Extension Participation of National Horticulture Mission Beneficiaries of Davanagere District in India

The present study was conducted in all the six blocks (taluks) of Davanagere district of Karnataka state, India. The sample size was 144 randomly selected beneficiaries of National Horticulture Mission from 24 villages. Ex-post facto research design was employed for this study. The results revealed that family members (34.26%), neighbors (33.56%), friends and relatives (33.45) are the major sources of information for the NHM beneficiaries followed by other service providers, fellow beneficiaries and NHM personnel. Among the extension media, the farm magazine (66.21%), radio (57.87%), newspapers (55.10%), internet (44.44%), WhatsApp (42.36%) and mobile SMS (32.27 %) are regularly used by the beneficiaries. In case of contact with extension personnel, 42.82 per cent of beneficiaries had contact with agricultural assistant followed by 36.11 per cent with assistant agriculture officer, 30.09 per cent with veterinary officer and 28.70 per cent had contact with agriculture officer. The extension participation reveals that 33.45 per cent of beneficiaries participated in group meetings whereas, 33.10 per cent in krishi melas, 31.02 per cent in field visits and 28.47 per cent in training programmes. In all, 40.97 per cent of beneficiaries visited town or cities twice in a week while, 38.18 visited once in a week and 16.67 per cent visited once in fortnight.

Retrospective Study of the Burden of Avian influenza in Kano State, Nigeria: A secondary Data Analysis 2015-2017

Over 1.2 million poultry birds were infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) (H5N1) in Nigeria between 2006 and 2008. A resurgence of HPAI in 2014 in Kano and its spread to other states plagued the poultry subsector with job losses, increased poultry mortality and a drastic fall in revenues. We carried out this study to determine the pattern, trend and burden of HPAI in poultry birds between 2015 and 2017 in Kano State Nigeria. We obtained Avian Influenza (AI) surveillance data for 2015-2017 from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Abuja. Variables analyzed were the number of poultry chicken affected, mortality in infected poultry, the number of poultry depopulated by local government areas (LGAs), and trends of avian influenza within the study area. In the years under review, over 3.7 million poultry chickens were affected across 26 states in Nigeria. Kano State accounted for 30% of the total mortality in Nigeria. In 2015, 648,686 poultry chickens were exposed to HPAI, H5N1 across 21 LGAs in Kano, 34,504 (5.3%) died, 561,126 (94.7%) was depopulated. In 2016, 382,963 poultry birds were exposed, 9,737 (2.5%) died and 375,026 (94.7%) poultry was depopulated. In 2017, targeted surveillance conducted on a pool of ducks at Sabon Gari market in Kano led to the isolation of HPAI. H5H8. The decline in the incidence of AI cases from week 17-31 of 2015 and week 13-33 of 2017 was in tandem with supplies of AI control kits and equipment to Kano State. These measures should be complemented with the training of poultry stakeholders on biosecurity measures on the farm with a view of preventing a future outbreak of avian influenza. These findings have been communicated to the Chief veterinary officer of Nigeria for consideration.

Gareth Beynon Rees

A highly respected clinician who worked in large animal practice before he joined the state veterinary service as a veterinary officer. He was caring and sympathetic towards animals and people.

Waistel Gordon Gerrand

He spent his professional life working for the state veterinary service, through which he developed a special interest in food hygiene. In later years, he was assistant chief veterinary officer for Scotland.

William Howard Guest Rees

A distinguished vet who became the UK’s chief veterinary officer, dealing with issues such as salmonella in eggs and bovine spongiform encephalopathy. His passions were his family and rugby.

John Alexander MacKenzie

John MacKenzie was a well-liked veterinary officer with a wry sense of humour, who could always be relied on to solve problems.

A year of challenges and progress

In his latest update for Veterinary Record, Nigel Gibbens, the UK’s Chief Veterinary Officer, looks back at the past year and discusses the UK’s achievements and the challenges that it faces.