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 <strong>July</strong> <strong>2002</strong>, 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 <strong>2002</strong>. 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
Abstracts 10/22/02 11:26 AM Page 41 to be a fair level of awareness about basic methods of food hygiene. In response to a question asking vendors to name at least three methods of food hygiene known to them, only 8% of vendors volunteered any of the “listed” methods of maintaining food hygiene. 30% volunteered one method each and 40% volunteered two methods. There was also a significant number of vendors who used conventional and hygienic methods of temporary food preservation and storage, i.e. 72% used plastic coolers to store food. Cooking locations ranged from private kitchen to roadside spaces, with vendors who utilized the latter were in the minority – 2% and those who used commercial premises such as shops, rather than homes were in the majority – 59%. Based on chi square statistical testing, a significant correlation was observed between the level of education of vendors and their knowledge of basic methods of food hygiene, (p< 0.001) i.e. vendors with the least education had less knowledge about food hygiene than vendors with secondary school education. There were also significant associations between levels of education and the knowledge of modes of typhoid transmission (p< 0.02) and the knowledge of typhoid transmission and age group distribution (p
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