Pan-African Conference 21 - 24 July 2002 Inter-Continental Hotel ...

Abstracts 10/22/02 11:26 AM Page 40
S40
related oxidative stress while lengthening survival time. Good nutrition also
delays progression from a symptomatic HIV state to AIDS. There is need to
explore, document nutritional care and support systems especially utilizing
the locally available protein, micronutrient and vitamin rich foods
supplements as adjuncts in the management and improvement of quality of
life among the HIV/AIDS patients.
ABSTRACT NO. 201. DIETARY IMPLICATIONS OF DAIRY
DEVELOPMENT IN VIHIGA DISTRICT, KENYA
Walingo MK
Maseno University, P.O. Box 333, Maseno
Western Kenya has been ranked highly among the poorest regions in Kenya,
as evidenced by the inception of poverty reduction strategies. The Kenya –
Finland Livestock Development is one of the many trial projects that seek to
improve the economic status of households, by targeting women, who are also
the gatekeepers of development. Not all households have participated in this
project, only those who met the selections criteria described in the
methodology. One of the objectives of this project was to enhance food
security of participating households.
A comparative study was designed to compare food and nutrient intake of
participant and non-participant households in the dairy scheme. Sixty
households were identified for the study. In households, women and their
pre-school children were identified for purposes of the investigation. The FAO
(1987) reference for East Africa was used to determine food and nutrient
adequacy for women and their pre-school children. Dietary data was collected
from households for three consecutive, non-special days, using standardized
household measures. Discriminant function analysis was used to identify
food and nutrients that differentiated between participant and non-participant
households.
Results indicated that mean food and nutrient intake was higher for both
women and their preschool children from participant households. Mean
intake of vegetables was lower in the participant households. There was
inadequate intake of niacin and riboflavin in pre-school children from
participant and non-participant households. Niacin inadequacy was also
observed in women from both groups of households. Energy intake was
below the RDI in women and pre-school children from non-participant
households were milk and milk products (D2 =3.10, F=46.45), women and
children from participating and nonparticipating households were milk/milk
products (D2 =3.71 F-ratio=27.36) for women, (D2 =3.17 F-ratio=14.46) for
children. The best set of nutrients that differentiated households, women and
children were: protein, vitamin A & energy, (D2 =299 F-ratio, 14.43), protein,
vitamin A, energy & calcium (D2 =3.95 F-ratio=18.09), and protein and energy
(D2 =2.6 F-ratio=12.06) respectively. It appears that dairy projects have a
positive effect on food and nutrient intake of participating households,
however I recommend further research to determine the nutritional effect of
dairy projects.
ABSTRACT NO. 202. GENE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN
FOODS AND NUTRITION: THE TWIN CHALLENGES FOR AFRICA
Limo MK
Egerton University, P.O. Box 536, Njoro, Kenya
Information Technology (IT) and biotechnology can provide solutions to
development processes which improve food and nutritional security. More
often than not, discussion and appraisals are not based on scientifically
supported facts and data. Information is the starting point for dialogue and
public policy. It can bridge or fill the gap between science and communication
with reliable information – not advocacy – on the status of audience aim at
employing a variety of information vehicles – education of issues – that
include press releases, lesson and teaching materials, brochures and books,
exhibitions and computer. The purposes of the biological and societal
information systems are to explain the techniques.
ABSTRACT NO. 203. STRAIN IN IMPROVEMENT OF SELECTED
MUSHROOM BY HYBRIDIZATION AND RADIATION
Natheer AM, Hassan AA
Agricultural Research Office P.O. Box 765, Baghdad. Iraq
Five isolates of white edible mushroom Agaricus bitorquis from Iraqi
July 2002, Vol. 15, No. 2 SAJCN (Supplement)
ABSTRACTS
environment were screened for hybridization program. Spores of these
isolates were germinated on potato dextrose agar (pH 6) at 25 + 1°c. After
crossing among these isolates, four hybrids were obtained from compatible
lines. The maximum yield of mushroom by AX hybrid was recorded, at the
same time, this hybrid was of high temperature tolerance compared to
parental lines, other hybrids and A. bisporus (X-10). Morphological characters
of hybrids fruit bodies compared to parental lines was studied. In addition,
the effect of gamma radiation on A. bisporus was studied. Morphological
characters and productivity of irradiation mushroom and its hybrids were also
studied.
ABSTRACT NO. 204. THE NUTRITION INFORMATION CENTRE AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF STELLENBOSCH
Labuschagne I, Labadarios D
Department of Human Nutrition, University of Stellenbosch and Tygerberg
Academic Hospital, PO Box 19063, Tygerberg 7505, South Africa
The University of Stellenbosch’s Department of Human Nutrition established
the Nutrition Information Centre (NICUS) in October 1997 to act as a reliable
and independent source of nutrition information in South Africa in order to
promote a scientifically sound culture.
NICUS provides the most up-to-date, credible and authoritative information
on nutrition to the public, the media and health professionals. Its services
include evaluation of nutritional status and individualised or group
counselling for the public, specialist advice to industry, and providing
authoritative information to the public and media on food and nutrition. The
Centre interacts with the public and health professionals by means of the
media (mostly radio and publications), telephone consultations, the NICUS
website and e-mails. All enquiries are handled confidentially and answered
promptly according to the nature of the problem.
On average, the Centre replies to approximately 250 telephone, e-mail, fax,
letter enquiries per month. From October 1997 to December 2001 a total of 7063
enquiries were answered. The majority of these enquiries originate from South
Africa, with the highest percentage from the Western Cape (59%) followed by
Gauteng (17%) and the remainder emanating from the other provinces. A
small percentage of the enquiries also originated from Namibia, Botswana,
Lesotho, Kenya and Europe. Product information enquiries accounts for the
highest percentage of the total enquiries (8.7%), followed by information on
healthy eating habits (8.13%), infant and child nutrition (6.4%), bone and joint
diseases and inflammatory diseases (6.41%), weight loss (5.6%) and magazine,
book and media comments (5.4%). This is done free of charge and for the
further development of the public’s nutrition and health knowledge.
Regular interactive education activities are planned according to the National
Health Calendar. The Centre continually writes fact sheets on subjects
pertaining to the Health Calendar, controversial topics, as well as topics
relevant to South Africa and elsewhere and is available on the website
(WWW.SUN.AC.ZA/NICUS). An immediate priority of the Centre is to
provide interactive opportunities for Continuous Professional Development
(CPD) in the form of online articles as a free service to health professionals
within the first half of 2002.
ABSTRACT NO. 205. The detection of Salmonellae Typhi in a population of
public high school food vendors in Ikorodu Local Government of Lagos
Abidoye RO, Olaitan OF, Akinkuade Robert A, Smith S Bamgbala
Nigeria
Summary. This work sought to screen a high risk population for chronic
Salmonella typhi urinary carriers, and to identify suspected cases of early
typhoid fever. In addition, the study, also aimed to determine the knowledge
and practices of food vendors, in relation to basic food hygiene, typhoid
transmission, and food preservation and storage methods. A total of 100 public
high school vendors in Ikorodu Local Government were selected by a
multistage sampling method. The mean age of Vendors was 36.9years, and the
median age was 36 years. 11% of vendors had no formal education, while up
to 54% had received a secondary school education, and 5%, school leaving
certificates. All 100 vendors were screened for chronic S typhi urinary carrier
states and, by cultures of one mid-stream urine sample, all were subsequently
incubated on both Deoxycholate and MaCconkey agars. E.coli was isolated in
9% of vendors, and klebsiella organisms in 7% of vendors. One blood culture
was positive for S typhi which was a 29 years old female selling cooked food,
who gave a one week history of fever, and also negative for urinary S typhi.
With respect to the knowledge and practices of food vendors, there appeared