African swine fever virus (ASFV) adversely affects pig farming owing to its 100% mortality rate. The condition is marked by elevated body temperature, bleeding, and ataxia in domestic pigs, whereas warthogs and ticks remain asymptomatic despite being natural reservoirs for the virus. Breeding ASFV-resistant pigs is a promising solution for eradicating this disease. ASFV employs several mechanisms to deplete the host antiviral response. This review explores the interaction of ASFV proteins with innate host immunity and the various types of machinery encompassed by viral proteins that inhibit and induce different signaling pathways, such as cGAS-STING, NF-κB, Tumor growth factor-beta (TGF-β), ubiquitination, viral inhibition of apoptosis, and resistance to ASFV infection. Prospects for developing a domestic pig that is resistant to ASFV are also discussed.

The reemergence of monkeypoxvirus (MPXV) in 2017 after about 39 years of no reported cases in Nigeria, and the recent incidence in countries such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, Singapore, and Israel which have been reportedly linked with travelers from Africa, have heightened concern that MPXV may have emerged to occupy the vacant ecological and immunological niche created by the extinct smallpox virus. This study was carried out to identify environmental conditions and areas that are environmentally suitable (risky areas) for MPXV in southern Nigeria. One hundred and sixteen (116) spatially unique MPXV occurrence data from 2017–2021 and corresponding environmental variables were spatially modeled by a maximum entropy algorithm to evaluate the contribution of the variables to the distribution of the viral disease. A variance inflation analysis was adopted to limit the number of environmental variables and minimize multicollinearity. The five variables that contributed to the suitability model for MPXV disease are precipitation of driest quarter (47%), elevation (26%), human population density (17%), minimum temperature in December (7%), and maximum temperature in March (3%). For validation, our model had a high AUC value of 0.92 and standard deviation of 0.009 indicating that it had excellent ability to predict the suitable areas for monkeypox disease. Categorized risk classes across southern states was also identified. A total of eight states were predicted to be at high risk of monkeypox outbreak occurrence. These findings can guide policymakers in resources allocation and distribution to effectively implement targeted control measures for MPXV outbreaks in southern Nigeria.

Ulcerative colitis (UC), a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), presents therapeutic challenges due to the limitations and side effects of current treatments, creating a need for safer and more effective alternatives. Despite several studies on the health benefits of donkey milk, its specific impact on UC remains unsolved. This study investigates the therapeutic potential of donkey whey protein (DWP), a bioactive-rich functional food, in alleviating UC symptoms in a mouse model of dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis. The DWP was processed using thermal and nonthermal techniques, including high-temperature, long-time (HTLT) pasteurization, ultrasonic processing (300 W), and UV irradiation, to evaluate the impact of processing methods on its therapeutic efficacy. The results demonstrated that when processed nonthermally, DWP mitigated colitis symptoms such as weight loss, diarrhea, and colon shortening. Histological analysis revealed improved mucosal integrity and reduced inflammation in the colon, with nonthermal treatments showing superior effects. The DWP treatment enhanced antioxidant activity, suppressed proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β), and modulated the gut microbiota, promoting microbial diversity and restoring microbial balance. Nonthermal treatments were particularly effective in preserving the bioactivity of DWP, highlighting their potential in enhancing the functional properties of whey proteins. These findings suggest that DWP, particularly when processed through nonthermal methods, holds potential as a natural and effective alternative for managing UC and other chronic inflammatory diseases.

The tremendous global surging of the African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) threatens pig industries worldwide. ASFV causes acute hemorrhagic fever in domestic pigs with near enough 100 % mortality, whereas immune in its natural host’s warthogs, bush-pigs, and the soft tick vector. ASFV is a large cytoplasmic double-stranded DNA virus that replicates mainly in macrophages. At present, infected animals can only be managed by quarantine and removal of infected animals as lack of effective vaccines and treatment. This review focus on mechanisms by which ASFV enter, replicate, modulate, molecular hijacking and overpowered the host immune system. Various machinery employed by ASFV discussed, such as overcoming barriers to replication in the monocyte/macrophage, inhibition of apoptosis, inhibition of inflammatory responses, ASFV adhesion protein CD2v. This review exposes ASFV evasion strategies and virus-host interactions, thus reveal promising vaccine development ideas.