeria using multivariate approach. Eighteen biometric characters, four morphological indices and eleven qualitative physical traits were investigated in a total of 569 adult birds (158 males and 411 females). Descriptive statistics, non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis H test followed by the Mann–Whitney U and Dunn-Bonferroni tests for post hoc, Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), Univariate Analysis, Canonical Discriminant Analysis, Categorical Principal Component Analysis and Decision Trees were employed to discern the effects of agro-ecological zone and sex on the morphostructural parameters. Agro-ecology had significant effect (P<0.05; P<0.01) on all the colour traits. In general, the most frequently observed colour phenotype of Guinea fowl had pearl plumage colour (54.0%), pale red skin colour (94.2%), black shank colour (68.7%), brown eye colour (49.7%), white earlobe colour (54.8%) and brown helmet colour (72.6%). The frequencies of helmet shape and wattle size were significantly influenced (P<0.01) by agro-ecology and sex. Overall, birds from the Southern Guinea Savanna zone had significantly higher values (P<0.05) for most biometric traits compared to their Sudano-Sahelian and Tropical Rainforest counterparts. They were also more compact (120.00 vs. 110.00 vs. 107.69) but had lesser condition index (7.66 vs. 9.45 vs. 9.30) and lower long-leggedness (19.71 vs. 19.23 vs. 9.51) than their counterparts from the two other zones. Sexual dimorphism (P<0.05) was in favour of male birds especially those in Southern Guinea Savanna and Sudano-Sahelian zones. However, the MCA and discriminant analysis revealed considerable intermingling of the qualitative physical traits, biometric traits and body indices especially between the Sudano-Sahelian and Tropical Rainforest birds. In spite of the high level of genetic admixture, the Guinea fowl populations could to a relative extent be distinguished using wing length, body length and eye colour. Generally, the birds from the three zones appeared to be more homogeneous than heterogeneous in nature. However, further complementary work on genomics will guide future selection and breeding programs geared towards improving the productivity, survival and environmental adaptation of indigenous helmeted Guinea fowls in the tropics.

Several efforts to repurpose drugs for COVID-19 treatment have largely either failed to identify a suitable agent or agents identified did not translate to clinical use; either because of demonstrated lack of clinical efficacy in trials, inappropriate dose requirements and probably use of inappropriate pre-clinical laboratory surrogates of effectiveness. In this study, we used an innovative algorithm, that incorporates dissemination and implementation considerations, to identify potential drugs for COVID-19 using iterative computational and wet laboratory methods that highlight inhibition of viral induced cytopathic effect (CPE) as a laboratory surrogate of effectiveness. Erythromycin, pyridoxine, folic acid and retapamulin were found to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 induced CPE in Vero cells at concentrations that are clinically achievable. Additional studies may be required to further characterize the inhibitions of CPE and the possible mechanisms.

Several efforts to repurpose drugs for COVID-19 treatment have largely either failed to identify a suitable agent or agents identified did not translate to clinical use. Reasons that have been suggested to explain the failures include use of inappropriate doses, that are not clinically achievable, in the screening experiments, and the use of inappropriate pre-clinical laboratory surrogates to predict efficacy. In this study, we used an innovative algorithm, that incorporates dissemination and implementation considerations, to identify potential drugs for COVID-19 using iterative computational and wet laboratory methods. The drugs were screened at doses that are known to be achievable in humans. Furthermore, inhibition of viral induced cytopathic effect (CPE) was used as the laboratory surrogate to predict efficacy. Erythromycin, pyridoxine, folic acid and retapamulin were found to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 induced CPE in Vero cells at concentrations that are clinically achievable. Additional studies may be required to further characterize the inhibitions of CPE and the possible mechanisms.

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