PubMed · 9009389
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M Davey. Rickets prevention.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9009389/
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BACKGROUND: Knowledge of traditional African foods and food habits has been, and continues to be, systematically extirpated. With the primary intent of collating data for our online collection documenting traditional African foods and food habits (available at: www.healthyeatingclub.com/Africa/), we reviewed the Oltersdorf Collection, 75 observational investigations conducted throughout East Africa (i.e. Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda) between the 1930s and 1960s as compiled by the Max Planck Nutrition Research Unit, formerly located in Bumbuli, Tanzania. METHODS: Data were categorized as follows: (1) food availability, (2) chemical composition, (3) staple foods (i.e. native crops, cereals, legumes, roots and tubers, vegetables, fruits, spices, oils and fats, beverages, and animal foods), (4) food preparation and culture, and (5) nutrient intake and health status indicators. RESULTS: Many of the traditional foods identified, including millet, sorghum, various legumes, root and tubers, green leafy vegetables, plant oils and wild meats have known health benefits. Food preparatory practices during this period, including boiling and occasional roasting are superior to current practices which favor frying and deep-frying. Overall, our review and data extraction provide reason to believe that a diversified diet was possible for the people of East Africa during this period (1930s-1960s). CONCLUSIONS: There is a wealth of knowledge pertaining to traditional East African foods and food habits within the Oltersdorf Collection. These data are currently available via our online collection. Future efforts should contribute to collating and honing knowledge of traditional foods and food habits within this region, and indeed throughout the rest of Africa. Preserving and disseminating this knowledge may be crucial for abating projected trends for non-communicable diseases and malnutrition in Africa and abroad.
BACKGROUND: All vectors of human malaria, a disease responsible for more than one million deaths per year, are female mosquitoes from the genus Anopheles. Evarcha culicivora is an East African jumping spider (Salticidae) that feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by selecting blood-carrying female mosquitoes as preferred prey. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: By testing with motionless lures made from mounting dead insects in lifelike posture on cork discs, we show that E. culicivora selects Anopheles mosquitoes in preference to other mosquitoes and that this predator can identify Anopheles by static appearance alone. Tests using active (grooming) virtual mosquitoes rendered in 3-D animation show that Anopheles' characteristic resting posture is an important prey-choice cue for E. culicivora. Expression of the spider's preference for Anopheles varies with the spider's size, varies with its prior feeding condition and is independent of the spider gaining a blood meal. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first experimental study to show that a predator of any type actively chooses Anopheles as preferred prey, suggesting that specialized predators having a role in the biological control of disease vectors is a realistic possibility.
Species flocks within Great Lakes provide unique insights into the factors affecting diversification. Lake Tanganyika (LT) is of particular interest because it contains many endemic groups for which general factors affecting diversification can be discerned. Here, we present the first phylogenetic study of the LT Synodontis (Siluriformes, Mochokidae) species flock using mtDNA sequence data. Our data reveal some previously unrecognized species diversity and indicate that the LT species flock is not monophyletic, and that two closely related clades of endemics may have independently colonized LT. Other comparable small species flocks are characterized by a single colonization event. Molecular date estimates of the timing of the initial within-lake diversification of the LT endemics, based on a fossil calibration, are comparable to those reported for other groups, suggesting that extrinsic factors maybe important common causes of clade diversification. The basal divergence in the sampled Synodontis reveals an East-West African faunal split seen in many terrestrial, but few aquatic groups, the timing of which coincides with East African rifting events.