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Indigenous chickens at the Swahili coast and other traditional migratory corridors in Kenya represent important populations that are inconclusively characterized. Using a comprehensive dataset of Kenyan indigenous chickens and additional mined data of chickens from 8 African and 5 Asian countries, we performed univariate and multivariate assessments to uncover the underlying phenotypic and morphometric variability. Kenyan indigenous chickens expressed differentiation of several qualitative and quantitative traits, both among different counties in the Swahili coast, and among coastal, western, and northern migratory corridors. There was a substantial population stratification of these chickens, particularly distinctive clustering of chickens from Marsabit, Lamu, and Kilifi counties. The pooled dataset further clarified a closer phenotypic and morphometric proximity of chickens within different geographical regions. We additionally revealed a preponderance of bantam and rumpless traits to hot and humid locales, and feathered shanks to cooler regions. Currently, most chicken breeding programs in developing countries rely on phenotypic and morphometric properties. Hence, the high chicken diversity and population stratification observed in our study, possibly shaped by natural and artificial selective pressures, reveal opportunities for complementary phenotypic and genotypic assessments to identify resources for effective breed improvement and conservation strategies of indigenous chickens in the tropics.

The Eastern Afromontane region of Africa is characterized by striking levels of endemism and species richness accompanied by significant conservation threat, a pattern typical across biodiversity hotspots. Using multi-locus molecular data under a coalescent species tree framework we identify major cryptic biogeographic patterns within and between two endemic montane small mammal species complexes, Hylomyscus mice and Sylvisorex shrews, co-distributed across the Albertine Rift and Kenya Highlands of the Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot (EABH). Hypotheses put forward to account for the high diversity of the region include retention of older palaeo-endemic lineages across major regions in climatically stable refugia, as well as the accumulation of lineages associated with more recent differentiation between allopatric populations separated by unsuitable habitat during periods of Pleistocene aridification. Sympatric pairs of sister lineages were found to have significantly older divergence times than allopatric pairs. Genetic analyses and historical distribution modeling suggest that regional meta-populations have persisted since the Pliocene to mid-Pleistocene across a climatic gradient from the Albertine Rift in the west to the Kenya Highlands in the east for both focal taxa. Differing patterns of regional sub-division and demographic expansion were detected and are consistent with differing life histories as well as shared responses to regional variation in stability of suitable habitat. There is also strong support in both mice and shrew species for Late Miocene divergence with subsequent range expansion into sympatry in previously unidentified cryptic species pairs. These results highlight the broad temporal scale at which climatic and geological changes may have facilitated rare dispersal events between montane habitats as well as the long-term persistence of populations in both the Albertine Rift and the Kenyan Highlands that together contributed to the high species diversity and endemism in the EABH.

The affiliation listed for Cecilia Waruhiu is incorrect. The byline and affiliation line should appear as shown above.

During 2009, 616 bats representing at least 22 species were collected from 10 locations throughout Kenya. A new lyssavirus, named Shimoni bat virus (SHIBV), was isolated from the brain of a dead Commerson's leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros commersoni), found in a cave in the coastal region of Kenya. Genetic distances and phylogenetic reconstructions, implemented for each gene and for the concatenated alignment of all five structural genes (N, P, M, G and L), demonstrated that SHIBV cannot be identified with any of the existing species, but rather should be considered an independent species within phylogroup II of the Lyssavirus genus, most similar to Lagos bat virus (LBV). Antigenic reaction patterns with anti-nucleocapsid monoclonal antibodies corroborated these distinctions. In addition, new data on the diversity of LBV suggests that this species may be subdivided quantitatively into three separate genotypes. However, the identity values alone are not considered sufficient criteria for demarcation of new species within LBV.