Background: Low-income families often depend on fuels such as wood, coal, and animal dung for cooking. Such solid fuels are highly polluting and are a primary source of indoor air pollutants (IAP). We examined the association between solid fuel use (SFU) and acute respiratory infection (ARI) among under-five children in Afghanistan and the extent to which this association varies by socioeconomic status (SES) and gender. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study based on de-identified data from Afghanistan’s first standard Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2015. The sample consists of ever-married mothers with under-five children in the household (n=27,565). We used mixed-effect Poisson regression models with robust error variance accounting for clustering to examine the associations between SFU and ARI among under-five children after adjusting for potential confounders. We also investigated potential effect modification by SES and sex. Additional analyses were conducted using an augmented measure of the exposure to IAP accounting for both SFU and the location of cooking/kitchen (High Exposure, Moderate, and No Exposure). Results: Around 70% of households reported SFU, whereas the prevalence of ARI was 17.6%. The prevalence of ARI was higher in children living in households with SFU compared to children living in households with no SFU (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR]= 1.10; 95%CI: 0.98, 1.23). We did not observe any effect modification by SES or child sex. When using the augmented measure of exposure incorporating the kitchen’s location, children highly exposed to IAP had a higher prevalence of ARI compared to unexposed children (aPR 1.17; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.32). SES modified this association with the strongest associations observed among children from the middle wealth quintile. Conclusion: The findings have significant policy implications and suggest that ARI risk in children may be reduced by ensuring clean cookstove as well as clean fuels and acting on the socio-environmental pathways.

This experiment was carried out to determine the overall prevalence of pigeon diseases and especially emphasized on prevalence of parasitic diseases in study areas. During this study 45 farms were selected which have >20 pair of pigeon for commercial and >10 pair pigeon for traditional farm in the three study area namely Rajshahi, Natore and Pabna district of Bangladesh. The data were collected from different farm within the study area through a questionnaire and interview schedule with the farm owners. During one year of study period a total Out of 3677 pigeon, positive case in cage of external parasites were 722 and internal parasite positives 114 from 263 fecal sample. The overall prevalence of gastrointestinal and external parasites in pigeon at northern Bangladesh is obtained. The infestation of lice Columbaecula columbae and fly Pseudolynchia canariensis were observed 18.08% and 1.55% respectively. The present study found two species of ectoparasites lice and fly. Diversity of ectoparasite in birds infestation may be depend on many factors, which may include home range, behavior, size and roosting habit of the host. The overall prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in pigeon are founded that 43.34% in research area. Specific incidence was 22.81% in Ascariasis, 18.63% in Capilariasis and 1.90% in Raillietina parasite in pigeon. Ascaridia colombae is one of the most common (22.81%) helminth species in pigeons in this study. The effect of breed of pigeon observed in present studies the highest in indigenous (63.47%) and lowest exotic (36%) prevalence of gastrointestinal parasite was observed. The specific percentages of Ascariasis, Capilariasis and Raillatina gastrointestinal parasites of pigeon were found 20% & 31.74%; 14% & 30.15% and 2% & 1.58% in exotic & indigenous breed, respectively. In the present study, there is a relation between the occurrence of gastrointestinal parasitic infections with the age of the pigeons which showed that high prevalence in adults (50%) and compare to young (22.22%). but it was statistically significant (P>0.05). In relation with farming system the gastrointestinal parasitic incidence of pigeon was observed in modern and tradition farming system, the highest incidence was 71.16% in traditional & lowest 31.14% in modern farming. When observed specifically in Ascariasis, Capillariasis & Raillietina were 16.39% & 37.41%; 13.11% & 31.25% and 1.63% & 2.5% in modern & traditional, respectively. The effect of regions on the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in pigeon was observed in Pabna (68.32%), Natore (57.84%) and Rajshahi (33.33%). The specific percentages of Ascariasis, Capilariasis and Raillatina gastrointestinal parasites of pigeon were 18.18%, 33.33% & 26.31%; 14.54%, 33.33% & 23.38% and 0.606%, 1.66% & 7.89% in Rajshahi, Pabna and Natore, respectively.

Application of chemical pesticides to protect agricultural crops from pests and diseases is discouraged due to their harmful effects on human and environment. Therefore, alternative approaches for crop pro-tection through microbial or microbe originated pesticides have been gaining momentum. Wheat blast is a destructive fungal disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae Triticum (MoT) pathotype, which poses a seri-ous threat to global food security. Screening of secondary metabolites against MoT revealed that antimy-cin A isolated from a marine Streptomyces sp. had significant inhibitory effect on mycelial growth in vitro. This study aimed to investigate the inhibitory effects of antimycin A on some critical life stages of MoT and evaluate the efficacy of wheat blast disease control by this natural product. Bioassay indicated that antimycin A suppressed mycelial growth, conidiogenesis, germination of conidia and formation of ap-pressoria in germinated conidia of MoT in a dose-dependent manner with minimum inhibitory concen-tration 0.005 μg/disk. If germinated, antimycin A induced abnormal germ tubes (4.8%) and suppressed the formation of appressoria. Interestingly, application of antimycin A significantly suppressed wheat blast disease in both seedling and heading stages of wheat supporting the results from invitro study. This is the first report on inhibition of mycelial growth, conidiogenesis, conidia germination, detrimental morphological alterations in germinated conidia, and suppression of wheat blast disease caused by a Triticum pathotype of M. Oryzae. Further study is required to unravel the precise mode of action of this promising natural compound for considering it as a biopesticide to combat wheat blast.