Global Journal of Animal Scientific Research
Volume:3 Issue: 4, Autumn 2015

The study was designed to assess the competence of the Veterinary laboratory staff involved in Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) diagnosis in Nigeria with particular focus on the Nigerian Veterinary Research Institute Vom, Jos (NVRI) and the five disignated Nigerian Veterinary Teaching Hospitals for the diagnosis of HPAI using a structured questionare. Each of these laboratories should have the capacity to carry out screening direct antigen detection tests, immunofluorescence test and serological tests for antibody detection. The NVRI is expected to carry out virus isolation and identification and any other isolate characterization. Out of the 69 respondents involved in the diagnosis of HPAI, 15 (21.7%) were Senior Veterinary Research Officers while 19 (27.5%), 3(4.3%), 4(5.8%), 14(20.3%), and 2(2.9%) were Veterinary Research Officers, Chief Technologists, Assistant Chief Technologists and Technologists respectively. Holders of  Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree (DVM) accounted for 47.8% while those with Higher National Diplomas (HNDs) and Ordinary National Diplomas (ONDs) accounted for 24.6% with few Bachelor of Science Degree (BSc) holders. Results also revealed that, 59.4% of the respondents were only involved with HPAI diagnosis in the last four years while only 18.8% indicated involvement during the last five years and beyond. Also, only 53.6% of the staff ever attended Laboratory training while 46.4% did not. It was concluded that many Veterinary laboratory staff in Nigeria lacked the necessary qualification and experience to carry out effective HPAI diagnosis.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of feeding graded levels of gum Arabic (0%, 2.5%, %5 and 7.5%) on the performance and blood chemistry of broiler chicks. A total of 192 unsexed broiler chicks (Cobb strain) were randomly assigned in four dietary treatments. Each treatment contained six replicates (8 birds/replicate). Feed and water were offered ad libitum throughout the experimental Period (42 days).. Feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio were not influenced by the dietary inclusion of gum Arabic. The results also revealed that the different levels of gum Arabic had no effect on serum constituents, except total protein which increased significantly. Cholesterol, creatinine and triglyceride levels were decreased significantly in bird fed 5% and 7.5% gum arabic. It is concluded that the incorporation of gum Arabic in broiler chickens diets has a positive effects on broiler chicks performance and reduced serum cholesterol levels, creatinine and triglyceride.

This paper reports the genetic, phenotypic and environmental trends for growth traits including birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), 6-month weight (6MW), 9-month weight (9MW) and yearling weight (YW). Reproductive traits namely, litter size at birth (LSB), litter size at weaning (LSW), total litter weight at birth (TLWB) and total litter weight at weaning (TLWW) were also investigated. The data were collected from the Khojir Breeding Station of Zandi sheep in Tehran, Iran from 1993 to 2008. Best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) of breeding values was estimated by Restricted Maximum Likelihood procedure using multi-trait animal model. The most appropriate models were chose to predict breeding values of aforementioned traits. Genetic and phenotypic trends were obtained by regression of average breeding values and phenotypic least squares mean, respectively, on birth year. Direct genetic trends were significant for BW, WW, 6MW, 9MW, YW, TLWB and TLWW (5, 48, 21.5, 72, 65, −2.5 and 11 g per year, respectively). Phenotypic ones were significant for WW, 6MW, and TLWW (129.5, 238.3, and 187.3 g per year respectively). Environmental ones were significant for WW and 6MW (81.5, and 216.8 g per year, respectively). Both LSB phenotypic and environmental trends were −0.010 head per year. The results showed that Selection program would relatively bring out genetic improvement especially for growth traits in mentioned breed. Environmental fluctuations ought to be modified with particular managing schedules to provide a susceptible field to express genes’ additive effects.

In this study a method to determine the pelt pattern of Zandi sheep lambs using image processing and neural network is presented. Data were collected from Zandi sheep breeding center located in the North East of Tehran (Khojir). In the lambing season, pelt pattern (including regular and irregular patterns) of 300 newborn lambs along with other important characteristics were determined by qualified appraisers. Simultaneously, some photos were taken from each lamb pelt using digital camera. Due to the difference in image resolution and variety of pelt patterns, a total of 170 high quality pictures of lambs were selected and used for final assessment. Two independent image processing scenarios were developed in MATLAB GUI environment. In both scenarios, after the necessary image transformation and segmentation the relevant features were extracted from each image. In the first scenario, some morphological and texture features were extracted from images to classify the pelt pattern of lambs. In the second scenario, the original image firstly was divided into four equal sub-images, and in addition to the texture and morphological features which were extracted in the first scenario, variances and correlations between four sub-images were calculated and added to the features vector. The selected features were used as an input data to the artificial neural network to classify pelt pattern quality of lambs. Input data to the neural network in the first scenario included 21 morphological and texture features, while in the second scenario included 44 features. In both scenarios a three layers Percepteron artificial neural network with feed forward back-propagation algorithms were used. The regular and irregular pattern of lamb pelts were detected by the neural network with accuracy of 92 % and 100% in the first and second scenarios, respectively. The results showed that determination of pelt pattern of lambs based on proposed image processing method is feasible, and substitution of this new method instead of human appraisal method is achievable.

Fecal samples of 166 sheep and 222 goats collected from 14 farms in southern Botswana were screened for the presence of Cryptosporidium infection using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Modified Ziehl-Neelsen (MZN) staining technique. An overall prevalence rate of 13.3% (22/166) in sheep and 12.2% (27/222) in goats were detected. ELISA proved to be more sensitive in detecting Cryptosporidium infection than MZN (P = 0.04).  Lambs and goat kids aged ≤ 4 weeks showed highest infection rates of 19.4% (13/67) and 16.5% (15/91), respectively. The infection rate of 16.7% (42/251) was recorded in small ruminants ≤ 12 weeks compared to 5.1% (7/137) in adults (P = 0.002). Diarrheic animals demonstrated 20.7% (12/58) prevalence in comparison to 11.2% (37/330) in animals excreting normal solid feces (P = 0.07). The significance levels in the infection rates in sheep versus goats and males versus females were P =0.87 and P = 0.76, respectively. Animals reared under traditional communal management system exhibited more susceptibility to cryptosporidiosis than those under semi-intensive husbandry system (P = 0.04). Of the 62 environmental samples taken, Cryptosporidium oocysts were detected in 2 of 27 (7.4%) soil and 1 of 22 (4.5%) water samples. None of 14 manure specimens derived from every sampled small stock farm was found positive. The results of the present study revealed the occurrence of Cryptosporidium infection in small stock population in southern Botswana. It suggested potential role of young lambs and goat kids for transmission of human cryptosporidiosis via environmental contamination. Application of molecular techniques for characterization of Cryptosporidium field isolates including zoonotic species and genotypes is urgently required. Creation of farmers’ awareness through extension education program on good animal husbandry practices will help in devising appropriate strategies to control animal and human cryptosporidiosis.

This study was designed to investigate the effect of breed and feeding level before slaughter on the skin\leather quality of the three main breeds of Sudangoats. Thirty (30) pieces of fresh skins from the three goat breeds (an average age 1-1.5 years) were chosen for the study purpose. For whole variations between the three breeds in two levels of feeding (poor and rich pastures) Complete Randomized Design (CRD) was used for data analysis. The results revealed that, leather weight (kg), elongation%, tensile strength (kg/cm2), cracking load (kg), thickness (mm), tear load (kg/cm) and chrome% findings were significantly affected (P≥0.05) by breed variation. Flexibility, moisture%, Ash% and fat % were not significantly affected (P ≥ 0.05) by breed. On the other hand, skin weight (kg), Cracking load (kg), Tear load (kg/cm) and Ash% were significantly affected (P≥0.05) by pasture quality. While Leather Elongation%, Tensile strength (kg/cm2), Thickness (mm), Flexibility, Moisture%, Fat % and Chrome% were not statistically (P ≥ 0.05) affected by pastures quality.

The study was conducted to examine weight gain and economic implications of feeding Uda rams with graded levels of dietary mineral salt (potash) in Tullun Gwanki Grazing Reserve, Silame Local Government Area, Sokoto State, Nigeria. Tullun Gwanki Grazing Reserve was purposively selected because of the predominance of pastoralists in the area. One hundred respondents were randomly selected from a list of four hundred and fifty pastoralists collected. All the sampled respondents were contacted and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Feeding trial using sixteen growing uda lambs in a randomized complete block design was conducted. A complete diet was formulated and divided into four treatments; treatment A (control) without dietary mineral salt while treatments B, C and D contained potash at 1.25; 2.50 and 3.75kg/100/diet respectively. The animals were fed for the period of nine weeks in which daily records of feed and water intakes and weight gain were kept. Data were were analysed using descriptive statistics, farm budgeting and analysis of variance. Duncan’s New Multiple Range Test (DMRT) was used to separate the means where significant differences exist. The study showed that majority of the farmers (76%0 practiced semi-intensive system of management and most of them (64%) used common salt in feeding uda rams. The average quantity of dietary mineral salt used by the pastoralists in Tullun Gwanki grazing reserve was 2.5kg /100kg/ diet. Result of the experiment showed that treatment D gave the highest average daily gain at a feeding level of 3.75kg/100kg diet. Treatment D also gave the best result interms of cost of feed/kg live weight gain (962.83N/kg) as compared to treatments B and C. Similarly, net farm income obtained from the sale of uda under treatment D was highest. Based on the outcome of the study, it was concluded that, farmers in Tullun Gwanki Grazing Reserve were yet to exploit minerals to the maximum tolerable by uda sheep as they used 2.5kg rather than 3.75kg/100kg diet. Hence, it was recommended that 3.75kg/100kg diet should be used by pastoralists, and animal breeders since it gave the best result in terms of profit and weight gain.

Traditional method of shrimp (Penaeus monodon) culture is a common practice in Indian Sundarbans which is done without any sound scientific back-up, proper feed and water quality management. The shrimp farmers use traditional feed of animal origin that often results in fouling of water quality and disease outbreak in cultured species. The present paper highlights the effect of total replacement of animal ingredients in shrimp feed with dust of saltmarsh grass Porteresia coarctata (as principal floral ingredient). Weight gain, condition index (C.I.), feed conversion ratio (FCR), survival, body pigmentation (astaxanthin level) were analyzed in shrimps along with pond water quality. Higher C.I. values, survival rate and gain in shrimp weight were observed in experimental pond (E) compared to control pond (C). Low FCR values were observed in the experimental pond than the control pond. Astaxanthin values in shrimps of the experimental pond were also higher than the control pond which points towards P. coarctata as the source of carotenoid in the shrimp tissue.

This research investigated the specialization of anemone fishes and the phylogenetic relationships among 12 species of the genus Amphiprion and between two species of the genus Premnas using the mtDNA D-LOOP sequence. Following DNA extraction from caudal fins of 14 fish samples, a 450 bp fragment of the D-LOOP mitochondrial (mt) DNA was amplified through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a pair of specific primer. The amplified products were tested on agarose gel (1%). The obtained sequences were registered in the Genbank. The arrays of nucleotides obtained from the samples were corresponded to those available in Genbank using BLAST tool in NCBI database. The results showed significant correlations with D-loop nucleotide arrangements of common anemone fish (Amphiprion ocellaris) and those of other fish types indicating the accurate selection of the desired fragment of mtDNA. Resultant phylogenetic tree revealed species abundance together with distribution of many species located in the end of the tree probably classified as older species. Accordingly, a region at a longitude between the Philippines and large sea cliffs at latitude between Sumatra and Melanesia was determined to be the possible area of origin for Amphiprioninae, which was identified as the most important center of biodiversity and evolution.

Intratracheal intubation (i.t.) in mice is a technique required for many in vivo study protocols, as are the intranasal (i.n.) route or the use of aerosol generators.The i.n. technique is rapid to perform but erratic whereas the transtracheal route requires a short surgery, with anesthesia and a few days needed for total recovery and wound healing before the study can be performed. The i.t. route is a reliable, fast and simple technique and we provide a detailed description for intubation by transthoracic illumination and confirmation in the mouse, using commercially available tools. The result is a technique that takes about 40 seconds to perform, including verification of right positioning of the probe, with no mortality, pulmonary edema, bleeding or laryngeal damage observed. However checking the correct placement of the probe is crucial for good results.This method’s robustness was evaluated by comparing bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cell count results, obtained both from i.n. instillation and i.t. inoculation of LPS (E. coli Lipopolysaccharide) to produce a model of lung lower airways inflammation to evaluate anti-inflammatory compounds. We also describe its use as the standard infection technique in an acute Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection model for therapeutic efficacy studies.