Wildlife Conservation Society Congo

Background: Digestive stomas remain a surgical option indicated for various gastrointestinal pathologies. However, living with a stoma can significantly impair a patient's quality of life. The objective of this study is to evaluate the perceptions of adult Congolese patients with digestive stomas regarding their quality of life. Methods: This multicenter, descriptive, and prospective study was conducted from 01 August 2019 to 01 November 2020. It included patients aged 18 years and older living with digestive stomas. They were consecutively recruited from seven hospitals in Congo-Brazzaville. Quality of life (QoL) was assessed using the Stoma-QoL questionnaire. Results: In total, 56 patients (39 men and 17 women, male/female ratio of 2.29), aged. A mean age of 42±17 years (range: 18–75 years) participated in the study. All ostomy patients reported a change in body image. They felt self-conscious about their appearance and significantly affected their physical attractiveness. Nearly all patients (96%) experienced negative psychological repercussions (depression, anxiety). Most of them (87%) had stopped their professional or daily activities due to the ostomy. The quality of sexuality was impaired for both patients and their partners. Those close to the patients experienced anxiety and spent more time at home. Conclusion: The daily lives of ostomy patients are significantly disrupted in every way. It is therefore essential to provide more support to ostomy patients to help them better adapt to daily life. To this end, a multidisciplinary approach involving surgeons, ostomy therapists, and psychologists is crucial to improving their quality of life.

Surface water quality in Dolisie (southwest of the Republic of Congo) is strongly impacted by human activities, particularly domestic wastewater discharge, agriculture, and livestock farming, leading to progressive degradation of water resources and posing risks to public health as well as domestic and agricultural uses. This study assessed water quality through analysis of physico-chemical and bacteriological parameters at several sites representative of domestic and agricultural areas. Physico-chemical analysis showed that pH ranged from 5.5 (Ninja Lake) to 9.9 (marsh near the Orthodox Church), with a mean of 6.58 ± 1.18. Water temperature varied from 25.36°C (upstream of the Loubomo River) to 28.5°C (Tahiti fish ponds), with an average of 26.83 ± 0.93°C. Electrical conductivity ranged from 115.66 to 315.33 µS/cm (mean 213.65 ± 73.18 µS/cm), while total dissolved solids (TDS) varied from 57 to 210.5 ppm (mean 112.52 ± 46.70 ppm). Three heavy metals were detected: cadmium (0.049–0.070 ppm, mean 0.057 ± 0.005 ppm), copper (0.0217–0.0509 ppm, mean 0.037 ± 0.010 ppm), and zinc (0.0004–0.00311 ppm, mean 0.004 ± 0.008 ppm). Microbiologically, total mesophilic aerobic flora (TMAF) ranged from 1,000 to 6,000 CFU/100mL (mean 3,333 ± 1,670), total coliforms from 69 to 193 CFU/100mL (mean 133 ± 43), and fecal coliforms from 32 to 102 CFU/100mL (mean 64 ± 21), exceeding WHO standards and indicating significant fecal contamination. Fecal streptococci ranged from 30 to 72 CFU/100mL, <i>Staphylococcus</i> spp. from 14 to 97 CFU/100mL, <i>Salmonella</i> from 40 to 110 CFU/100mL, <i>Shigella</i> from 19 to 77 CFU/100mL, and <i>Pseudomonas </i><i>aeruginosa</i> from 15 to 62 CFU/100mL. Correlation analyses revealed significant relationships: temperature correlated with total coliforms (r = 0.69) and fecal coliforms (r = 0.63), electrical conductivity correlated with TDS (r = 0.91), and several bacterial groups showed positive correlations among themselves. Principal component analysis associated the F1 axis (42.24% of variance) with microbiological parameters and the F2 axis (20.7%) with physico-chemical parameters. These findings reveal progressive deterioration of surface water quality in Dolisie and emphasize the urgent need for sustainable management measures, public awareness, and wastewater control to preserve water resources and protect public health.

Petroleum products play a vital role in global economic development and are fundamental to numerous industries as well as daily life. They are commonly used in transportation (as fuels) and in the petrochemical industry for the production of first- and second-generation synthesis intermediates. The most common petroleum products include gasoline, diesel fuels, liquefied petroleum gases (LPG), and lubricants. These products must meet sales standards and specifications to ensure optimal performance and environmental compliance. This study focuses exclusively on lubricants. Among the key properties required for petroleum products are: the octane number for gasoline, the cetane index for diesel, flash point, freezing point, density, vapor pressure, viscosity, and volatility. However, this study concentrates solely on the physicochemical properties of lubricants. Specifically, it investigates their density, relative density, viscosity, and pH which constitute the main objective of this research. The quantities analyzed were measured using standard laboratory equipment such as a precision balance, test tubes, pH paper, and a Hoppler-type viscometer (ball viscometer). All lubricant samples were collected from fuel stations and various informal vendors in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. The results of the analyses indicate that lubricants sold at fuel stations are denser than those sold by informal vendors. Furthermore, station-sold lubricants are typically yellow in color, while those from informal sources range from light yellow to pink, and tend to exhibit slightly less stable viscosity levels.

Abstract Studies can only guide conservation if their findings are informative at the scales at which practitioners and policymakers operate. Yet, it is rarely tested whether large-scale studies reach similar conclusions to the smaller-scale studies on which conservation traditionally relies. We examine whether predictors of extinction risk are consistent across global, regional, and local scales, for 210 tropical forest mammal species (≥ 1 kg) that existed during the last 130,000 years, in 64 tropical forests, across three biogeographical realms. We found consistent predictors of extinction risk (body mass, generation length, diet, brain volume and scansoriality) when analyses differed only in their spatial resolution. However, predictors differed when analyses also varied in their temporal extent. Macroecological findings about extinction risk can, thus, inform conservation at smaller scales, but they risk misidentifying threatened species if differences in temporal extent are not recognised.

Background: Vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) are rare forms of poliovirus that have evolved genetically from the attenuated virus present in oral polio vaccine (OPV). This process occurs during widespread human-to-human transmission in populations with low immunity, or after prolonged replication in the intestines of immunodeficient individuals following vaccination. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been facing outbreaks of VDPV since 2017. These wild poliovirus variants are responsible for poliomyelitis, which is in the process of eradication. The following lines show the evolution of VDPV cases across the country in order to understand their chronological dynamics and seasonal influence. Aim: The study aims to analyze the temporal and spatial dynamics of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) transmission in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2018 to 2023. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on VDPV and reported in the DRC from 2018 to 2023. Maps of the spatial dynamics of VDPV cases were produced from attack rates with QGIS® (3.22.8). As for temporal dynamics, time series were decomposed and presented in the form of graphs showing the chronological evolution of VDPV cases and their seasonal trend, using R.4.0 software package. Results: A total of 1196 Cases of VDPV types 1, 2 and 3 were recorded in the biological confirmation databases of the INRB and the Expanded Program of Immunization during the study period across 25 provinces. The eastern part of the country reports the most cases. The general trend is upwards, with a peak in 2022 of 527 cases, whereas in 2021 there was a notable drop of 31 cases. The study of the spatiotemporal dynamics of VDPV cases in the DRC (2018 - 2023) highlights a convincing fact, which is spatial heterogeneity. This would be linked to climatic and environmental factors. Analysis of the temporal breakdown suggests a seasonal pattern, with peaks between the months of September and December, considered to be rainy periods in some provinces. Moreover, in endemic countries and areas, PVS has a seasonal pattern that varies according to geographical region. In tropical or semi-tropical regions, PV circulation tends to be cyclical and is often associated with the rainy season. Conclusion: This study of the temporal and spatial dynamics of VDPV has shown the extent of variant poliovirus epidemics and their heterogeneous distribution in the DRC. During the 6 years of the study (2018 - 2023), almost all the Health Zones were hit by VDPV epidemics. The eastern part was the most impacted. The seasonal component is well marked suggesting a rise in detection in the rainy season and during pivotal periods of climate change. This analysis highlights the contribution of the seasonal component to poliovirus circulation; the variation in relative humidity according to season and health zones can partly explain fluctuations in the number of VDPV cases. This result opens the way to taking into account the seasonal component of PV transmission.

The impacts of human activities and climate change on animal populations often take considerable time before they are reflected in typical measures of population health such as population size, demography, and landscape use. Earlier detection of such impacts could enhance the effectiveness of conservation strategies, particularly for species with slow population growth. Passive acoustic monitoring is increasingly used to estimate occupancy and population size, but this tool can also monitor subtle shifts in behavior that might be early indicators of changing impacts. Here we use data from an acoustic grid, monitoring 1250 km2 of forest in northern Republic of Congo, to study how forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) assess risk associated with human impacts across a landscape that includes a national park as well as active and inactive logging concessions. By quantifying emerging patterns of behavior at the population level, arising from individual-based decisions, we gain an understanding of how elephants perceive their landscape along an axis of human disturbance. Forest elephants in relatively undisturbed forests are active nearly equally day and night. However, they become more nocturnal when exposed to a perceived risk such as poaching. We assessed elephant perception of risk by monitoring changes in the likelihood of nocturnal vocal activity relative to differing levels of human activity. We show that logging is perceived to be a risk on moderate time and small spatial scales, but with little effect on elephant density. However, risk avoidance persisted in areas with relatively easy access to poachers and in more open habitats where poaching has historically been concentrated. Increased nocturnal activity is a common response in many animals to human intrusion on the landscape. Provided a species is acoustically active, passive acoustic monitoring can measure changes in human impact at early stages of such change, informing management priorities.

Abstract As camera trapping grows in popularity and application, some analytical limitations persist including processing time and accuracy of data annotation. Typically images are recorded by camera traps although videos are becoming increasingly collected even though they require much more time for annotation. To overcome limitations with image annotation, camera trap studies are increasingly linked to community science (CS) platforms. Here, we extend previous work on CS image annotations to camera trap videos from a challenging environment; a dense tropical forest with low visibility and high occlusion due to thick canopy cover and bushy undergrowth at the camera level. Using the CS platform Chimp&See, established for classification of 599 956 video clips from tropical Africa, we assess annotation precision and accuracy by comparing classification of 13 531 1‐min video clips by a professional ecologist (PE) with output from 1744 registered, as well as unregistered, Chimp&See community scientists. We considered 29 classification categories, including 17 species and 12 higher‐level categories, in which phenotypically similar species were grouped. Overall, annotation precision was 95.4%, which increased to 98.2% when aggregating similar species groups together. Our findings demonstrate the competence of community scientists working with camera trap videos from even challenging environments and hold great promise for future studies on animal behaviour, species interaction dynamics and population monitoring.