Effects of increasing the fibre content of a layer diet

The fibre content of a basal diet fed to laying hens was increased from 149.2 g to between 218.6 and 292.3 g/kg by the inclusion of various fibrous farm wastes and by-products at 200 g/kg diet. The fibrous ingredients lowered the metabolisable energy (ME) of the basal diet from 11.82 to between 9.31 and 11.21 MJ/kg. Utilisation (g food/kg egg) of the basal diet was not significantly different from values for diets containing maize cob, cassava or maize starch residues. The diet containing maize cob supported a performance similar to that of the basal diet, despite a lower energy content (10.08 MJ/kg). Diets containing cowpea shell, cassava peel or sawdust, with lower energy contents, and those containing maize starch residue, palm kernel meal or dried brewers grains, with higher energy contents, were not as good. The diet containing cassava starch residue supported similar egg production to the basal but egg size was less. Inclusion of some of the fibre sources caused slight decreases in yolk cholesterol, although this could not be correlated with dietary fibre content. Additional dietary fibre caused slight increases in gizzard weight but this was also not simply related to dietary fibre content.     

Comment: Pilot-Scale Test for a Phosphate Treatment Using Sulfate-Coated Zeolite at a Sewage Disposal Facility by Jae-Woo Choi,Kyu-Sang Kwon,Soonjae Lee,Byungryul An,Seok-Won Hong,Sang-Hyup Lee

The article, Pilot-Scale Test for a Phosphate Treatment Using Sulfate-Coated Zeolite at a Sewage Disposal Facility by Jae-Woo Choi, Kyu-Sang Kwon, Soonjae Lee, Byungryul An, Seok-Won Hong, Sang-Hyup Lee, is replete with some fundamental scientific flaws which have the potential to misinform readers. This comment seek to correct these flaws.     

Swine Influenza in Sub‐Saharan Africa – Current Knowledge and Emerging Insights

Pigs have been associated with several episodes of influenza outbreaks in the past and are considered to play a significant role in the ecology of influenza virus. The recent 2009 pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus originated from swine and not only did it cause widespread infection in humans, but was also transmitted back to swine in Asia, Europe and America. What may be the prevailing situation in Africa, particularly in sub‐Saharan Africa, with respect to the circulation of classical swine or pandemic influenza? The ecology of influenza viruses, as well as the epidemiology of human or animal influenza, is poorly understood in the region. In particular, little is known about swine influenza in Africa despite the relevance of this production in the continent and the widespread pig husbandry operations in urban and rural areas. In this review, the gap in the knowledge of classical and pandemic swine influenza is attributed to negligence of disease surveillance, as well as to the economic and public health impact that the disease may cause in sub‐Saharan Africa. However, emerging serological and virological evidence of swine influenza virus in some countries in the region underscores the importance of integrated surveillance to better understand the circulation and epidemiology of swine influenza, a disease of global economic and public health importance.     

First messenger regulation of mammalian sperm function via adenylyl cyclase/cAMP

When released into an appropriate environment, mammalian spermatozoa begin to capacitate and then continue until fully capacitated and able to fertilize. During capacitation in vitro, some cells 'over-capacitate' and undergo spontaneous acrosome reactions; this would be highly undesirable in vivo since already acrosome-reacted spermatozoa are non-fertilizing. Recent studies have revealed that seminal plasma contains several small molecules that bind to specific receptors on the sperm plasma membrane and act as 'first messengers', causing biologically important changes in availability of the 'second messenger' cAMP. Fertilization promoting peptide (FPP), calcitonin and adenosine all regulate cAMP production, stimulating it in uncapacitated spermatozoa and then inhibiting it in capacitated cells; in contrast, angiotensin II stimulates cAMP throughout capacitation. The molecules that regulate cAMP appear to do so via G protein-modulated changes in membrane associated adenylyl cyclases (mACs). Both mouse and human spermatozoa have been shown to have Galphas and Galphai2, as well as several isoforms of mAC, located in the same regions as the specific receptors. Thus spermatozoa possess the required elements for several separate signal transduction pathways, many of which regulate mAC/cAMP and so maintain sperm fertilizing ability. In vivo, such responses could increase the chances of successful fertilization.     

Detection and isolation of 2009 pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus in commercial piggery,Lagos Nigeria

WHO declared pandemic of A/H1N1influenza in 2009 following global spread of the newly emerged strain of the virus from swine. Presently there is a dearth of data on the ecology of pandemic influenza H1N1 required for planning of intervention measures in sub Saharan Africa. Herein we report isolation of 2009 pandemic influenza A/H1N1 in an intensive mega piggery farms operation in South West Nigeria.     

Yellow fever haemagglutination-inhibiting, neutralising and IgM antibodies in vaccinated and unvaccinated residents of Ibadan, Nigeria

A survey for yellow fever virus haemagglutination inhibiting (HI) and neutralising (N) and IgM antibodies was carried out in unvaccinated people in Ibadan and in those immunised with the yellow fever 17-D vaccine. A total of 207 people were tested for HI antibody to yellow fever and two other flaviviruses namely: Wesselsbron and Uganda S. viruses. Prevalence of HI antibody to each flavivirus antigen was as follows: Yellow fever 26%, Wesselsbron 18% and Uganda S 33%. Of the 207 people, 37 (18%) had yellow fever N antibody. There was a higher prevalence of N antibody to yellow fever virus in adults than children. Twenty-one people vaccinated with 17-D yellow fever vaccine donated post-vaccination sera; 10 (48%) had no prevaccination HI antibody, 7 (33%) had HI antibody to one flavivirus and 4 (19%) to two or more flaviviruses. Ninety percent of seronegative people and all those with prevaccination flavivirus antibodies developed HI or N antibody, following vaccination. A total of 58 unvaccinated people were tested for yellow fever IgM antibody by an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, 2 (3%) were positive; suggesting that active yellow fever transmission was in progress at the time of survey.     

Swim-up fry production in the African Catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell) broodstocks fed with differently heated soybean-based diets

Four hundred and eighty matured yearlings of Clarias gariepinus (Burchell) (female=182±10 g; males=208±5 g) distributed into groups of 30 specimens (sex ratio 1:1) were fed differently heated soybean‐based diets. Seven approximately iso‐nitrogenous (31% crude protein) and iso‐caloric (13.97 kJ g^?1) diets were prepared from either raw soybean (SAMSOY 2, TGX 636–02D) or soybean seeds autoclaved for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 min. The untreated and the variously heat‐treated soybean meals were mixed with other ingredients to prepare diets designated as DSoy0, DSoy5, DSoy10, DSoy15, and DSoy20, DSoy25 and DSoy30 according to the treatment time of the soybean portion of the diets, and were fed to the fish broodstocks for 84 days. The fishmeal‐based diet (DFM) served as the reference diet. The duration of heating soybean component of the experimental diet significantly (P<0.05) affected the growth performance and the number of eggs produced by the broodstocks, the percentage number of eggs fertilized and hatched as well as the survival of the progenies. The progenies of the brood fish fed diets DFM and DSoy25 with a yolk sac size of 2.78±0.6 and 2.42±0.5 mm, respectively, had significantly (P<0.05) larger yolk sacs, which were also absorbed at a significantly faster rate of 0.61±0.02 and 0.51±0.03 mm day^?1, respectively, than progenies of broodstocks fed other experimental diets. Swim‐up fry survival rates were also better in hatchlings from broodstocks fed DFM (89.5%), DSoy25 (83.8%) and Dsoy 20 (80.5%) diets than progenies from other experimental diets. This study showed that soybean meal portion processed at 116°C and 1.2 kg cm^?2 pressure for 25 min in the diet, which ensures normal reproductive function and production of healthy progenies in C. gariepinus, could serve as a substitute for fishmeal in the broodstock diets.     

Application of principal component and discriminant analyses to morpho-structural indices of indigenous and exotic chickens raised under intensive management system

The objectives of this study were to investigate the relationships between body weight and morpho-structural indices to predict body weight from their orthogonal body shape characters using principal component analysis and to morphologically classify the chicken genotypes using multivariate discriminant analysis. Data used were from 273 randomly selected 12-weeks-old indigenous chickens of normal-feathered (NF), frizzle-feathered (FF), naked-neck (NN) and Anak Titan (AT) genotypes. Phenotypic correlation among body weight and most biometric traits ranged from 0.227-0.876, -0.7-0.901, 0.034-0.968 and -0.207-0.849 for NF, NN and AT chickens, respectively. Factor analysis with varimax rotation of interrelated traits revealed three principal components which accounted for 83.1%, 74.4%, 78.8% and 76.5% of the total variance in NF, FF, NN and AT chickens in the order listed. Breast girth, keel length, thigh length, shank length and wing length were found to be the most discriminating variables to separate the chicken genotypes. The longest distance (72.54) occurred between AT and NF genotypes while the shortest distance (4.27) was recorded for FF and NN genotypes. Classification results showed that 85.2% of AT genotype was correctly classified into their source population. However, 22.7% of NF was misclassified as NN, while 33.3% of NN was misclassified as NF chickens. These results suggest that there is high rate of gene flow between these two indigenous chicken genotypes. Information obtained from this study may be considered useful in breed improvement programmes for selection, characterization, conservation and better management of Nigerian indigenous chickens.     

Effects of Soil Amendment on Potassium Fractions of Southwestern Nigerian Soils

Incubation and pot experiments were done to determine the effect of poultry manure on soil potassium (K) fractions and soybean K concentration. Representative soils from southwestern Nigeria were used. The treatments applied consisted of five rates of manure (0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, and 10 t ha^?1). The experiments were arranged in a completely randomized design with three replicates. Soybean (TGx 1448-2E) was grown for three consecutive cycles (7 weeks each), analyzed for K. Order of abundance of soil fractions in the soil was as follows: Total K > non-exchangeable K > mineral K > > 1 N (hydrochloric acid) HCl K > 1 N (nitric acid) HNO₃K > available K > exchangeable K > water-soluble K. Most of the K is in nonavailable forms; and the exchangeable forms are less than non-exchangeable forms. Organic manure increased soil K fractions, but these increases could not be sustained with cycles of soybean growth due to crop uptake.     

Combined Effect of Ethanolic Coconut Husk Extract and Modified Atmospheric Packaging (MAP) in Extending the Shelf Life of Asian Sea Bass Slices

Combined impact of ethanolic coconut husk extract (ECHE) (200 ppm) and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) with two separate gas mixtures [60% CO₂/30% N₂/10% O₂ (M1) and 80% CO₂/10% N₂/10% O₂ (M2)] on the shelf life of Asian sea bass slices during 4°C storage was investigated. Microbial load of slices was lowered when packaged under MAP, regardless of ECHE treatment, compared to the control (no ECHE treatment, packed in air). For control, slices treated with ECHE packaged in air, and samples packaged under M1, TVBC (total viable bacteria count) exceeded 6.0 log CFU/g at day 6, 9, and 12, respectively. TVBC of samples treated with 200-ppm ECHE and packaged under M1 and those packaged under M2 without and with ECHE treatment were lower than 6.0 log CFU/g at day 15. Peroxide and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances values in samples treated with ECHE, regardless of the packaging method, were lower than those kept under MAP and the control. Thus, shelf life extension of Asian sea bass slices could be achieved by treatment with 200-ppm ECHE in combination with M1 packaging, in which they could be stored longer than 15 days at 4°C.