We conducted herbaceous and woody vegetation surveys across Botswana's southern Okavango Buffalo Fence, which separates wildlife management from tribal grazing areas, to determine whether the restriction of herbivore movement by fencing has influenced vegetation composition, diversity and structure. We sampled herbaceous and woody vegetation at twenty paired sites every 2 km along the fence. For the herbaceous layer, ten 0.25 m2 quadrats were laid every 10 m perpendicular to the fence; while for the woody vegetation, variable quadrat plots were used. Paired t‐tests were run. Results show little difference in forb or grass composition between the two sides. However, the cover and diversity of many woody species were greatly reduced across most height classes on the wildlife management side. Overall woody cover on the wildlife side of the fence was nearly half that of the tribal grazing side (t = 2.83, P = 0.011, df = 19), while overall wood diversity was also significantly less on the wildlife side (t = 3.29, P = 0.004, df = 19). We conclude that the concentration of wildlife due to the fence, while improving habitat for some herbivore species, is having a detrimental effect on plant diversity in general.

Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths are some of the priority neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) targeted for elimination by the World Health Organization (WHO). They are prevalent in Botswana and although Botswana has begun mass drug administration with the hope of eliminating soil-transmitted helminths as a public health problem, the prevalence of schistosomiasis does not meet the threshold required to warrant large-scale interventions. Although Botswana has a modern healthcare system, many people in Botswana rely on traditional medicine to treat worm infections and schistosomiasis. In this study, ten plant species used by traditional health practitioners against worm infections were collected and tested against Ancylostoma ceylanicum (zoonotic hookworm), Heligmosomoides polygyrus (roundworm of rodents), Necator americanus (New World hookworm), Schistosoma mansoni (blood fluke) [adult and newly transformed schistosomula (NTS)], Strongyloides ratti (threadworm) and Trichuris muris (nematode parasite of mice) in vitro. Extracts of two plants, Laphangium luteoalbum and Commiphora pyaracanthoides, displayed promising anthelmintic activity against NTS and adult S. mansoni, respectively. L. luteoalbum displayed 85.4% activity at 1 μg/mL against NTS, while C. pyracanthoides displayed 78.5% activity against adult S. mansoni at 10 μg/mL.

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Diversity of woody and herbaceous species, stand structure and regeneration status of woody species, spatial cover of the herbaceous species as well as nutritional values of woody and herbaceous species were studied in Mokolodi Nature Reserve (MNR), Botswana. Ten 1 ha quadrats were used to collect data, and in each quadrat, ten 1 m 2 plots were used to estimate the spatial cover of herbaceous species. MNR exhibited high species, genera and family richness, but low diversity and eveness. The diversity and eveness values of woody species were 1.44 and 0.38, respectively. Density of woody species was about 4,785 ha -1 . Most of the woody species demonstrated unstable population structures and hampered natural regeneration. The spatial cover of all herbaceous species was only 44.67% ha -1 . The nutritional values of the species ranged between low and high while there was no information on the nutrtion values for 16 and 55% of the woody species and herbaceous species, respectively. The dominance values of woody species indicate inadequate number of big-sized trees, and that MNR is still at the recovery phase. For 68% of the woody species, natural regeneration is hampered. Future research topics and recommendations on the future management of MNR are proposed.

Albizia anthelmintica is a medicinal plant belonging to the Fabaceae family. It is widely used by smallholder farmers and pastoralists to treat internal parasites in their livestock. This study aimed to determine the antibacterial and antioxidant potential of A. anthelmintica on pathogenic veterinary isolates. 100% hexane (He100), 100% chloroform (Ch100), 100% ethanol (E100), and 70% ethanol (E70) extracts of the roots and barks of A. anthelmintica were tested against four bacterial strains (Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and Proteus mirabilis). Thin layer chromatography-2, 2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (TLC-DPPH) assay was used to examine antioxidant potential of extracts. Antimicrobial activity was determined using the disc diffusion method and minimum inhibiting concentrations (MICs) values were determined using the micro-titre broth-dilution method. At a concentration of 500 µg/ml, E70 roots extract showed the highest % DPPH inhibition of 66.9%. Among the bark extracts, the highest free radical scavenging activity was observed in E70 extracts with 58.9% DPPH inhibition. Phytochemical analysis of the plant extracts revealed the presence of compounds which are known to exhibit medicinal properties such as tannins, terpenoids, quinones, saponins and fatty acids phenols. E100 bark extracts contained most of these compounds except flavonoids. Only alkaloids were not detected in any of the roots or bark extracts. Ch100 bark extracts showed the highest antimicrobial activity and all bacterial isolates were resistant to the E100 root extracts. Ch100 root extracts showed the lowest minimum inhibition concentration of 0.625 mg/ml against S. enterica serovar Typhimurium. Findings of this study show that some of the root and bark extracts of the A. anthelmintica plant have both antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. These findings can possibly be relevant in the development of novel medication against veterinary pathogens. Furthermore, this study will guide similar studies.