The Relationship among Dams Milk Parameters, Weight, Udder Parameters and Linear Body Measurements in West African Dwarf Sheep at First Lambing

Sheep are known to provide meat and milk for human consumption and it is perceived by some consumers in Nigeria that sheep milk have a better and natural taste than cow’s milk.

West African Dwarf Sheep

Local sheep breeds in Nigeria have the potential to supply a significant portion of the milk deficit in the country because sheep numbers far exceed cattle numbers in both rural and urban communities. The effective prolificacy of West African Dwarf ewes gives it an advantage of milk production in a large quantity, as neonatal suckling is known to enhance effective tactile teat stimulation causing the release of Oxytocin from the neurohypophysis of the pituitary gland. Sheep milk has been found to be richer in critical nutrients, except lactose, than milk of humans, cattle and goats. The interest in the dairy sheep udder has increased in the last few years in which anatomy has been explored in depth, linear evaluation of udder traits has been proposed and genetic parameters evaluated.

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Effect of Dietary Supplementation with Short-Chain Fructooligosaccharides in Lactating Sows and Newly Weaned Piglets on Reproductive Performance of Sows, Immune Response and Growth Performance of Piglets from Birth to Slaughter

Nutrition plays an essential role in developing microbiota and immune system of neonate piglets. Early-life nutrition may also influence gut immunity and metabolism atlong-term and may impact growth of pigs at later physiological stages byimprinting.

Newly Weaned Piglets

Indeed, modulating the diet of females during gestation and lactation and/or the diet of young animal’s results in later change in microbiota and epigenetic reactions in several species. Nutrition of sows is crucial in preserving reproductive performance. Voluntary feed intake of highly prolific sows is generally insufficient to cover nutrient requirements for milk production and maintenance of body condition. Furthermore, sows may become insulin-resistant during lactation resulting in impairing their breeding career. Additionally, insulin-resistance of sows may decrease survival and growth performance of their suckling piglets.

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Prevalence and Pathogenic Significance of Trypanosomosis on Sheep and Goats of Mareka District, Dawro Zone, Southwestern Ethiopia

Tsetse transmitted trypanosomosis affect 37 sub-Saharan countries of Africa. An estimate of 160 million cattle and 200 million sheep and goats are kept in this area of riskextending over 10 million Km2 of land.

Trypanosomosis

In susceptible cattle breeds, the disease reduces calving by up to 20% and causes the death of another 20% of young stock. Ethiopia possesses the largest livestock population in Africa with its greatest variation in climate and physiographic factors. Among them 10-14 million heads of cattle and an equivalent number of equine, 18 million goats and 24 million sheep are exposed to the risk of acquiring trypanosomosis. Morbidity and mortality losses from ruminant livestock alone are estimated to be USD 200 million.

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Growth Performance, Feed Utilization and Sensory Characteristics of Nile Tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus Fed Diets with High Inclusion Levels of Copra Meal

The Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) is one of the most favored fish species in aquaculture,due to its high tolerance of a relatively wide range of environmental conditions, which is presumably also a key factor in the marked increase in global production.

Nile Tilapia

Global tilapia production has increased considerably during the last few decades with total outputs increasing more than fourfold, from 830,000 T in 1990 to 5.3 million T in 2014. The low trophic level and the omnivorous food habits of this species make them a relatively inexpensive fish to feed, unlike other strictly carnivorous finfish, such as salmon, which rely on high protein and lipid diets which are largely based on fish sources. Tilapia is able to grow well on less refined protein sources, thus making them attractive as sources of animal protein for humans.

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Assessment of the Optimal Replacement Levels of Maize with Water Lettuce Leaf (Pistia Stratiotes) based Diets for Clarias gariepinus

Pistia is a genus of aquatic plant in the arum family Araceae with Pistia stratioles as the onlyspecies often called water cabbage, Nile cabbage or shell flower (Quattrocchi, 2000).

Clarias gariepinus

It was earlier discovered in Africa from Nile near Lake Victoria as a free floating aquatic plant found growing abundantly in Tropical and sub- tropical region of the world and detests frost in the temperate during winter. Water cabbage is a perennial monocotyledon with thick - soft leaves that form a rosette and one of the least favoured floating macrophytes for herbivores (Singh, 1977).

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First Record of Batasio Spilurus Ng from the Siang River of Arunachal Pradesh, Northeastern India (Teleostei: Bagridae)

Fishes of the genus Batasio Blyth, 1860, are small size fresh water bagrid catfishes inhibiting inthe hill streams of the upper reaches of large rivers throughout the south and southeast Asia (Ng, 2006).

Batasio Spilurus Ng

The genus is diagnosed from its confamilials in having numerous large sensory pores on the head, a narrow mental region, anterior part of vomer with a pair of posteriorly-directed processes, entopterygoid bar-like and transversely-elongated, and the metapterygoid free from the hyomandibular but closely contact with the quadrate (Mo, 1991). Additionally, the genus is readily distinguished from other bagrid catfishes (except Chandramara Jayaram) by its short minute maxillary barbel which is restricted within extend of the head, which rarely crossed the posterior rim of the eye.

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Effect of Natural Gastrointestinal Parasitic Infection on Fattening Performance of Sudan Desert Sheep

The livestock population of Sudan, amount to 114 million head of which the sheepcomprise about 40 million head (According to the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Range lands of the Sudan 2016).  

Sudan Desert Sheep

Desert sheep comprise about 80% of the slaughtered sheep in Sudan which greatly contributes in Sudan economy. Worldwide, gastrointestinal nematodes represent a major production problem for ruminant. Energy level of the diet was suggest by experts as one of the factors that affect infestation by internal parasites. Jason, et al. stated that sheep affected by worms show reduced appetite for pasture and reduction in feed intake. Inadequate and poor quality feeds are often a major constraint to small ruminant production in smallholder systems. 

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Survey on Prevalence of Newcastle Disease Antibodies in Village Poultry at Live Birds Markets in Gombe, Nigeria

In developing countries, poultry production is being subjected to great pressure to meet the demand for animal protein required by the increasing humanpopulation, and also to have surplus for international trade.

Poultry

Village poultry production, consist of edible domestic birds including chickens, ducks, guinea fowls, geese, pigeons, turkeys and quails among others which are mostly raised under the free range extensive husbandry systems especially in the sub-urban and rural areas . In Africa, village poultry production system has influenced human civilization in several aspects which include economic, nutritional and socio-cultural aspects of livelihoods of poor rural households. 

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Factors Influencing Brook Trout (Salvelinus frontinalis) Egg Survival and Development in Streams Influenced by Agriculture

Sediment erosion, deposition and movement occur naturally in all aquatic systems (Waters, 1995). Anthropogenic activities such as agriculture, forestry, mining, and urbandevelopment have accelerated the rate of this process, and sediment is recognized globally as a major pollutant to surface waters (Waters, 1995).

Brook Trout 

Excessive sediment in surface waters has a broad range of adverse effect on biotic communities, including reducing fish diversity and lowering the biomass of aquatic species (Waters, 1995). In spite of these broad-scale effects, most of the concern surrounding fine sediment has focused on the effects of excess sediment on fishes, particularly through the deterioration of spawning habitat, and sedimentation has been identified as a potential factor limiting fish reproduction and recruitment in streams (Lisle and Lewis, 1992).

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A Meta-Analysis of the Inclusion of Bio-Mos® in Milk or Milk Replacer Fed to Dairy Calves on Daily Weight Gain in the Pre-Weaning Period

The health status of young calves is one of the most important factors contributing to growth and performance. Diarrhoea in young calves is a major issue in the dairy and beef sector. The most common cause of disease and deathin pre-weaned dairy calves is diarrheal disease.

Dairy Calves

Diseases and deaths are usually the tip of the iceberg of enteric sub-optimal health, and suboptimal gut health contributes to dysbiosis and poor digestion, with resulting poor feed efficiency and growth performance. A recent meta-analysis of calf studies performed over the last 20 years has indicated that pre-weaning growth is linked to future milk production, and heifer that grow 100 g more pre-weaning can produce 155 kg more milk in the first lactation. 

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Welfare Indicators of Milking Sheep and Goats in Commercial Farms in Spain:Evaluation and Differences among Species, Locations and Performances

The importance of animal welfare in the animal production industry is growing increasingly, not only by legal requirements but for its effects on productivity. Only if the animals are in a proper degree of comfort can be achieved optimal production levels. However, the assessment of animal welfare in commercial dairy goats andsheep intensive farms is not well defined yet.

Milking Sheep and Goats

Several procedures to assess the animal welfare have been proposed worldwide. In addition, according to Dungey, qualitative welfare assessment procedures are reliable and have been used in sheep. In all cases, indicators should be valid, reliable, economical and measurable in practical conditions. The aim of this study is to assess the system proposed by Nanta to measure welfare of sheep and goat milking flocks, in practical operating conditions. The variations of the parameters set up, depending on the Spanish region, farm size and level of production have also studied.

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The Comparative Study of Myofibrillar Proteins of Skeletal Muscles of Some Deep-Sea Fish Species

Deep-sea fish have not generally been used for food, but its abundance suggests it could be an important source of highquality protein. Deep-sea fish have much different significance for industrial fishing. Three species of deep-sea fish Coryphaenoides pectoralis, Coryphaenoides cinereus and Podonema longipes are the most accessible for effective fishing in the Far-Eastern Seas of Russia. 

These three species were chosen for investigations in the present paper.For processing of fish meat, the knowledge of the properties of fish muscle proteins is necessary. The main aim of the present paper was to determine the composition of basic myofibrillar proteins and its ratio in skeletal muscle tissue.

Investigations of the biochemistry of muscle tissue of deepsea fish have only incidental character and systematic study of this has not been carried out. In most cases the studies of researchers have been limited to mesopelagic species.

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Selection of Reliable Reference Genes for Quantitative Real-Time PCR in Golden-Line Barbell (Sinocyclocheilus grahami) During Juvenile and Adult Stages

In order to obtain reliable results of gene expression, appropriate internal control gene(s) were required for normalization before real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).

Here, we selected eight candidate housekeeping genes as the potential reference genes in normalizing qRT-PCR data in ten tissues of the juvenile and adult stages of a naturally tetraploid cyprinid fish Sinocyclocheilus grahami.

Before qRT-PCR, appropriate primers were designed and compared for distinguishing different copies in some duplicate genes. Candidate reference genes were evaluated for their stability using online software RefFinder, which is integrated by four normal software of the comparative delta-CT, BestKeeper, NormFinder and GeNorm.

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