Interrelationship between late gestational ewe factor and early life lamb factors in semi-arid tropical region

Tropical Animal Health and Production - The limitation in feed availability in the semi-arid region during the lean period can result in a variation of the body condition, body weight of pregnant...     

Impacts of Smallholder Land Use on Physical-Based Soil Organic Matter Fractions in Soils with Varying Texture in Ecotopes of Eastern Cape Province,South Africa

Physical-based fractions of SOM were examined. Soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) across ecotopes were 17.22 g kg^?1 and 3.73 g kg^?1, respectively. Soil C and N were higher in conventional tillage (CT) than no-till (NT) by 2.94% and 0.94%, respectively. Soil C ranged from 11.09 g kg^?1 in silt to 18.02 g kg^?1 in coarse sand; from 12.89 g kg^?1 in fine sand to 18.88 g kg^?1 in clay under NT and CT, respectively. Soil N ranged from 4.54 g kg^?1 in silt to 5.55 g kg^?1 in clay; from 5.06 g kg^?1 in coarse sand to 5.56 g kg^?1 in silt under NT and CT, respectively. Soil N in bulk soil changed by ?3.24% while soil C in bulk soil changed by ?11.87%. The silt + clay was saturated; hence, studies on soil C and N dynamics in these ecotopes are advocated.     

Migratory movements, depth preferences, and thermal biology of Atlantic bluefin tuna

The deployment of electronic data storage tags that are surgically implanted or satellite-linked provides marine researchers with new ways to examine the movements, environmental preferences, and physiology of pelagic vertebrates. We report the results obtained from tagging of Atlantic bluefin tuna with implantable archival and pop-up satellite archival tags. The electronic tagging data provide insights into the seasonal movements and environmental preferences of this species. Bluefin tuna dive to depths of >1000 meters and maintain a warm body temperature. Western-tagged bluefin tuna make trans-Atlantic migrations and they frequent spawning grounds in the Gulf of Mexico and eastern Mediterranean. These data are critical for the future management and conservation of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic.     

Increasing trend of extreme rain events over India in a warming environment

Against a backdrop of rising global surface temperature, the stability of the Indian monsoon rainfall over the past century has been a puzzle. By using a daily rainfall data set, we show (i) significant rising trends in the frequency and the magnitude of extreme rain events and (ii) a significant decreasing trend in the frequency of moderate events over central India during the monsoon seasons from 1951 to 2000. The seasonal mean rainfall does not show a significant trend, because the contribution from increasing heavy events is offset by decreasing moderate events. A substantial increase in hazards related to heavy rain is expected over central India in the future.     

The microbial community in an alkaline saline sediment of a former maar lake bed

Journal of Soils and Sediments - The “Hoya del Rincón de Parangueo (HRP)” is a maar that contained a perennial alkaline lake that drained in the 1980s so that a sediment with high...     

Effect of varying high temperatures during reproductive growth on reproductive function,oxidative stress and seed yield in chickpea genotypes differing in heat sensitivity

The mechanisms affecting the heat sensitivity of chickpea are largely unknown. Heat-tolerant (ICCV07110, ICCV92944) and heat-sensitive (ICC14183, ICC5912) chickpea genotypes were sown in February in the soil-filled pots. At the time of flowering, these were subjected to varying day/night temperatures of 30/20, 35/25, 40/30 and 45/35°C in the growth chambers (12 h light/12 h dark; light intensity, 250 μmol m^?2 s^?1, 80% relative humidity). The pollen viability, pollen germination, tube growth, pollen load and stigma receptivity decreased with increases in temperatures to 45/35°C. The heat-tolerant genotypes experienced significantly less damage to pollen and stigma function. Membrane integrity, chlorophyll content, photochemical efficiency and cellular oxidizing ability were inhibited by the increase in temperature, with greater impacts on the sensitive genotypes. Oxidative injury as lipid peroxidation and hydrogen peroxide content was significantly greater in sensitive genotypes at 40/30 and 45/35°C. Enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants showed increased levels at 40/30°C, but decreased considerably at 45/35°C. Heat-tolerant genotypes possessed greater activity of ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione reductase, along with higher levels of ascorbate and reduced glutathione at 40/30 and 45/35°C. Biomass, pod set and yield were not affected significantly at 35/25°C, but began to decrease at 40/30°C and were lowest at 45/35°C. The sensitive genotypes were not able to set any pods at 45/35°C, whereas the tolerant genotypes produced only few fertile pods at this temperature. It was concluded that heat stress leads to loss of pollen as well as stigma function and induces oxidative stress in the leaves that cause failure of fertilization and damage to the leaves, respectively.     

Organic Cultivation of Medicinal Plants: Influence of Composted Coir Pith on the Growth and Yield of Coleus forskohlii (willd.) Briq

Coleus forskohlii (willd.) Briq. is a native plant of India. The therapeutic properties of forskolin, the main diterpene constituent of this plant, contributed to the emergence of C. forskohlii as an important taxon in modern medicine. In the present study, composted coir pith (CCP) was used as an organic fertilizer and its effect on the growth, the primary metabolite, and secondary metabolite (forskolin) of C. forskohlii were studied. The CCP was amended to the soil in the plots at the rate of 5 t h^?1 (T1), 10 t h^?1 (T2), and 15 t h^?1 (T3). The control plots were left unamended. It was found that CCP increased the growth and development of C. forskohlii in fields amended with 15 t h^?1 (T3). The activity of the three prime soil enzymes, namely, urease, phosphatase, and dehydrogenase in the rhizosphere soil of C. forskohlii also increased with an increase in the quantum of CCP amended to the soil.     

Genetic analysis of growth and egg production traits in synthetic colored broiler female line using animal model

Tropical Animal Health and Production - Variance and genetic parameters were estimated for growth and production traits of synthetic broiler female line (PB-2) using REML animal model to delineate...     

Protective immune responses of recombinant VP2 subunit antigen of infectious bursal disease virus in chickens

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is the causative agent of Gumboro disease and poses a huge threat to poultry industry. The risks associated with conventional attenuated viral vaccines make it indispensable to probe into the development of novel and rationally designed subunit vaccines which are safer as well as effective. VP2 is the major host-protective antigen found in IBDV capsid. It encompasses different independent epitopes responsible for the induction of neutralizing antibody. Here, we report the efficacy of the immunodominant fragment of VP2 which induces both humoral and cellular immunity against infectious bursal disease. A 366bp fragment (52-417bp) of the VP2 gene from an IBDV field isolate was amplified and expressed in Escherichia coli as a 21kDa recombinant protein. The efficacy of rVP2(52-417) antigen was compared with two commercial IBDV whole virus vaccine strains. The rVP2(52-417) induced significantly high antibody titres in chicken compared to commercial vaccines and the anti-rVP2(52-417) sera showed reactivity with viral antigens from both commercial strains (P<0.0001) and field isolates. Also, the chicken splenocytes from rVP2(52-417) immunized group showed a significantly high proliferation (P<0.01) compared to other groups, which implies that the rVP2(52-417) fragment contains immunogenic epitopes capable of eliciting both B and T cell responses. Further, rVP2(52-417) conferred 100% protection against vIBDV challenge in the immunized chickens which was significantly higher (P<0.001) compared to 55-60% protection by commercial vaccine strains. Hence, the study confirms the efficacy of the immunodominant VP2 fragment that could be used as a potent vaccine against IBDV infection in chicken.