ENDURE CHICKEN 'SMELL' WHILE YOU SLEEP AND BE HAPPY BY MORNING - SCIENTISTS

Do you have a poultry in your house or do you have access to a poultry? Anyhow it turns, whether you have or have access to poultry, this could mean good news for many of you in any of the categories, depends on how you receive the news though. *winks*

Recently, a group of Ethiopian scientists reported that they have discovered from their research that ‘chicken smell’ can repel mosquitos as the smell seemed repulsive to the insects thereby giving way for new way of preventing malaria which is still killing thousands of people every year especially in Africa.

According to Professor Habte Tekie who led the team of insect experts who went into proper investigation after they noticed that mosquitos stayed away from chickens but would rather bite human and other animals, told AFP that “We went into the chemical basis involved in repelling malaria mosquitoes by odours emanating from the chickens… The results show that compounds from chicken have very good potential as repellent. One theory for their behaviour is that mosquitoes see chickens as a predator, so seek to avoid them.

  

The group of scientists were said to have used three villages in western Ethiopia as their population sample by carrying out tests which revealed that the group of families that slept overnight underneath a chicken in a cage were not bitten by mosquitos all night while those whose homes were without indoor poultry were not  spared by the mosquitos.

Now many people will say that looks and sounds weird especially when you have to imagine a chicken cage over your head while you sleep at night. Laughs.

You are not alone because I and many others who have also discussed it also think it is not only weird but gross.  Someone actually said sounds not only weird but would term it a sort of ‘ritual’ on seeing it if he walked into one of those homes sampled in Ethiopia.

Understandably, the scientist s are not ignorant to peoples’ concerns that it would be a ‘long walk in the park’ for many to sleep underneath chicken cages tried another method which as a follow-up experiment by supplying the same sampled villages with vials of chicken extract which revealed similar results thereby proving another step further that mosquitos really get repulsed by the mere smell of chicken.  

So, is this good news or not?

For me, I think if properly refined and looked into given the proposed collaboration as  published in the medical publication Malaria Journal that the findings will be used in a new collaboration with Swedish scientists to develop an odourless repellent, then it should be received as ‘good news’ even as Professor Tekie has affirmed that  “This repellent will be safe for human use, (with) no residues contaminating soil or water or poisoning people and it can easily be integrated into malaria control operations,”.

We truly hope this turns out right as Malaria which according to the World Health Organization  killed about 438,000 people in 2015,  is still ravaging and threatening thousands not only in Ethiopia but also other African nations and sadly, scientists are yet to come up with an accepted vaccine as research is still ongoing hence we have to keep our hopes alive that the ‘chicken stock’ alternative may very well turn out the ‘way out’ of the fight against malaria even as the scientists have acknowledged that  it will be  “entirely natural,” and the chance of mosquitoes developing resistance “minimal”.

So let’s keep our fingers crossed and our hearts at rest since we are now assured that we wouldn’t have to sleep with chicken cages over our beds.

SAVE YOUR HEALTH, SAVE YOUR MONEY!

With the rains here now, mosquitos are sure having a fields day/swell time with many Nigerians on the losing end as malaria hits after the mosquitoes’ feast. The mosquitos have being chased out of their hideouts where they obviously have been hibernating in their thousands or  millions for a long time but have now launched out to deal with many who cannot afford sleeping nets or good insecticides, repellant or fumigation on a regular basis.

That is the lot of many in my country as we speak. Oh I meant ‘read’.

A few days ago, I decided to get a new can of repellant having not slept a wink the night before due to the ever buzzing and a few bites from ‘mosquidragons’. So, on my way home from work, I stopped at a supermarket and asked for a particular brand of insecticide which has proven time and time again ‘over effective’ on mosquitos than any other tried in the past.

Sadly, I was disappointed after a few minutes of going round the store only to realize the desired brand was in stock but only in a much bigger content can and of course more expensive without even a single regular ‘smaller’ can in stock.

We all know how ‘sweet’ the economy is at the moment *winks* in terms of cash flow. So I made a quick mental calculation and decided even though unenthusiastically to settle for another very popular brand which was cheaper as I needed to buy other needed items for the home.

Interestingly, the popular brand eventually bought, used to be my favourite until I discovered this ‘my sought after’ brand even though people still consider the popular brand a most effective one as not many have realized how effective my ‘sought after’ brand is with its odourless form unlike the smell from the popular brand which gives me headaches even long after it has being sprayed around the house.

‘My sought after’ brand sends mosquitos away and on exile without reserves around the house even though not many people know it for now yet everyone who have been introduced to it can attest to the fact that it is indeed a brand to be reckoned with.

Enough said already on the brand. Name will be revealed once the company credits my bank account. *smiles*.

Back to my story.

And so I settled for the ‘popular’ affordable one but that was my own undoing as ‘yours sincerely’ did not still get to sleep any better than the night before the purchase as the popular brand bought repelled NOTHING!

Feeling really bad and almost depressed by the next morning with the thoughts of how my desired brand should have being bought if only I had added a little to the amount used in purchasing the popular brand, I no doubts would have slept better as all the mosquitos would have gone to ‘roast’ without any apologies from my sought after brand. It was a case of ‘penny wise, pound foolish’, right?

While I was contemplating on buying the sought after brand the next day irrespective of the amount, it then occurred to me that there should be a few mosquito nets in the house which were bought to be used but were never touched because nobody welcomed the idea of nets over their beds at the time I brought them home so I guess they were simply put away without even opening one of the packs.

And so, like a dedicated soldier at work, I went into the closets in search and within a couple of minutes, “voila” I was out with four packs of treated mosquito nets and so without bothering myself about the disappointed looks on the faces of the rest of the family, I tore the packs open and gave an order for them to be aired outside till I returned from work and of course when I returned home later in the evening, they had no choice but to assist, even though reluctantly,  in setting up the nets on the beds.

My testimony in all of these is that, I have being sleeping like a baby EVERY NIGHT without even the slightest buzz or a single mosquito bite since the ‘nets went up’. Now I truly understand why World Health Organisation has being promoting the use of these nets, especially the treated ones in order to kick out malaria. I always felt the babies, children and nursing mothers alone should be forced to use them. Honestly, it makes a lot of sense for EVERYONE.

Don’t get me wrong on the use of pesticides and insecticides. I’m just espousing that we can actually save ourselves some monies and the troubles related to consistent inhaling of the chemicals used in producing these repellant as they remain in the air long after being sprayed notwithstanding the fact many a times some of these mosquitos surmount them. Laughs.

What am I reiterating?

Like the old time religion, use mosquito nets. Avoid too much exposure to insecticide as considerably as you can. Save your health and of course save your money.