A Case of Rhino-Orbital Cerebral Mucormycosis presenting with spontaneous Cerebrospinal fluid Rhinorrhoea

Rhino-orbital cerebral mucormycosis has increased in the recent second wave of post-Covid-19 illness, mainly in tropical countries like India. The burden of diabetes mellitus and rampant use of corticosteroid, environmental factors, post-covid-19 immunological derangement might be contributory factors to the development of extensive outbreak of ROCM. Cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea is rarely documented with such fungal infection in literature. This case report described a 45-year diabetic woman in the post-Covid-19 phase,who developed rhino-orbital cerebral mucormycosis, presenting with spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea.

Sustainable feed resources for optimizing broiler performance in tropical countries

Soybean meal and grain corn are feedstuffs that normally used as the main ingredients in poultry feeds as a source of protein and energy in tropical countries. The availability of these feedstuffs for broiler nutrition nowadays is becoming more competitive. Thus, food security, especially in the developing countries, would be susceptible. Currently, efforts are being made to use alternative feedstuffs as a sustainable feed resources to substitute portion of soybean meal and grain corn in poultry diets due to their high price since both of the raw material were imported. In Malaysia, usage of PKC is common in ruminant diets, but limited in the non-ruminant diets especially in poultry diets due to the high fiber content of PKC. Several works have been conducted to increase the nutritional contents of PKC as one of the measures to reduce and/or eliminate the constraints of utilizing PKC in poultry diets. The method used to achieve this target is either through physical, chemical, biological or combination of these treatments. This paper discusses the use of PKC as the sustainable feed resources that can be incorporated in the poultry feeds. Hence, emphasis should be given to improve nutritional values of PKC in order to reduce feeding cost of poultry.

The Effect of Weather Pattern on the Second Wave of Coronavirus: A cross study between cold and tropical climates of France, Italy, Colombia, and Brazil

This study aims to explore and understand the common belief that COVID infection rate is highly dependent on either the outside temperature and/or the humidity. Thirty-six regions/states from two humid-tropical countries, namely Brazil and Colombia and two countries with temperate climate, France and Italy, are studied over the period of October to December. Daily outside temperature, relative humidity and hospitalization/cases are analyzed using Spearman’s correlation. The eighteen cold regions of France and Italy has seen an average drop in temperature from 10°C to 6°C and 17°C to 7°C, respectively, and France recorded an addition of 2.3 million cases, while Italy recorded an addition of 1.8 million cases. Outside temperature did not fluctuate much in tropical countries, but Brazil and Colombia added 4.17 million and 1.1 million cases, respectively. Köppen–Geiger classification showed the differences in weather pattern between the four countries, and the analysis showed that there is very weak correlation between either outside weather and/or relative humidity alone to the COVID-19 pandemic.

CHEMICALLY INDUCED MUTAGENESIS IN THE KING OYSTER MUSHROOM Pleurotus eryngii TO GENERATE HIGH-TEMPERATURE TOLERANT STRAIN

In this study, a high-temperature-tolerant strain of the king oyster mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii) was generated by chemical mutagenesis. Cultivation of P. eryngii generally involves incubating the mycelia at 25°C and then moving the spawns for further incubation at 18°C for fruitification. However, in tropical countries, the temperature is a major concern in the production of oyster mushroom where the average temperature is 32°C. In the current study, the mycelia were treated with ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) or methyl methane sulphonate (MMS) for chemical-induced mutation. Seven mutants (EMS 1, 2, 6, 26, 35, 36, and 38) from EMS mutagenesis exhibited higher growth rates than the wild-type strain at 32°C. However, mutant strains from MMS mutagenesis showed a low growth rate when compared with wild-type. On sawdust substrate, the spawn running conditions for these strains were performed at 32°C, and fruitification occurred at 18°C. The yield and biological efficiency of EMS 36 and 38 mutants were higher than those of the wild-type strain. The activities of cellulase and xylanase of EMS 36 and 38 mutants showed that both these mutants had higher activities than the wild-type strain which may influence mushroom production. Therefore, these EMS 36 and 38 mutants can be cultivated in tropical countries, which could provide a high yield and reduce the cost during spawn running step.

Faktor Risiko Demam Berdarah di Negara Tropis

Tropical countries are the largest contributor to the incidence of Dengue HemorrhagicFever (DHF), but research on risk factors is still independent in various countries, it cannot beconcluded holistically. Through the research design, a systematic review is able to summarize andanswer the causes of DHF in this tropical country. This research method is a systematic review withguidelines following the 2009 PRISMA Checklist. In the initial search, 1,680 articles were foundusing the keyword “risk factors for Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever”, reduced to 274 article titles afteradding the keyword “tropical country”. Furthermore, the relevant abstracts were fi ltered and found37 selected article items. Through critical appraisal of the full text of the article, it was found that 17articles met the selection criteria for further review in this study. The results showed that there were5 major groups of risk factors that were widely studied, namely sociodemography, climatology, placeof dwelling, environment, and behavior. The sociodemographic factor associated with the incidenceof DHF in tropical countries is age. In terms of climatology, temperature and rainfall are importantfactors in the vector breeding process. Rural areas (rural areas) are the place of dwelling with the mostcases of DHF found. The environmental aspect that has been widely studied is mosquito breeding. Themost signifi cant risk behavior factor in transmission was the behavior of hanging clothes. Of the 17articles, it was found that 77.8% of the articles examined environmental variables.

Vegetative and Leaf Anatomical Traits for Taxonomic Delimitation of Salacia L. In Sri Lanka

Salacia comprises 200 species throughout the tropical countries. In Sri Lanka, five species of this genus S. chinensis, S. diandra, S. oblonga, S. reticulata and S. acuminatissima are recorded that are considered as the synonyms under S. diandra by Wadhwa in 1996 during the revision of genus. These species are very much similar in vegetative morphology and their flowering is irregular and rare. Due to these reasons, their proper identification and determination are difficult and identification of new combinations of taxonomic characters is necessary. A multivariate analysis was conducted for 98 distinct populations using 20 vegetative and 43 leaf anatomical characters including PCA, PCO, CA, SIMPER and correlation analysis. The results support the recognition of four phenetic groups, which corresponds to species S. chinensis, S. reticulata, S. oblonga and S. diandra. S. acuminatissima that was recognized by Kostermans (1992) was not supported by the analysis and formed a cluster together with S. diandra with no support as a separate cluster. The study failed to recognize any distinct vegetative characters to define these taxa but propose a combination of vegetative or leaf anatomical characters and also highlights the necessity of molecular data to supplement the vegetative and leaf anatomical data to resolve the ambiguity between the S. acuminatissima and S. diandra. Bangladesh J. Plant Taxon. 28(2): 429-439, 2021 (December)

Prevalence of Helminths in Digestive Tract of Cows in Indonesia

Helminthiasis is an important problem that affects the productivity and health of cows in tropical countries. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of helminthiasis in the digestive tract and the factors that affect it. In the current study, feces samples were from 75 cows aged up to one year old. The samples were collected from areas with the majority of the population as cattle breeders. The data were analyzed descriptively and statistically. The result indicated that most of the cows have suffered from helminthiasis caused by Toxocara vitulorum and the prevalence of intestinal helminths was mostly mild. Toxocara vitulorum spp. was the most common nematode worm that infected cows. The most effective factors on prevalence of helminthiasis in cows were age and cage location.

Impact of Climate Change on Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) in Tropical Countries: A Literature Review

Introduction: Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) is a zoonotic disease that is most wary because the cases reported by WHO increased quite drastically from 2.4 million cases to 5.2 million cases in 2010-2019 globally. In 2020, the DHF rate increased by 953,476, and the majority occurred in tropical countries. In response to this, WHO emphasized that climate and weather variables can play an important role in predicting the DHF outbreak. This article was written to find out the impact of climate change on the incidence of DHF. Discussion: The literature review method was used in writing this article by utilizing article searches in online databases, namely PubMed, DOAJ, Proquest, and Science Direct. Amount 11 articles related to the title have been selected as literacy materials. Climatic variables consisting of temperature, rainfall, and humidity have the potential to increase the incidence of DHF. Conclusion: It can be concluded that climate change indicators can affect the breeding place of the Aedes aegypty, making the various incidence of DHF cases in tropical or subtropical countries. This can be an early warning for each region always to carry out active surveillance in detecting the risk of increasing DHF cases in certain weather.

The Burden of Influenza Virus Infection among Children under 12 Years Old in Tropical Countries

Every year influenza epidemic causes about 3 – 5 million severe respiratory infections and 250,000 to 500,000 deaths worldwide. Among them about 28,000 – 111,500 (11 – 22%) children under 5 years old die because of influenza-related acute lower respiratory tract infections. This review aims to explore the burden, risk factors and seasonality related to influenza virus infection among children under 5 years old in tropical countries. From 1st to 31st December 2020 literature search was done on PubMed and ScienceDirect databases using ‘influenza’ and other keywords such as paediatric, children, neurology complication and breastfeeding for articles published in the English language. About 10% of hospitalization with respiratory infections in children <18 years old are related to influenza. It is reported that about 11% – 26% of febrile illnesses among outpatients and 6 –14% of hospitalized patients with pneumonia were due to influenza virus. Global paediatric mortality estimates that death caused by influenza is highest among 1 – 12 months old children which is about 2.8% of all deaths. In Malaysia, there are no seasonal variations of influenza and the prevalence is higher during the middle of the year. Risk factors include male, age <12 months old and presented with seizure. Breastfeeding and vaccination for pregnant mothers can be beneficial for infants up to 6 months old. Influenza among the paediatric group is a significant health burden even in healthy children and are likely to be underdiagnosed. Vaccination can also be focused on pregnant mothers and children less than 12 years old.