A retrospective study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis and direct economic losses (DEL) from tuberculosis in cattle slaughtered in Makurdi abattoirs from 2008 to 2012, using abattoir records obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Out of 61654 cattle slaughtered during the study period 1172 (1.90%) were positive for tuberculosis lesions. The annual prevalence of bovine tuberculosis ranges from 0.90% in 2008 to 4.04% in 2012. There was significant (P < 0.05) difference in annual prevalence of bovine tuberculosis. It was also observed that there was no seasonal difference in the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis. A total of 1935 affected organs by BTB weighing 3046.50 kg, amounting to 2.91 × 106 Naira (1.82 × 104 USD), were condemned within the study period. Seasonal variation in organ condemnation due to bovine tuberculosis was significantly different (Mann-Whitney U statistics = 774 × 103, P = 0.034). It was concluded that bovine tuberculosis is prevalent in Makurdi and accounts for heavy economic losses due to condemnation of edible organs.

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Synthesis of cDNA probes by random-priming of a viroid template displays the unusual property of specificity to all members included within a single citrus viroid Group. The specificity of hybridization reactions was influenced by the structural conformation of the viroid RNA template, reaction conditions for reverse transcription and hybridization protocols. Mapping the loci for probe transcription from the CEVd, CVd-IIb, and CVd-IV genomes suggests that a similar structured conformation may be responsible for group specificity. A stem-loop configuration in the viroid template and hybridization target sites can be proposed to be responsible for the availability of the group-specific sequences.

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Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia is an important, transboundary animal disease of high socioeconomic impacts and vaccination has been recommended as one of the preferred option for its control. Twelve years (2006-2017) of data were retrieved from the Ministry of Livestock Production, Adamawa state. The relevant data collated included; estimated annual cattle population, number of cattle vaccinated against CBPP, number of CBPP outbreaks reported, number of mortality due to the disease, number of cattle slaughtered and examined for CBPP lesions and number of cattle with suspected CBPP lesions. The overall vaccination coverage of 4.80% was obtained with the highest vaccination coverage (20.57%) and the lowest vaccination coverage (1.03%) recorded in 2013 and 2015 respectively. A negative and insignificant correlation (r=-0.2346, p> 0.05) was obtained between vaccination coverage and prevalence, whereas correlation between prevalence and reported outbreak of CBPP was positive (r= 0.7381). A total of 76 outbreaks representing an average of 6.33 outbreaks per year and a mortality of 456 were recorded. The highest number of outbreaks (15) was recorded in 2017 whereas the least number of outbreaks (1) was recorded in 2007. The study has established low and irregular vaccination coverage which resulted in increased outbreaks of the disease in the study area. The need for Government to procure CBPP vaccines that is affordable as well as accessible to cattle owners at subsidized rates, increased and compulsory vaccination coverage of 80% for 5 consecutive years and enlightenment of cattle owners through public media on the dangers of the disease was recommended.