BackgroundBurnout, a measure of professional distress, is more common among medical professionals. About half of medical students have this problem. However, little is known about the burnout status of medical students in Ethiopia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of burnout among medical students of Debre Berhan University (DBU).MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on randomly selected 151 medical students of DBU. Burnout was assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS). Participants were reported as having burnout if they scored ≥27 on Emotional Exhaustion (EE), ≥13 on Depersonalization (DP) sub-scales, and ≤ 31 on Personal Accomplishment (PA) sub-scale of the MBI-HSS. EpiData version 3.1 was used for data entry while SPSS version 20 and STATA version 13 for windows were used for data analysis. Both univariable and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were conducted. The degree of association between variables was assessed using odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) at two-tailed p-value of < 0.05.ResultOf 144 medical students took part, 34.0% had symptoms of burnout. Regarding domains of burnout, 61.8% scored high on EE, 47.9% scored high on DP and 59.7% scored low on PA. Dissatisfaction with practice lecturer (AOR = 3.8, 95% CI (1.3, 11.6)), moderate social support (AOR = 0.2, 95% CI (0.1, 0.8)), and satisfaction with their education (AOR = 0.1 95% CI (0.0, 0.7)) were associated with burnout.ConclusionMore than one-third of medical students at DBU had burnout. Individual and organizational level interventions targeting students who had poor social support, dissatisfied by their lecturer at the hospitals and their education are recommended.

The experiment was conducted to evaluating the effects of fertilizer and harvesting age on agronomic performance, chemical composition and economic feasibility of Desho (Pennisetum Pedicellatum) grass under irrigation, in Ethiopia. A factorial arrangement with four fertilizer types (control, urea, compost and urea + compost), and three harvesting ages (90, 120 and 150) with three replications were used. Data on morphological characteristics of the grass were recorded. Based on the data collected, harvesting age was significantly affected the agronomic parameters of the grass. Plant height (PH), number of tillers per plant (NTPP), number of leaves per plant (NLPP), number of leaves per tiller (NLPT), dry matter yield (DMY), leaf length (LL) and leaf area (LA) were increased with increasing harvesting age, while leaf to stem ratio (LSR) showed a decreasing trend. NDF, ADF and ADL content were also increased with increasing age, while ash declined with age. Fertilizer was also significantly affected the agronomic parameter of Desho grass. A mixture of 50 kg urea (U)/ha and 6,000 kg compost/ha was provided the highest NTPP, NLPP, NLPT, and DMY, while NF (control) was the lowest in all parameters. Highest NDF, ADF, ADL and ash content were recorded at the control group. In general, using a mixture of 50 kg urea (U)/ha and 6,000 kg compost/ha fertilizer is the most important for long-term Desho grass production which provides a high benefitcost ratio. Further research is needed in different organic and inorganic fertilizer combinations.

AbstractsTwenty-four yearling male local Washera lambs with an average initial body weight of 18.14 ± 1.07 kg were used to assess the nutritional value of Millettia ferruginea. Experimental animals were grouped into six blocks of four animals, and each animal was randomly assigned to one of the four dietary treatment feeds. The treatments used were; Sole natural pasture grass hay (T1), and 150, 300, 450 g DM Millettia ferruginea leaf hay with ad libitum natural pasture grass hay assigned for (T2), (T3) and (T4), respectively. The feeding trial was carried out for 80 days followed by a 10 days of digestibility trial. Carcasses of each experimental animal were evaluated at the end of the digestibility experiment. Millettia ferruginea leaf hay had 224.6, 556.6, 360.7and 127.4 g/kg crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL), respectively. The average intakes of Millettia ferruginea leaf hay were 0, 133, 263 and 253 g/day for T1, T2, T3 and T4, in that order. The proportions of Millettia ferruginea leaf hay intake from the total dry matter (DM) were 0, 23.5, 44.1, and 43.3% for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively. The total DM intake was not significant but showed a trend of T1 > T3 > T4 > T2. CP intake was higher for T3 and T4 with the least intake for T1. Final body weight measurement was higher for T3 and T1 but lower and negative for T2 and T4. Generally, body weight measurements were not consistent in the supplemented groups throughout the trial period. The weight of heart, spleen, and liver were higher for the supplemented groups compared to the sole grass hay. From the results of the current study, it can be concluded that, Millettia ferruginea had some limiting factors, which prevented the animal from efficiently utilize it. Therefore, this study revealed the indispensable role of animal feeding experiments with target animals to examine such impacts.

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Cockle, otherwise known as ekek locally, has been economically the most important skin defect among the tanneries in Ethiopia for the last three decades. The disease has been experimented on since 1996 when FAO sponsored the trials on sheep and goat skin improvement trial (TCP/ETH/4558&6712) and found that diazinon improved the skin quality of treated sheep at least by 1 grade. However, the trials had not been sustainable to find out what the skin quality of the lambs of the dams that had been treated with diazinon would look like. The trial carried out at Debre Birhan Agriculture Research Centre filled this gap and showed repeatedly that sheep treated against lice and keds with diazinon improved the skin quality of the adult by 1 grade and those of their lambs by 3-5 grades. It started with 367 Menz and 265 Horro sheep in October 2009 and completed in January 2011. Lice and keds count of the trial sheep was carried out before and after treatment with diazinon. After the treatment, the parasite count dropped to 0 and there was a significant difference between the skin grades of the sheep before and after treatment with diazinon at 95% confidence level. The dramatic skin quality improvement appeared in the lambs which, compared to the adult sheep skins, had improved by 89% to 90%.