Bovine fasciolosis: coprological, abattoir survey and its economic impact due to liver condemnation at Soddo municipal abattoir, Southern Ethiopia

A study was carried out to determine the prevalence and the species of liver flukes in indigenous adult cattle, to compare the diagnostic efficiency of fecal and post mortem examination and to assess the economic significance of bovine fasciolosis due to liver condemnation in the abattoir. Of the 406 livers and fecal samples examined, 57 (14.0%) and 20 (4.9%) were positive for fasciolosis. The most common liver fluke species affecting the cattle was Fasciola gigantica, 9.1% of cattle were infected with F. gigantica while, Fasciola. hepatica, mixed infections and unidentified or immature forms of Fasciola spp. were present in 3.2 %, 0.7% and 1 % of cattle, respectively. A retrospective abattoir survey revealed that the prevalence of fasciolosis was 12.7%. The prevalence of fasciolosis recorded in this study was lower than that reported by other researchers in this country. There was a strong relationship between fecal examination and postmortem findings of liver lesions, (K?=?0.23) but under local conditions, postmortem examination was considered a better diagnostic tool for fasciolosis. Fasciolosis is of significant economic importance as the resultant liver condemnations caused an average loss of 4000 USD per annum. Hence, this disease deserves serious attention by the various stakeholders in order to promote the beef industry in the study area in particular and in the country in general.     

Improving adaptation to drought stress in white pea bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.): Genotypic effects on grain yield,yield components and pod harvest index

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the most important food legume crop in Africa and Latin America where rainfall pattern is unpredictable. The objectives were to identify better yielding common bean lines with good canning quality under drought, and to identify traits that could be used as selection criteria for evaluating drought‐tolerant genotypes. In all, 35 advanced lines were developed through single seed descent and evaluated with a standard check under drought and irrigated conditions at two locations over 2 years in Ethiopia. Grain yield (GY), pod number per m², seed number per m² and seed weight decreased by 56%, 47%, 49% and 14%, respectively, under drought stress. Eight genotypes had better yield with good canning quality under drought compared to the check. Moderate to high proportion of genetic effects were observed under drought conditions for GY and yield components compared to genotype × environment effects. Significant positive correlations between GY and pod harvest index (PHI) in drought suggest that PHI could be used as an indirect selection criterion for common bean improvement.     

Variation between and within Ethiopian barley landraces

Up to 100 single plant derived lines of 18 barley landraces, collected from 18 localities of six barley growing regions of Ethiopia were studied for two years at Holetta, Ethiopia for variation in five quantitative traits; scald severity, earliness, plant height, 1000 grain weight, and leafiness. The relative latent period in the adult plant stage to barley leaf rust, a good measure for partial resistance, was assessed on the landrace lines at Wageningen, The Netherlands. The observed variation between and within landraces was very large for all traits. The magnitude of variation was so large that most, if not all, plants within a landrace had a different genotype. The landraces also varied in the degree of variation. Some landraces, 1726 and 3288 for instance, were more variable for most or all traits than other landraces such as 208925 and 212938. Days to heading and scald severity were significantly (P = 0.01) correlated with altitude, r being 0.66 and - 0.65, respectively. Resistance to scald and leafiness also increased with altitude. On average landraces became later, more resistant to scald and more leafy the higher the altitude of collection. This associated complex of traits could be an adaptation to the wetter and cooler conditions at higher altitudes. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Impacts of termites on selected soil physicochemical characteristics in the highlands of Southwest Ethiopia

Termites are reported to improve soil physicochemical properties thereby enhance soil fertility of their mound and foraging areas. Empirical study pertaining to these effects is missing in Southwest Ethiopia. For this study, soil samples affected by termite activities were collected at 1 m interval within 0–3 m distance from the base of six termite mounds on gently sloping and sloping land and analyzed for physicochemical parameters. The result of the analysis depicted that soil bulk density (1.38–1.15 g cm^?3) and moisture content (21.1–9.9%) decreased with increased distance from the mound base. While clay content decreased with increased distance from the mound base from72.0% to 45.5%, sand and silt contents increased from 8.0% to 21.3% and 19.3% to 28.5%, respectively. PH (6.23), organic carbon (3.85%), total nitrogen (0.4%), cation exchange capacity CEC (30.43 cmol kg^?1), exchangeable Ca (13.73 cmol kg^?1), Mg (3.15 cmol kg^?1), and PBS (56.8%) were higher on termite mounds. While, electrical conductivity (0.03 dS m^?1–0.06 dS m^?1), exchangeable K (0.52–0.93 cmol kg^?1) and Na (0.02–0.03 cmol kg^?1) showed increasing trend with the distance from the mound base. Our results indicated that termite mounds are important sinks of organic matter and mineral nutrients, and hence contribute to the enhancement of soil fertility. Thus, for subsistent farmers the uses of termite mounds as a fertilizer present an opportunity to improve agricultural production.     

Impact of precursor crop and nitrogen fertilizer on the productivity of finger millet based cropping system and soil fertility in Lake Tana basin of Ethiopia

Abstract

Traditional short-term diversification of annual crops for the purpose of improving soil fertility and food security is a common practice in Ethiopia. However, the best cropping systems have not been selected yet though field research. Experiments were conducted for two years with an objective of establishing sustained finger millet based short term cropping sequence in two major finger millet producing areas of Ethiopia. The experiments were laid out in a split-plot arrangement with six precursor crops (haricot bean, maize, sweet lupine, niger seed, wheat, and teff) as a main plot factor, where determined residues were retained in the main plot after harvesting and two nitrogen fertilizer levels (30 and 60?kg ha^?1) applied for finger millet as sub-plots with three replications. Soil analysis result examined immediately after finger millet harvest showed a significant effect of precursor crops and nitrogen fertilizer rates on soil properties. Planting finger millet following lupine increased the soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and cation exchange capacity by 17.37%, 65.50%, 26.15%, respectively, over planting finger millet following teff. Use of different amount of nitrogen fertilizer likely contributed to observed differences in residual soil nutrients. Accordingly, finger millet following lupine with the addition of 60?kg ha^?1 nitrogen fertilizer gave significantly higher finger millet grain yield (3.24 tone ha^?1) and relative production (22.37%) and economic (40.7%) efficiency. This system with their high sustainability and multiple benefits can be readily accepted by the farming community.     

Exploiting the diversity of barley landraces in Ethiopia

The paper describes a methodology to incorporate the collection of barley landraces available in the Plant Genetic Resources Centre of Ethiopia (PGRC/E), as well as future collections, in the Ethiopian barley breeding program. Six hundred pure lines extracted from thirty Ethiopian barley landraces were evaluated and selected, along with the original populations, between 1989 and 1993. Three lines were identified which significantly outyielded the local landrace in some of the testing sites and had a higher average yield across sites and seasons. The yield of these lines was similar to the best improved variety also developed from a landrace population. Despite the relatively small number of landrace-lines (600) in the original population, the exploitation of the diversity existing within Ethiopian barley germplasm has produced in only five years promising lines for yield at low input conditions and for disease and insect resistance. Some lines had a yield potential comparable with the best breeding lines produced earlier, and one is under multiplication for release.     

Estimation of genetic parameters for growth traits and Kleiber ratios in Boer x Central Highland goat

Tropical Animal Health and Production - Accurate performance evaluation and genetic parameters estimation are the prerequisites for any successful genetic improvement program. This study was...     

Performance and limitation of two dairy production systems in the North western Ethiopian highlands

In order to characterise the dairy production systems as well as the productive and reproductive performance of dairy cows in the study area, a total of 256 and 54 dairy farms were used for survey and monitoring data collection, respectively. Based on breed, land size, feed and market accessibility, two major dairy production systems were identified: a rather specialized, urban, and a peri-urban dairy production system. Urban farmers owned larger herds but farmed less land, and sold a greater proportion of liquid milk than peri-urban farmers, who processed more milk. Purchased feed played a more important role for the feed supply of urban than peri-urban farms. Significant breed effects were found for productive and reproductive performance traits. It is concluded that improved breeding and health management, genetic improvement of local breeds and supplementation of poor quality feed resources are the key factors for enhancing productivity of dairy cows and thereby increasing family income from milk production.     

Evaluation of 20 enset (Ensete ventricosum) landraces for response to Xanthomonas vasicola pv. Musacearum infection

Xanthomonas wilt, caused by Xanthomonas vasicola pv. musacearum (Xvm), formerly X. campestris pv. musacearum, is the most threatening and economically important disease of enset (Ensete ventricosum), the multipurpose food security crop orphan in south and southwestern Ethiopia. Xvm has also had a major impact on banana and plantain production in east Africa following its detection in Uganda in 2001 and subsequent spread. The only current effective control of this disease relies on integrated disease management strategies including minimizing field pathogen inoculum and deployment of wilt-resistant enset landraces. Identifying landraces with stable and durable Xvm resistance will greatly accelerate breeding programmes. While previous reports have identified landraces with varying degrees of tolerance to Xvm, no systematic study has collectively assessed their relative resistance. Here we undertook a detailed “common garden” analysis of 20 enset landraces previously reported to exhibit lower susceptibility to Xvm using an aggressive Xvm inoculum isolated from a disease hotspot area. Detailed longitudinal and survival analyses were applied to each landrace, using a combination of area-under-disease progress stairs, disease index and apparent infection rate to capture disease metrics as well as disease progression symptoms. Considerable variation was observed among the 20 landraces; however, none exhibited full immunity to Xvm infection. Landraces Haella, Mazia and Lemat showed the lowest susceptibility to Xvm as evidenced by reduced disease units and higher survival rates compared to the susceptible control landrace Arkiya, which exhibited the highest infection level and lowest survival rate, consistent with a high degree of susceptibility to Xvm. Thus, we have in this controlled experiment identified new material suitable for incorporation into future breeding programmes to develop Xvm-resistant enset varieties.

     

Epidemic characterization and modeling within herd transmission dynamics of an “emerging trans-boundary” camel disease epidemic in Ethiopia

A highly acute and contagious camel disease, an epidemic wave of unknown etiology, referred to here as camel sudden death syndrome, has plagued camel population in countries in the Horn of Africa. To better understand its epidemic patterns and transmission dynamics, we used epidemiologic parameters and differential equation deterministic modeling (SEIR/D-model) to predict the outcome likelihood following an exposure of susceptible camel population. Our results showed 45.7, 17.6, and 38.6 % overall morbidity, mortality, and case fatality rates of the epidemic, respectively. Pregnant camels had the highest mortality and case fatality rates, followed by breeding males, and lactating females, implying serious socioeconomic consequences. Disease dynamics appeared to be linked to livestock trade route and animal movements. The epidemic exhibited a strong basic reproductive number (R (0)) with an average of 16 camels infected by one infectious case during the entire infectious period. The epidemic curve suggested that the critical moment of the disease development is approximately between 30 and 40?days, where both infected/exposed and infectious camels are at their highest numbers. The lag between infected/infectious curves indicates a time-shift of approximately 3-5?days from when a camel is infected and until it becomes infectious. According to this predictive model, of all animals exposed to the infection, 66.8 % (n?=?868) and 33.2 % (n?=?431) had recovered and died, respectively, at the end of epidemic period. Hence, if early measures are not taken, such an epidemic could cause a much more devastative effect, within short period of time than the anticipated proportion.