This paper examines food security determinants among rural farming households in Nigeria. A
total of 3380 households from General Household Survey-panel data that adopt the World Bank
Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) technique was used for this study. The impacts
of household characteristics, household endowments and activity related characteristics were
explored using logistic regression analysis. Based on the Food and Agriculture Organization
FAO recommended minimum 2120 kcal daily per adult equivalent was valued at (N138)
equivalent and USD 0.87 food poverty threshold of per annum was derived for rural Nigeria.
This threshold is the cost for purchasing recommended daily food allowances (RDA) of an
adult equivalent for healthy life in rural Nigeria. The results of the study revealed that age of the
household head, tertiary education, farm size, household size, value of livestock holdings, total
remittances received by the household, participation in nonfarm enterprise and access to formal
credit have significant impact on food security. We conjecture that, the higher incidence of food
security during post harvesting season might likely be due to inability of smallholder farmers
to utilize their extra time into non-farm income generating activities due to high demand for
labour for farm operations.
Majority consumers around the world have become increasingly concern and aware about their health and food safety. Recent food crisis and foodborne illness incidents showed the needs to assure the authenticity and traceability of foods in the market especially meat and meat products. These scandals have led to negative effect and perception to consumers, food companies and both supply and demand chain. Hence, the food industry needs an excellent and reliable traceability system to ensure that consumers are persistently well protected from unconscious consumption of unsafe foods. Therefore, traceability systems can support the claims by making it verifiable. However, the awareness among Malaysian consumers is still lacking due to the inadequate exposure towards concept and the importance of traceability systems particularly in meat and meat products. The aim of this study is to determine factors influencing consumers’ preferences towards traceability systems of meat and meat products in Malaysia. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaire via face to face interview with 503 respondents in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and factor analysis. The findings of descriptive analysis showed that most of the consumers preferred using traceability systems and aware of its importance when buying meat and meat products. Meanwhile, the factor analysis results discovered six factors that influenced consumers’ preferences towards meat and meat products with traceability systems namely Halal certificate, transparency, quality, confidence, food safety and knowledge. Therefore, implementation of traceability systems could raise standards of food safety throughout the meat production supply chain. Furthermore, the society will become more confident and they can benefit from the quality of purchase and consumption. The findings from this study are also able to contribute to the body of knowledge to the producers or marketers towards food safety issues and foodborne illness that recently happened in Malaysia.
A total of 11 Vibrio cholerae isolates from 1996-1998 outbreaks in Malaysia and 4 V. alginolyticus were analyzed. Isolates were characterized by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southern hybridization for the presence of the gene encoding zonula occludens toxin (zot). Screening of zot gene by PCR revealed the presence of this gene in V. cholerae and V. alginolyticus. The zot gene from one V. cholerae Ogawa isolate that was cloned in a pCR 2.1 TOPO vector was sequenced. The sequences obtained were 99% homologous to the zot gene sequence from the Gene Bank.
The gram-negative bacterium, Vibrio alginolyticus, has frequently been identified as the pathogen responsible for the infectious disease called vibriosis. This disease is one of the major challenges facing brown-marbled grouper aquaculture, causing fish farmers globally to suffer substantial economic losses. The objective of this study was to investigate the proteins involved in the immune response of brown-marbled grouper fingerlings during their initial encounter with pathogenic organisms. To achieve this objective, a challenge experiment was performed, in which healthy brown-marbled grouper fingerlings were divided into two groups. Fish in the treated group were subjected to intraperitoneal injection with an infectious dose of V. alginolyticus suspended in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), and those in the control group were injected with an equal volume of PBS. Blood samples were collected from a replicate number of fish from both groups at 4 h post-challenge and analysed for immune response-related serum proteins via two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. The results showed that 14 protein spots were altered between the treated and control groups; these protein spots were further analysed to determine the identity of each protein via MALDI-TOF/TOF. Among the altered proteins, three were clearly overexpressed in the treated group compared with the control; these were identified as putative apolipoprotein A-I, natural killer cell enhancement factor and lysozyme g. Based on these results, these three highly expressed proteins participate in immune response-related reactions during the initial exposure (4 h) of brown-marbled grouper fingerling to V. alginolyticus infection.
The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 60 meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates from Malaysia to three antiseptic agents - benzalkonium chloride (BZT), benzethonium chloride (BAC) and chlorhexidine digluconate (CHG) - were determined. All isolates had MICs ranging from 0.5 to 2 mg/L. Antiseptic resistance genes qacA/B and smr were detected in 83.3% and 1.6% of the isolates, respectively. Carriage of qacA/B correlated with reduced susceptibility to CHG and BAC. This is the first report of the prevalence of qacA/B and smr gene carriage in Malaysian MRSA isolates, with a high frequency of qacA/B carriage. The presence of these antiseptic resistance genes and associated reduced susceptibility to antiseptic agents may have clinical implications.