Bovine hypodermosis—a global aspect

Cattle hypodermosis (warble fly infestation) is a notorious veterinary problem throughout the world. Larvae of Hypoderma species cause a subcutaneous myiasis of domesticated and wild ruminants. This disease is caused by, Hypoderma bovis, Hypoderma lineatum in cattle whereas, Hypoderma diana, Hypoderma actaeon, and Hypoderma tarandi, affect roe deer, red deer, and reindeer, respectively. Adults of the cattle grub are commonly known as heel flies, warble flies, bomb flies or gad flies. The biology of hypodermosis is complex because it passes through ecto- as well as endoparasitic stages in the life cycle. The parasitic stage of hypodermosis lasts about 1 year in domesticated as well as in the wild animals, while in the adult stage, a free-living fly lasts only for few days. The diagnosis of hypodermosis is of prime importance for planning treatment and the eradication program. Generally, there are two methods that are routinely used for diagnosis of hypodermosis, i.e., the direct clinical examination and immuno diagnosis by the use of pooled serum and/or milk sample. For the control of hypodermosis, different preparations are available and their use in most of the countries is limited to an individual level but never cover the whole cattle population of a country. Re-infestation in the herd occurs due to the untreated animals that remain the reservoir of the disease. The disease causes huge economic losses in animal production due to the effect of this disease on meat, milk, and the leather industry. It can also affect the general health status as well as the immune system of the body of the diseased animals. As regards the control measures of the disease, different methods have been efficiently practiced and consequently this disease is controlled at national level in many European countries.     

Evaluation of newly developed SSR markers and identification of quantitative trait loci for bast fibre cellulose in white jute (Corchorus capsularis)

Cellulose is one of the main chemical component of bast fibre in jute. However, quantitative trait loci (QTL) for bast fibre cellulose content remains elusive. In this study, we identified 846 new SSR markers from 70,792 unigenes in the NCBI and validated them in a panel of 24 diverse jute accessions. Of 846 SSRs, 748 (88.41%) were successfully amplified, and 585 (69.14%) showed polymorphisms, implying that these are high‐quality SSRs. Furthermore, 585 SSRs along with 5,074 polymorphic SLAF (specific locus amplified fragment) and 173 InDel markers were used to reconstruct a high‐dense linkage map in a recombinant inbred population with 104 F₈ lines. Totally, 835 markers were successfully mapped to a whole length of 604.5 cM with a mean distance of 2.84 cM between adjacent markers. Furthermore, five QTLs for bast fibre cellulose were identified. One major QTL (qBFC1‐1) was stable in 2 years and explained average phenotypic variance with 14.34%. These results may be useful for developing enhanced bast fibre quality in white jute through marker‐assisted selection (MAS) breeding.     

Path analysis and percentage contribution of different growth characters to pod yield of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) at Kadawa,Sudan savanna,Nigeria

Irrigated trials were conducted during the dry seasons of 2004, 2005 and 2006 at the Irrigation Research Station of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Nigeria, to study the performance of three groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) varieties as affected by basin size and plant population. Treatments consisting of three basin sizes (3 × 3, 3 × 4 and 3 × 5 m), three plant populations (50,000, 100,000 and 200,000 plants ha^?1) and three varieties (Samnut 11, Samnut 21 and Samnut 23), were laid out in a split-plot design with factorial combination of population and variety assigned to the main plots and basin sizes to the subplots. Plant height exhibited the highest positive (p ≤ 0.05) effect of 0.3993, 0.5124, 0.6296 and 0.5897, followed by total dry matter (0.2339, 0.3329, 0.4040 and 0.4197) and number of branches (0.1118, 0.0181, 0.0416 and 0.1541) in the three years and when combined. Path coefficient analysis revealed that among the growth characters selected, plant height made the highest positive contribution of 34.77% to pod yield of groundnut, followed by total dry matter with a positive contribution of 17.46%, suggesting plant height was the most critical growth parameter for determining yield of groundnut under irrigation.     

补光对设施葡萄生长发育及果实品质的影响

以“夏黑”葡萄为研究对象,在花期对葡萄进行不同光照处理,研究了不同补光时长对设施葡萄生长发育及果实品质的影响,以期提高南方设施葡萄品质及产量.结果 表明:补光4h处理的枝条节间粗度和补光3h处理的叶片Fv、Fv/Fm和果穗数均显著高于对照;与此同时,补光处理的果粒数、穗质量、单果质量及纵横径均显著低于对照.补光对不同时期的果实品质具有不同的影响,补光3h的单宁含量在青果期达到最高;补光3h处理的类黄酮、总酚和可滴定酸含量在转色期显著高于对照;补光3h处理的总酚、类黄酮和单宁含量在成熟期均显著高于对照.在一定程度上,补光对枝条和叶片的生长发育及转色后的果实品质具有一定的促进作用.     

罗布麻茎叶粗提物及脱胶纤维的抑菌活性分析

文章研究了罗布麻茎叶粗提物对大肠杆菌、金黄色葡萄球菌和黄曲霉的抑菌活性和最小抑菌浓度,并定性分析了脱胶后的罗布麻纤维对上述类型微生物的抑制效果。结果表明,罗布麻茎叶粗提物对黄曲霉和金黄色葡萄球菌的抑制效果较为明显,对大肠杆菌抑制效果稍差,其中,罗布白麻和罗布红麻对黄曲霉菌的最小抑菌浓度分别为5、7.5 mg/mL,对金黄色葡萄球菌最小抑菌浓度均为7.5 mg/mL,而对大肠杆菌的最小抑菌浓度分别为10、15 mg/mL;定性分析发现,经脱胶后的罗布麻纤维仍对细菌类的金黄色葡萄球菌和大肠杆菌具有一定的抑制作用,但对霉菌类的黄曲霉无明显抑制作用。     

Growth and nitrogen productivity of drip-irrigated winter wheat under different nitrogen fertigation strategies in the North China Plain

Excessive application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer is the main cause of N loss and poor use efficiency in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production in the North China Plain (NCP).  Drip fertigation is considered to be an effective method for improving N use efficiency and reducing losses, while the performance of drip fertigation in winter wheat is limited by poor N scheduling.  A two-year field experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth, development and yield of drip-fertigated winter wheat under different split urea (46% N, 240 kg ha^–1) applications.  The six treatments consisted of five fertigation N application scheduling programs and one slow-release fertilizer (SRF) application.  The five N scheduling treatments were N0–100 (0% at sowing and 100% at jointing/booting), N25–75 (25% at sowing and 75% at jointing and booting), N50–50 (50% at sowing and 50% at jointing/booting), N75–25 (75% at sowing and 25 at jointing/booting), and N100–0 (100% at sowing and 0% at jointing/booting).  The SRF (43% N, 240 kg ha^–1) was only used as fertilizer at sowing.  Split N application significantly (P<0.05) affected wheat grain yield, yield components, aboveground biomass (ABM), water use efficiency (WUE) and nitrogen partial factor productivity (NPFP).  The N50–50 and SRF treatments respectively had the highest yield (8.84 and 8.85 t ha^–1), ABM (20.67 and 20.83 t ha^–1), WUE (2.28 and 2.17 kg m^–3) and NPFP (36.82 and 36.88 kg kg^–1).  This work provided substantial evidence that urea-N applied in equal splits between basal and topdressing doses compete economically with the highly expensive SRF for fertilization of winter wheat crops.  Although the single-dose SRF could reduce labor costs involved with the traditional method of manual spreading, the drip fertigation system used in this study with the N50–50 treatment provides an option for farmers to maintain wheat production in the NCP.     

Detection of staphylo-coagulase using plasmas from various animals

The effect of sources of Staphylococcus aureus and plasmas, concentration of plasma, temperature and duration of incubation on coagulase-test results was evaluated. Using S. aureus strains of food origin, the value of plasmas in coagulase tests was, in order of superiority, human and rabbit greater than pig greater than donkey greater than chicken greater than cattle greater than duck greater than goat greater than dog. However, with staphylococcal isolates of animal origin the order was cattle greater than pig greater than human greater than duck greater than goat greater than dog greater than rabbit greater than chicken greater than donkey. Regardless of the source of staphylococci, horse plasma was found unsuitable in coagulase tests as it clotted spontaneously. The temperature (25 and 37 degrees C), and duration of incubation and type of anticoagulant had no significant (P greater than 0.05, X2) effect on coagulase-test results. It is concluded that in testing staphylococcal isolates from various sources for coagulase production, it is imperative to use plasmas from several animal species whenever practicable as staphylococcal biotypes display variable ability to coagulate different plasmas.     

The detection of antibody against peste des petits ruminants virus in Sheep,Goats, Cattle and Buffaloes

Monoclonal antibody-based competitive ELISA (C-ELISA) has been used for the specific measurement of antibodies to peste des petits ruminants (PPR) viruses in sheep, goats, cattle and Buffalo. Serum samples from sheep (n = 232), goats (n = 428), cattle (n = 43), buffalo (n = 89) were tested. The animals had not been vaccinated against rinderpest or PPR. Findings suggested that the sero-positive cases were significantly higher in sheep (51.29%) than in goats (39.02%) (P = 0.002). The overall sero-prevalence of PPRV in small ruminants was 43.33%. The PPR antibodies seroprevalence was 67.42% in buffalo and 41.86% in cattle which was significantly higher in buffalo (P = 0.005). The overall sero-prevalence of PPRV in large ruminants was 59.09%. Cattle and buffalo sera showed a high prevalence of antibody against PPR virus which may explain the difficulty experienced in achieving high post-vaccination immunity levels against rinderpest. Because antibodies against PPR virus are both cross-neutralizing and cross-protective against rinderpest virus, further vaccination in the presence of antibodies against PPR virus may be a waste of national resources. It was also suggested that antibodies to PPR virus could prevent an immune response to the rinderpest vaccine. This paper presents serological evidence for the transmission of PPR virus from sheep and goats to cattle and buffalo and highlights the need to include PPR serology in the sero-monitoring programme to give a better indication of national herd immunity of sheep and goats against PPR.     

Spatial modelling indicates Striga seedbank density dependence on rainfall and soil traits in the savannas of northern Nigeria

Striga is one of most notorious weeds devastating crop production in the dry savannas of northern Nigeria. The weed attacks most cultivated cereals and legumes with crop losses as high as 100% when no control measure is employed. Studies conducted in the dry savannas of Nigeria indicated that Striga seedbank is strongly related to soil and climate properties. This study was conducted to model Striga hermonthica seedbank zones in the dry savannas of Nigeria based on soil and climate properties of the areas. Using multi-stage spatial sampling, 169 soil samples were collected at the centroids of 25 × 25 km grids across the study area and analysed for physico-chemical properties. The number of Striga seeds were counted from the soil samples using water elutriator and potassium bicarbonate method. Daily temperature, relative humidity and rainfall for each point were downloaded from Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS). Minimum and maximum temperatures, and relative humidity were accessed from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA POWER). Thresholds of various soil and climate variables for optimum concentration of Striga seedbank were analysed using boundary line analysis (BLA). From the BLA, optimum amount of rainfall for high Striga seedbank was 549 mm per annum. While temperature has a wide suitability range for Striga seedbank development. Principal component analysis was used to reduce dimensionality of the dataset into principal components (PCs). Seven PCs which explained 75.6% variation in the data were retained and used in the weighed overlay modelling (WOM). The weighted overlay map produced five distinct Striga seedbank zones; very low, low, moderate, high and very high. More than 60% of the study area had moderate to high Striga seedbanks. The zones vary mostly based on soil, climate and Striga seed count. The establishment of the optimum levels of the environmental factors at which Striga seedbank is favoured will assist in designing a more site-specific Striga management. However, for scalability purpose, adoption of the Striga zoning approach can be useful.