Browsing by Author "Mutayoba, Benezeth"

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    Media, health workers, and policy makers’ relationship and their impact on antimalarial policy adoption: a population genetics perspective
    (Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania., 2010-04) Malisa, Allen L; Pearce, Richard J; Mutayoba, Benezeth; Abdullah, Salim; Mshinda, Hassan; Kachur, Patrick; Bloland, Peter; Roper, Cally
    Drug resistance negatively impacts malaria treatments, making treatment policy revision unavoidable. So far, studies relating sociopolitical and technical issues on policy change with malaria parasite genetic change are lacking.We have quantified the effect of malaria treatment policy on drug pressure and the influence of the media, policy makers, and health worker relationship on parasite population genetic change in Kilombro/Ulanga district. Cross-sectional surveys of asymptomatic infections conducted before, during and after the switch from chloroquine to sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine were used for genetic analysis of SP resistance genes in 4,513 asymptomatic infections identified, and their frequency change was compared with retrospective study of the documented process of policy change. Highly significant changes of dhfr and dhps resistance alleles occurred within one year of switch to SP first line, followed by a decline of their rate of selection caused by reduction of SP usage, as a result of negative media reports on SP usage and lack of adequate preparations.
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    Species and gender differentiation between and among domestic and wild animals using mitochondrial and sex-linked DNA markers
    (2005-11) Malisa, Allen L; Balthazary, Sakurani; Wasser, Sam; Mutayoba, Benezeth; Gwakisa, Paul
    In many African countries accurate and reliable identification of poached wildlife products like carcasses or meat presents a big problem when morphological characters such as skin hair or bones are missing. We describe a molecular based approach that has a potential of serving as a forensic tool in game meat identification in Africa. A mitochondial DNA marker (mt700) and one restriction enzyme, Rsa1 were used in the PCR-RFLP species identification of game meat obtained from two National Parks in Tanzania. Species-specific reference DNA fragment patterns were obtained using fresh meat from ten wildlife and four domesticated species. All species except the zebra, produced unique monomorphic RFLP patterns. Collectively, these patterns demonstrate the potential ability of genetic techniques for discriminating between and among wildlife and domestic species. The reference PCR-RFLP fragments enabled species identification of about 79% of unknown meat samples. In addition, sex was also assigned to all of the samples following successful amplification of gender-specific, SRY and ZFY/X, chromosomal domains. Although the present study has been conducted on a limited range both in numbers and genetic diversity of wildlife species present in Africa, the results demonstrate the potential usefulness of the DNA approach in wildlife forensics in the continent.