Impact of Genetic Diversity of Uropathogenic Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae Strains on the Dissemination of Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactam Resistance Genes in Côte d’Ivoire

The increase and spread of bacterial resistance to extended-spectrum beta-lactam antibiotics are reported in many infections and are a real public health problem worldwide. Drug pressure is a factor that favors the emergence of a population of better adapted bacteria. However, there is no literature highlighting the genetic diversity and evolutionary structure of E. coli and K. pneumoniae in an environment with high selection pressure in Côte d’Ivoire. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity of E. coli and K. pneumoniae strains circulating at the HKB Hospital in Abobo and at the Daloa Regional Hospital and its impact on the dissemination of extended spectrum beta-lactam resistance genes. A total of 39 strains isolated from the urinary tract of infected patients, including 30 strains of E. coli and 9 strains of K. pneumoniae were studied. A total of 39 strains isolated from the urinary tract of infected patients, including 30 strains of E. coli and 9 strains of K. pneumoniae were studied. From genomic DNA extracts, ESBL resistance genes were amplified by PCR and sequenced, in addition to genetic typing by ERIC-PCR. The data obtained were submitted to genetic and bioinformatics analyses. The results have shown a genetic diversity important in E. coli and K. pneumoniae with diversity indexs (SID) ranging from 0.5 to 0.77. The genetic structure of the bacterial species studied has shown a clonal distribution of strains with clones expressing TEM-9 and CTX-M-15 variants. Also, this clonal structure was correlated with the spread of resistance genes in E. coli and K. pneumoniae. The spread of resistant clones is a factor that might limit the fight against antibiotic resistance.

Potential Groundwater Pollution Risks by Heavy Metals from Agricultural Soil in Songon Area(Abidjan,Cote d’Ivoire)

The soil samples were collected taking into account the land use in Songon area. The hydraulic conductivity (K) of soils was characterized in-situ when specific yield (Sy), pHw and concentrations of Cooper, Iron, Zinc, Cadmium, Chromium and Lead were measured in the laboratory. Pollution load indices (PLI) were calculated to evaluate the soil contamination levels. The soils were neutral and alkaline (6.7≤ pH ≤ 9.20), permeable (1.9 í 10-5?m·s-1?≤ K ≤ 8.2 í 10-4?m·s-1), with a high specific yield (13.33% ≤ Sy ≤ 33.33%) which can favor the pollutants transfer. The heavy metals (Fe, Cu, Zn, Cd, Cr and Pb) have very high concentrations in soils. The integrated pollution indices (PLI) indicate that almost 70% of Songon soils are moderately contaminated by the investigated heavy metals, with windows presenting high indices of pollution related to the intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides. The establishment of new boreholes in the Songon area should consider these heavy metals, so as to avoid the risk of groundwater pollution due to the physical properties of soils.

Assessment of the Physicochemical Quality of Irrigation Water and Soil for Sustainable Irrigated Rice Cultivation:Case of Irrigated Perimeter of M’Bahiakro(Central-East of Cote d’Ivoire)

This study aims to assess the physico-chemical quality of irrigation water and soil in the irrigated area of M’Bahiakro. Seasonal campaigns to measure in situ the physical parameters (pH, temperature, salinity, electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids) of the N’Zi River were carried out, followed by sampling (water and soil) for chemical analyses. The physico-chemical quality of irrigation water was assessed on the basis of four (4) parameters, namely Dry Residue (SR), Osmotic Pressure (π), Kelly Coefficient (KCR), Sodium Absorption Rate (SAR) and Wilcox Diagram. In terms of soil quality, the parameters (pH, N, P, P, K, MO, CEC and ESP) were determined. Overall, the results show a good physical-chemical quality of the irrigation water and soil. Indeed, the irrigation waters studied show good physico-chemistry and low to medium salinity depending on the seasons of the year. As for the soils, they have a clayey-silt texture, a slightly acidic pH, favourable to rice cultivation and a good organic matter content, which best maintains an active microbial life. In addition, the major elements (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) present in irrigation water and soils could be enough to optimize the yield of rice cultivation. These results then lead to the conclusion that the irrigation water from the N’Zi River and the soils of the irrigated perimeter of M’Bahiakro are naturally suitable for agricultural use, particularly for rice cultivation. As a result, an additional supply of fertilizer (NPK) would not necessarily be necessary during the exploitation phase of the rice area.

Theoretical and Experimental Studies of a Box-Type Solar Cooker in Unfavorable Climatic Conditions

A box-type solar cooker with an inclined surface, equipped with a concentration reflector to allow maximum energy to be collected, enabled cooking tests to be carried out in the rainy season. Different thermocouples were implanted on various places of the cooker. The temperature measurements from these sensors were taken every 10 minutes. The tests presented in this article relate to the preparation of eggs and rice. The absorber temperatures during the tests exceeded 100°C. The cooking times were between 1 h 50 min and 2 h 20 min despite the numerous cloudy periods. The cooker made it possible to reach sufficient temperatures for healthy cooking of food. The results obtained for these first tests are satisfactory and very encouraging.

Modeling of Quaternary Groundwater Pollution Risk by GIS and Multicriteria Analysis in the Southern Part of Abidjan District(Cote d’Ivoire)

The pollution generated by human activities in the area “Vridi canal-Grand Bassam” puts more at risk the quaternary groundwater that supplies water to a large part of the population of the southern part of Abidjan city. This paper deals with the combined approach of geographic information systems and multicriteria analysis to delineate areas at risk of pollution of groundwater in the study area. The multicriteria analysis also incorporated the statistical and geostatistical techniques for defining the factor ratings and weightings of all the parameters under a GIS environment. The criterion for these factor ratings and weightings was the correlation coefficient of each parameter with the nitrates concentration in groundwater. Two indicators were combined for creating situations of pollution risks according to their importance: the intrinsic vulnerability indicators which combined the depth to groundwater, the net recharge, the slope, the soil media, the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and extrinsic vulnerability characterized by the land use. The results showed that all to the site presents nitrate pollution risks with 50.7% of moderate risk, and 49.3% of high and very high risks. The areas which present the highest risks of pollution are the densely urbanized communes of Treichville, Marcory, Koumasi, Port-Bouet and Grand-Bassam. The sensitivity analysis indicates that parameters causing high sensitivity on the nitrate pollution risks map are the depth to groundwater and the recharge. The errors committed on the maps establishment are ±0.15%, ±0.40% and ±6% respectively for IV map, EV map and pollution risk map.

Validation of Three Satellite Precipitation Products in Two South-Western African Watersheds: Bandama (Ivory Coast) and Mono (Togo)

Satellite precipitation products are widely used in different domain, in area where there is a lack in observation. These have different spatio-temporal resolutions consequently resulting in different precipitation amounts depending on the product. The present study validates three satellite products, namely the Climate Hazard group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS), the Climate Research Unit (CRU) and the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) over Bandama and Mono river basins for 1981-2005 and 1981-2016 respectively by comparing them to the observation precipitation of the basin. The available studies are focused on the regional scale but not on a watershed scale for hydrological studies. The analysis reveals that all the products are strongly correlated to each other as well as to the observed data at basin level. The Lamb coefficient test shows that most all the chosen basin namely Bandama and Mono presents the same climatic indices. All the products present the same variability and trend as the observation at basins scale. By comparing those products to observation, CHIRPS product following by GPCP give the lowest mean absolute error (MAE) at annual and seasonal time scales while CHIRPS is followed by CRU at monthly scale. Overall, all products overestimate the precipitation at Bandama basin while they underestimate it over Mono river basin. The comparison over 1981-2017 period of the total annual precipitation increasing southern ward (from Sahel to the coastal zone) for all the three studied products which varies from 300 mm to 2400 mm/year. All the three products are not significantly different from one another and they all highlight the same areas of hotspot rainfall in the region. The same conclusion is made at monthly and seasonal scales. Therefore, any of these products especially CHIRPS can be used for study in this region due to its lowest bias and MAE.

Characterization of the Origin of Pollutants in Groundwater from Biostatistical Tests:The Case of Catchment Ehania,South-Eastern Cote d’Ivoire

The threat of agro-industrial exploitations on the quality of groundwater resources has become a major concern for the world’s population, mainly in agricultural areas. To solve this problem, several methods such as vulnerability to pollutants and statistics methods, have been adopted to protect these groundwaters. In this study, statistical tests were used to determine the likely source of pollutants in the groundwater resources. First, we made a comparative analysis and then analyzed pollutants parameters using Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM) which allows basic on the similarity to help out any correlation between the physic-chemical parameters. To validate these results, a land use map was developed to identify the sources of pollutants in production functions of different activities taking place on the catchment area. The results indicate very high levels of certain pollutants such as NO3-, Cl- and SO42- with generally higher than World Health Organization (WHO) standards values. These high levels observed could be attributed to the generally free nature of aquifers alteration and sedimentary formations in areas of high agro-industrial production. The analysis of the data from SOM method reveals a strong correlation between pollutants (NO3-, SO42-,Cl- ) and conductivity showing the likely origin of these surface pollutants,an origin that is linked to the existence of larges agro-industrials exploitations. These results are reinforced by those of the overlay map of the sampling sites on the land use map, which shows a strong coincidence between high values of pollutants and production areas of the pollutants that are agro-industrial exploitations. These areas of coincidence are observed in the north where found banana’s industrials plantations that are less visible and mostly in the southwest part where is one of the largest oil palm plantations in the world (36,000 hectares).

Rain-Flow Modeling Using a Multi-Layer Artificial Neural Network on the Watershed of the Cavally River(Cote d’Ivoire)

Water resources management is nowadays a significant stake for the world. However, missing or bad quality of the hydro-climatic historical data available of the studied area makes sometimes hydrological studies difficult. Generally, conceptual rain-flow models are designed to bring an appropriate answer with the correction of gaps and prediction of the flows. Historical hydro-climatic data of the Ity station, located on Cavally River, contain gaps which must be bridged. This study aims to establish a rainfall-runoff model through artificial neural networks for filling the gaps into the flow data series of the hydrometric station of Ity on the watershed of Cavally River. A multi-layer perceptron of feed forwards with two entries (monthly average rain and evapotranspiration) and an exit (flows) was established with flow evapotranspiration data. Comparison of the criteria of performance of the various architectures of the neural network model showed that architecture 2-3-1 gives best results. This architecture provides Nash coefficients of 75.79% and correlation linear coefficient of 95.64% for the calibration and Nash coefficients of 73.32% and correlation linear coefficient of 98.33% for the validation. The correlations between simulated flows and observed flows are strong. The correlation coefficients are 83.89% and 83.08% respectively for the calibration and validation.

Prospects for Minimizing the Potential Environmental Impacts of the Hydro-Agricultural Dam of M’Bahiakro(Cote d’Ivoire)

This study aims at characterizing the physical environment and suggesting solutions for a better management of the hydro-agricultural dam of M’Bahiakro which is being constructed over the N’Zi River and is the first inflatable dam in Cote d’Ivoire. In this survey, data related to hydrology, characteristics of the dam and the irrigated rice production area were obtained with the Water Resources Agency and the National Office of Rice Development of Cote d’Ivoire. Physicochemical parameters of the N’Zi River were collected seasonally at three monitoring stations. Results showed that the N’Zi River is characterized by a high water level period from April to November and a low water level period from November to April. The gap between the low flows and the high flows is important (about 206 m3/s on average). The annual average flow is 40 m3/s with a standard deviation of 32.52 m3/s and a variation coefficient of 0.88. The SAR average value (1.63) and the average conductivity (78.44 μS/cm) showed that waters of the N’Zi River are of high quality to be used for irrigation. Suspended sediment concentrations do not present significant difference along the river. But the seasonal variations are important;they are higher during the rainy seasons (45.8 mg/L on average) than in the dry seasons (17.7 mg/L on average). The annual solid flux of the N’Zi River is 41897 tons, i.e. 15810 m3 of sediments. The annual sediment flux is important and can lead to high depositions in the line-shaped reservoir of the dam and that calls for attention to control the silting up of the reservoir. Great efforts concerning interdisciplinary approaches, as well as extensive and intensive field work are needed in order to better manage the hydro-agricultural dam of M’Bahiakro.

Molecular Characterization and Prevalence of Trypanosoma Species in Cattle from a Northern Livestock Area in Cote d’Ivoire

Background: African animal trypanosomiasis (AAT) is caused mainly by Trypanosoma congolense, T. vivax, and T. brucei brucei and is the major constraint for livestock productivity in Sub-Saharan African countries. Information about animal trypanosomiasis status in Ivory Coast is missing, especially regarding molecular epidemiology. Therefore, this study intended to apply molecular tools to identify and characterize trypanosomes in Ivory Coast for sustainable control. Methods: 363 cattle blood samples were collected from Ferkessedougou Region in northern Ivory Coast in 2012. Buffy coat technique (BCT) and species-specific PCR assays were used to detect trypanosome species. Results: Out of 363 cattle examined with BCT, 33 were found positive with all trypanosomes species accounting for an average of 9.09% prevalence whereas polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using species-specific primers showed that 81 out of 363 cattle were infected with trypanosomes with an overall prevalence of 22.31%. Trypanosoma congolense savanah type, T. Vivax and T. brucei sl. accounted for 28.39%, 49.38% and 23.45% of the infection rate respectively. No infection with T. congo forest?type was detected. T. vivax infection was the most prevalence in the area investigated compared to the two other trypanosome species. Mixed infections with different trypanosomes species were detected accounting for 7.32% of prevalence. Regarding sexrelated prevalence, male cattles were slightly more infected than female but the difference was not significant. Conclusion: Our results showed that there was a high prevalence of AAT in livestock in Ferkessedougou Area. There is therefore a need to strengthen control policies and institute measures that help prevent the spread of the parasites for sustainable control of animal trypanosome in this area.