Evaluation of Sex Effects on Serum Biochemical and Genetic Parameters of Japanese Quails

The study evaluated effect of Sex on serum biochemical parameters and Correlation with body weight of Japanese quails. A total of 400 birds (200 birds per sex) were reared in a Completely Randomized Design under standard management practices for 7 weeks with feed and water given ad libitum. Sex were considered treatments. Weekly body weight (BW) was measured. The three authors have declared that, “principle of laboratory animal care” (NIH publication 85 - 23 revised 1985) were followed as well as the University law. All the experiment have been examined and approved by the University law.100 birds per sex were randomly selected and blood samples were collected for serum biochemical parameters: blood Glucose (GLU), Total Cholesterol (CHOL), Triglycerides (TG), Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST), Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT), Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), Total Protein (TP), Albumin (ALB)and globulin (GLB). The results indicated that sex significantly (P < 0.05) influenced all the serum biochemical parameters of Japanese quail measured in this study at week 7. All data collected were analyzed with GLM of SAS ver. 9.2 and means were separated. Females of Japanese quail had the higher least square means in the serum biochemical parameters of Japanese quails than the Male counterparts. Females showed higher means in TP, ALB, GLB, TG, CHOL, AS, ALT and GLU significantly (P<0.05) higher than males with for the same parameters, respectively. However, males showed higher significant (P<0.05) difference in ALP than females measured. Correlation between BW and serum biochemical parameters for male quails ranged from -15% to 15% (low trend) while that of Female counterparts was -73% to 73% (low to high trend). In conclusion, female quails had higher values in TP, ALB, GLB, TG, CHOL, AST, ALT and GLU than the Males counterparts’ exception of ALP. Hence, female quails were considered fit for studying quails’ health status as early clinical signs will be observed for quick responds to arrest the situation that will lead to disease outbreak and a breeding program will be established for quails. Body weight of female quails is a good selection tool to predict serum biochemical parameters of quails. The correlation coefficient between body weight and serum biochemical parameters was high and significant in favor of female Japanese quails.

Microbial Assessment and Proximate Composition of Pepper (Capsicum annum) and Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Displayed for Sales

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and pepper (Capsicum annuum) are among the world’s most important vegetable crops. A total of 20 samples made up of fresh tomatoes, spoilt tomatoes, fresh pepper and spoilt pepper were analysed in this study. Standard microbiological practices were carried out on the samples. Total Heterotrophic Bacterial (THB) Count for Spoilt tomatoes ranged from 1.98x107cfu/g to 2.39x107cfu/g. Fresh tomatoes samples had a THB counts ranging from 1.43x106cfu/g to 2.14x106cfu/g. Spoilt pepper total heterotrophic bacteria counts ranged from 1.46x107cfu/g to 2.01x107cfu/g. Fresh pepper had a THB count of 1.22x106cfu/g to 1.66x106cfu/g. Spoilt tomatoes samples had a higher fungal count that ranged from 3.5x105cfu/g to 5.25x105cfu/g while the fresh tomatoes samples had lower fungal counts ranging from 1.95x104cfu/g to 3.45x104cfu/g. The spoilt pepper had fungal counts ranging from 1.45x105cfu/g to 2.65x105cfu/g which was higher than that of fresh pepper with a low count of 1.6x104cfu/g to 2.75x104.cfu/g. The bacterial isolates identified during this study are Staphylococcus sp., Escherichia coli, Bacillus sp., klebsiella sp., Pseudomonas sp., Shigella sp., Protues sp., Enterobacter sp., Citrobacter sp., Lactobacillus sp. Micrococcus sp. Listeria sp. Streptococcus sp. and Serratia sp. Spoilt tomatoes had the highest coliform count 1.02x105cfu/g to 9.0x105cfu/g while fresh tomatoes had a lower count of 4.65x105cfu/g to 6.75x105cfu/g. Spoilt pepper recorded coliform counts ranging from 3.8x105cfu/g to 9.4x105cfu/g. Most of the fungi isolated from both the tomatoes and pepper samples were molds and yeast which include Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Candida sp., Saccharomyces sp., Penicillium sp. Mucor sp. and Fusarium sp. Adequate cooking is recommended before consumption.

Effect of Gamma Irradiation of Seeds on the Development and Productivity of Three Maize Varieties (Zea mays. L) in Côte D’ivoire

Climate variability has been and continues to be the main source of food fluctuations. This variability threatens the production of cash crops such as maize (Zea mays L). Maize is a cereal and has become one of the main agricultural crops in Côte d’Ivoire. The objective of this study is to determine the agro-morphological characteristics of three (03) varieties of maize (EV 8728, GMRP / 18 and MDJ) which have undergone irradiation with gamma radiation (0, 100, 200 and 300 grays) to induce mutations. The agro-morphological evaluation was carried out in a completely randomized block device. morphological characters selected from the descriptors of maize were used in this study. The descriptive analysis revealed a significant diversity between the treatments. The comparison between all the agro-morphological characters and the different treatments showed that the treatments EV8728_0 and EV8728_100 Gy had the best characteristics of ears and grains and the treatment MDJ_200 had the best vegetative characteristics.

Agrophysiological Characterization of Maize (Zea mays) Plants from EV 8728 Seeds Irradiated to Gamma Radiation

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a tropical annual herbaceous plant of the Poaceae family. It is a cereal cultivated under very varied conditions ranging from tropical to temperate climates. However, the accentuated climate change causes abiotic and biotic stresses reducing the development and the production of the plants. To improve these plants, it is important to understand the mechanisms involved in these stresses. Two doses of gamma irradiation (200 and 300 grays) were applied to the seeds of a variety (EV8728) of maize grown on an experimental plot at the Jean Lorougnon Guédé University (UJLoG). Thus, the morphological, physiological and biochemical behaviors of the plants were evaluated. The results showed that gamma radiation significantly reduces morphological parameters. However, this reduction is accentuated at 300 grays. At the physiological and biochemical level, the radiation reduced the chlorophyll a, b and total (t) contents and the carotenoid content. Additionally, the contents of proline, total protein and total sugar increased with 200 grays and decreased for 300 grays. However, the phenolic compounds content increases with the irradiation dose.

Determining the Coping Strategies towards Household Food Security Practiced by the Farmers in Flood Prone Areas

A study was carried out at each of three flood affected reverine villages of three upazilas (small administrative unit) under Jamalpur district in Bangladesh during September, 2011 to May, 2012 to find out the coping strategies towards household food security practices by the farmers during flood period. Data were collected from randomly selected 336 respondents of 6720 farm families through both the qualitative and quantitative techniques and analyzed with the help of SPSS. A three-point rating scale was used for measuring the coping strategies considering five components such as food preservation, food management, food collection, agricultural products protection and some social aspects. The overall situation about practicing coping strategy had medium to high level where 70.83 percent were practiced high, 29.17 percent medium and none of them were under practiced low coping strategy towards household food security. Based on the above findings, it can be said that still now there is an ample scope for the development workers to work with the flood affected people for creating awareness towards better utilization of existing resources for improving their food situation as well as livelihoods.

Influence of Downward Tapping Delay on Agronomic Parameters of Upward Tapping Rubber Trees

The nine-year period of downward tapping prior to upward tapping is often considered too long and irrelevant. Thus, a study was carried out to determine the minimum time needed for downward tapping for which the agronomic parameters (rubber production, vegetative growth) of the rubber trees could best be expressed in upward tapping. Clones with slow (PB 217 and IRCA 41), moderate (GT 1) and fast (PB 260 and IRCA 18) metabolisms were used as plant material in the experiments carried out in Gagnoa, Bettié, Daoukro, San Pedro and Divo. The rubber trees were tapped in a half-spiral downward direction at different times followed by quarter-spiral upward or upward tapping. The experimental design was a Fisher block design with 9 treatments and 4 replications. The results showed that upward tapping preceded by downward tapping for 5 and/or 6 years was the best regardless of the metabolic activity class of the clone. Rubber production expressed in kg.ha-1. year-1 [Slow (5y-2675 ± 79) (6y-2488 ± 59) (T9y-2238 ± 45); Moderate ((5y-5417 ± 127) (6y-5094 ± 141) (T9y-3993 ± 58); Fast (5y-5210 ± 239) (6y-4733 ± 500) (T9y-3723 ± 245)] resulting from these upward tappings increased with an increasing gradient of clone metabolism without, however, detrimental to vegetative growth (cm. yr-1) [Slow (5 yr-3.90 ± 1.27) (6 yr-4.05 ± 1.48) (T9 yr-3.40 ± 1.13); Moderate ((5 yr-3.02 ± 0.25) (6 yr-2.80 ± 0.05) (T9 yr-2.39 ± 0.02); Fast (5 yr-4.27 ± 0.42) (6 yr-3.97 ± 0.28) (T9 yr-3.60 ± 0.05)]. These results show that upward tapping in year 6 is more advantageous than tapping in year 10.

Evaluation of the Agromorphological Determinants of the Spread of the Bacterial Disease in Orchards of the Main Mango-Producing Regions in Côte d'Ivoire

The use of agroecological practices for the management of phytosanitary problems has become a major issue in the context of sustainable development. It is with this in mind that this study was initiated in the regions of Bagoué, Poro and Tchologo. This study consisted of investigating the determinants likely to promote the spread of the bacterial disease in 720 mango trees of the Kent variety distributed in 20 orchards in the regions of Poro, Tchologo and Bagoué. During this study, the incidence and severity of bacterial disease on leaves and fruits (IsFe, IsFr, IcFe, IcFr) as well as agromorphological parameters such as East-West and North-South spans, total leaf area, fruit load, trunk circumference, total height and number of main branches (En EO and NS, SFT, ChFr, CirTr, HaTr and RamP) were measured. The performance of the pearson correlation test revealed that spans (N-S and E-O), HaTr, SFT and ChFr are the 4 agromorphological determinants that promote the spread of bacteriosis in orchards of the three (3) regions. The synthesis of the results of the ACP and the CAH supplemented by a multivariate analysis (MANOVA) made it possible to structure the mango orchards into three (3) homogeneous groups. Group 1 orchards (VB4, VB8, VS1, VF5, VK1, VB7, VF2 and VK2) expressed the lowest severity indices and the incidence of bacteriosis on the leaves (respectively 15.21 ± 8.87% ; 12.21 ± 6.54%) and fruits (respectively 13.11 ± 4.75%; 10.40 ± 2.93%). These orchards featured mango trees with medium trunk circumferences (99.14 ± 17.24 cm), medium trunk heights (145.29 ± 7.24 cm) and smallest spans (6.85 ± 1, 13 m for the NS span and 6.79 ± 1.18 m for the EO span) and total leaf area (15.61 ± 0.06 cm). These results could help develop an agroecological control strategy for the sustainable management of bacterial disease.

Analysis of the Effects of Climate Change on Maize Production in Mali

The objective of this paper is to analyze the effects of climate change on maize production in Mali during the period 1990-2020. The unit root test (augmented Dickey-Fuller) was used to check the order of integration between the variables in the study. The ARDL (autoregressive distributed lag) approach to cointegration limits is applied to assess the association between the study variables with evidence of a long-term relationship. The unit root test estimates confirm that all variables are stationary at the combination of I(0) and I(1). The results show that precipitation and temperature in June and July have a negative and highly significant effect on maize production in both the short and long term analyses. Among other determinants, the area of land devoted to maize crops and GDP per capita have a positive effect on production. The estimated coefficient on the error correction term is also highly also highly significant As Mali's population grows, in the coming decades the country will face food security challenges. Possible initiatives are needed to configure the Malian government to address the negative effects of climate change on agriculture and ensure adequate food for the growing population.

Landless Urban Rooftop Farming Context of Soilless Culture for Microbe Frees Cultivation, Roof Security and Environmental Sustainability

Landless rooftop farming is an artificial cultivation on the roof which uses organic solid or liquid media called solution culture “media culture” or water culture “hydroponics”. Media culture and hydroponics has been used sporadically throughout the world in rooftop and tissue culture also has been used the world as commercial means of growing both food and ornamental plants. It supplies fresh vegetables in countries with limited arable land as well as in small countries with large populations. Plants grown by hydroponics have concisely superior quality, high yield, rapid harvest, and high content, at present it is used widely in research facilities as a technique for studying plant nutrition. Gravel or sand is sometimes used in soilless systems to provide plant support, and retain some nutrients and water. The retention and water can be for their improvement through the used materials, but others such as rice hulls, bagasse, sedge peat, and sawdust are used sometime as constituents in soilless mixture straw bales have been used as the growing medium in England and Canada. Rockwool (porous stone fiber) is used in Europe. Since the major constituent of the media in artificial growing systems may be solid or liquid, it is appropriate to use the term soil culture in reference to this general type of growing system and reserve the term hydroponics for those in which water is the principal constituent. Soilless organic media preparation and use has a tremendous effect in land less culture. It is basically used in Rooftop vegetable cultivation.

Varimax Rotated Principal Component Analysis of Productive Traits in Nigeria Indigenous Cattle Raised under Semi-Intensive Management System

The objectives of this study were to quantify the production traits using principal component analysis in Bunaji and Gudali cattle. Morphological traits of Body weight (Kg); BL: Body Length (Cm); HW: Height at withers (cm); CW: Chest width (cm); HG: Heart Girth (cm); Rumwi: Rump width (cm); TL: Teat Length (cm); RUH: Rear Udder Height (cm); UC: Udder Circumference (cm) and lactation traits of TY: Total Yield (Litres); ADY: Average Daily Yield (Litres/day) and LL: Lactation Length (days) were measured. To find the traits that were clustered together, data were fed to the principal component matrix of J.M.P genomics statistical software. In general, communalities varied from 0.32 to 0.91, and the proportion of variance accounted for by variables was 48 percent Bunaji, 0.31 to 0.99 for communalities, and 58 percent in Gudali cows. The information on principal component analysis will facilitate their efficient use in breeding programs for genetic gain and genetic improvement programs in indigenous Nigeria cattle.