• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.457-464
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• 2021

Cystic echinococcosis is a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by Echinococcus species. Tanzania is one of the endemic countries with cystic echinococcosis. This study focussed on identifying genotypes of Echinococcus spp. in Tanzania. We collected 7 cysts from cattle in Mwanza municipal (n=4) and Loliondo district (n=3). The cysts from Mwanza were all E. ortleppi and fertile. In contrast, the cysts from Loliondo were all E. granulosus sensu stricto and sterile. Two from the 4 cysts were a new haplotype of E. ortleppi (G5). These results can improve the preventive and control programs for humans and livestock in Tanzania. To our knowledge, this study is considered the first to identify the genotype and haplotype of Echinococcus spp. in Tanzania.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.49-60
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• 2021

Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) is an important cash crop in Tanzania as a source of income to cashew growers and provides foreign exchange for the country. Despite its significance, the crop is threatened by fast spreading disease known as cashew Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum. Field assessment and laboratory tests were conducted to determine incidences of the disease, severity, ecological factors that influence them and explored the pathogen host specificity in six cashew growing districts. The results revealed significant (P<0.001) variation of disease incidences and severity among the studied districts. The results further revealed that there is both positive and negative correlation between the incidence and severity of the disease versus the evaluated ecological factors. The soil pH, soil temperature, air temperature, and relative humidity depicted positive correlation of disease incidence and severity versus ecological factors at ρ=0.50 and ρ=0.60, ρ=0.20 and ρ=0.94, ρ=0.11 and ρ=0.812, ρ=0.05 and ρ=0.771 respectively while nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon depicted negative correlations at ρ=-0.22 and ρ=-0.58, ρ=-0.15 and ρ=-0.94, ρ=-0.19 and ρ=-0.12 respectively. In terms of host range, none of the weed species was found to be a carrier of Fusarium pathogen implying that it is host specific or semi selective. The results revealed that the tested ecological parameters favor the growth and development of Fusarium pathogen. Thus, management of the disease requires nutrients replenishment and soil shading as essential components in developing appropriate strategies for the control and prevention of further spread of the disease.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.379-383
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• 2018

The present study was performed with morphological and molecular analysis (cox1 and nad1 mitochondrial genes) to identify the proglottids of spirometrid tapeworm found in the stool of an African lion, Panthera leo, in the Serengeti plain of Tanzania. A strand of tapeworm strobila, about 75 cm in length, was obtained in the stool of a male African lion in the Serengeti National Park ($34^{\circ}$ 50' E, $02^{\circ}$ 30' S), Tanzania, in February 2012. The morphological features of the adult worm examined exhibited 3 uterine coils with a bow tie appearance and adopted a diagonal direction in the second turn. The posterior uterine coils are larger than terminal uterine ball and the feature of uteri are swirling rather than spirally coiling. The sequence difference between the Spirometra species (Tanzania origin) and S. erinaceieuropaei (GenBank no. KJ599680) was 9.4% while those of S. decipiens (GenBank no. KJ599679) differed by 2.1% in the cox1 and nad1 genes. Phylogenetic tree topologies generated using the 2 analytic methods were identical and presented high level of confidence values for the 3 major branches of the 3 Spirometra species in the cox1 gene. The morphological and molecular findings obtained in this study were nearly coincided with those of S. ranarum. Therefore, we can know for the first time that the African lion, Panthera leo, is to the definitive host of this tapeworm.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.553-559
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• 2015

Research on micro-level assessment of the changes of socio-economic status following health interventions is very scarce. The use of household asset data to determine wealth indices is a common procedure for estimating socio-economic position in resource poor settings. In such settings information about income is usually lacking, and the collection of individual consumption or expenditure data would require in-depth interviews, posing a considerable risk of bias. In this study, we determined the socio-economic status of 213 households in a community population in an island in the north-western Tanzania before and 3 year after implementation of a participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation (PHAST) intervention to control schistosomiasis and intestinal worm infections. We constructed a household 'wealth index' based housing construction features (e.g., type of roof, walls, and floor) and durable assets ownership (e.g., bicycle, radio, etc.). We employed principal components analysis and classified households into wealth quintiles. The study revealed that asset variables with positive factor scores were associated with higher socio-economic status, whereas asset variables with negative factor scores were associated with lower socio-economic status. Overall, households which were rated as the poorest and very poor were on the decrease, whereas those rated as poor, less poor, and the least poor were on the increase after PHAST intervention. This decrease/increase was significant. The median shifted from -0.4376677 to 0.5001073, and the mean from -0.2605787 (SD; 2.005688) to 0.2605787 (SD; 1.831199). The difference in socio-economic status of the people between the 2 phases was highly statistically significant (P<0.001). We argue that finding of this study should be treated with caution as there were other interventions to control schistosomiasis and intestinal worm infections which were running concurrently on Kome Island apart from PHAST intervention.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.269-276
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• 2013

Information and communication technology (ICT) is a promising solution for mitigating road traffic congestion. ICT allows road users and vehicles to be managed based on real-time road status information. In Tanzania, traffic congestion causes losses of TZS 655 billion per year. The main objective of this study was to develop an optimal approach for integrating real-time road information (RRI) to mitigate traffic congestion. Our research survey focused on three cities that are highly affected by traffic congestion, i.e., Arusha, Mwanza, and Dar es Salaam. The results showed that ICT is not yet utilized fully to solve road traffic congestion. Thus, we established a possible approach for Tanzania based on an analysis of road traffic data provided by organizations responsible for road traffic management and road users. Furthermore, we evaluated the available road information management techniques to test their suitability for use in Tanzania. Using the floating car data technique, fuzzy logic was implemented for real-time traffic level detection and decision making. Based on this solution, we propose a RRI system architecture, which considers the effective utilization of readily available communication technology in Tanzania.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.36
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• pp.149-173
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• 2014

This paper examines language policies of Ghana and Tanzania (former British Colonies) since independence. The view that language use in education is a problem for African countries is evident in the ever changing language in education policies in many African countries. Because of the inevitable multilingual situation in many African countries, there are unavoidable challenges in their quest to adopt a language policy that works for the entire country since it is not practical to adopt all the languages spoken in the country as Media of Instruction. Ghana is not immune to this challenge and has fallen victim to this tendency to change the language in education policy from time to time in an attempt to adopt a satisfactory policy which would yield the intended results. Tanzania, however, is one of the few African countries that have found a sustainable language in education policy since independence. Nonetheless, it has its fair share of challenges as a consequence of the perceived competition between Kiswahili and English as official languages. The paper discusses the challenges that both Ghana and Tanzania face against the background of colonization. The paper also offers a discussion on possible future perspectives for the two countries.

• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.48-53
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• 2008

Tanzania is a coastal state on the western Indian Ocean in Africa. In an artisanal or small scale fishery, the combination of large numbers of fishers and landing places, mixed gears and migrant fishers makes fisheries management an often complex task. Lack of capital, low level of technology, poverty and high cost of transport are major socio-economic problems in Tanzanian fisheries. The combined approach of community-based management and provision of education and training for extension workers and fishers themselves are required. It is also necessary to build the capacity of fisheries institutions to meet the human resources development challenge.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.4 s.46
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• pp.313-323
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• 2005

XRD, XRF, EPMA, FT-IR, and SEM-CL studies were carried out in order to characterize gemological features of corundum from Tanzania. Fluorescence reaction of the Tanzanian corundum to short and long wave ultraviolet rays was weakly detected. Inclusions in Tanzanian corundum are divided into five types, Type I is fluid-rich inclusion, Type II is gas-rich inclusion, Type III is liquid $CO_{2}$ inclusion, Type IV is solid-rich inclusion, and Type V is a mixture of fluid and solid inclusion and daughter minerals. SEM-CL images show twin structure with growth texture, microphenocryst of spinel solid inclusions, massive and growth texture. Ruby and sapphire from Tanzania are distinctly distinguished by concentrations of Fe and Cr, and plotted in the particular field at $Al_{2}O_{3}/100-Cr_{2}O_{3}-Fe_{2}O_{3}$ diagram. According to FT-IR analysis, all corundum specimens from Tanzania showed the similar patterns, and absorption peaks of $455.09\~459.23\;cm^{-1},\;603.15\~611.71\;cm^{-1},\;1509.00\~1655.05\;cm^{-1}\;and\;3436.41\~3468.87\;cm^{-1}$. These distinctive characteristics mentioned above can be used to identify the locality and source of corundum stones from Tanzania.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.571-574
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• 2015

In order to determine the status of malaria among schoolchildren on Kome Island (Lake Victoria), near Mwanza, Tanzania, a total of 244 schoolchildren in 10 primary schools were subjected to a blood survey using the fingerprick method. The subjected schoolchildren were 123 boys and 121 girls who were 6-8 years of age. Only 1 blood smear was prepared for each child. The overall prevalence of malaria was 38.1% (93 positives), and sex difference was not remarkable. However, the positive rate was the highest in Izindabo Primary School (51.4%) followed by Isenyi Primary School (48.3%) and Bugoro Primary School (46.7%). The lowest prevalence was found in Muungano Primary School (16.7%) and Nyamiswi Primary School (16.7%). These differences were highly correlated with the location of the school on the Island; those located in the peripheral area revealed higher prevalences while those located in the central area showed lower prevalences. Plasmodium falciparum was the predominant species (38.1%; 93/244), with a small proportion of them mixed-infected with Plasmodium vivax (1.6%; 4/244). The results revealed that malaria is highly prevalent among primary schoolchildren on Kome Island, Tanzania, and there is an urgent need to control malaria in this area.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.535-543
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• 2015

Integrated control strategies are important for sustainable control of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, despite their challenges for their effective implementation. With the support of Good Neighbors International in collaboration with National Institute of Medical Research, Mwanza, Tanzania, integrated control applying mass drug administration (MDA), health education using PHAST, and improved safe water supply has been implemented on Kome Island over 5 years for controlling schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths (STHs). Baseline surveys for schistosomiasis and STHs was conducted before implementation of any integrated control strategies, followed by 4 cross-sectional follow-up surveys on randomly selected samples of schoolchildren and adults in 10 primary schools and 8 villages, respectively, on Kome islands. Those follow-up surveys were conducted for impact evaluation after introduction of control strategies interventions in the study area. Five rounds of MDA have been implemented from 2009 along with PHAST and improved water supply with pumped wells as other control strategies for complementing MDA. A remarkable steady decline of schistosomiasis and STHs was observed from 2009 to 2012 with significant trends in their prevalence decline, and thereafter infection rate has remained at a low sustainable control. By the third follow-up survey in 2012, Schistosoma mansoni infection prevalence was reduced by 90.5% and hookworm by 93.3% among schoolchildren while in adults the corresponding reduction was 83.2% and 56.9%, respectively. Integrated control strategies have successfully reduced S. mansoni and STH infection status to a lower level. This study further suggests that monitoring and evaluation is a crucial component of any large-scale STH and schistosomiasis intervention.