Good Breeding Research Articles

English

This study reviews the introduction of the exotic breeds and cross breeding of local chicken in Ethiopia, solution to genetic erosion and needs for conservation with aim of delivering in the short form and clear information for beneficiaries and to whom it may concern. Poultry production and its product consumption are progressively increasing globally. In Ethiopia, chicken production plays a great role as a primary supply of eggs and meat in rural and urban areas and as a source of income for smallholder farmers. The interest of the farmers to maximize poultry products is increasing. Therefore, the different parts of the farmers are practicing crossbreeding unsystematically. However, crossbreeding is not advised and recommended by government due to its impact on genetic diversity and losing of the important traits of local chickens; thus, policy of the government has prepared different strategies to improve livestock development. There is no good breeding scheme introduced so far to avoid such kind of impacts or else regulator laws to avoid uncontrolled breeding activities. Therefore, conservation of locally adapted indigenous livestock breeds has become an important objective in sustainable animal breeding, as these breeds represent a unique genetic resource. And even if the indigenous chickens are low in productive performance, it has its unique and important characteristics such as brooding, tolerance of the disease and harsh environment of tropics, and giving good product under management condition. Therefore, adjusting the proper breeding strategies in the country, especially upgrading the local chicken for higher production through selective breeding system rather than cross breeding with exotic breeds and conservation of the genetic resource is needed. Key words: Conservation, cross breeding, exotic and local chickens breed, genetic erosion, Ethiopia

CURRENT TRENDS, METHODS AND RESULTS OF BROWN MUSTARD (BRASSICA JUNCEA) AND BLACK MUSTARD (BRASSICA NÍGRA) BREEDING

Background. Various types of mustard and its forms differ significantly from each other in a set of morphological, biological, biochemical and other economically important traits. Both brown and black mustard are in great demand.Materials and methods. The study was conducted in 2009– 2018 on the brown mustard cultivar ‘Rosinka’ using the VNIIMK techniques. Promising cultivars of brown mustard (‘Zolushka’, ‘Nika’, ‘Yunona’) and black mustard (‘Niagara’) as well as source material with good breeding prospects were evaluated for their economic significance.Results and discussion. Individual selection based on self-pollination in the seed production of brown mustard population cultivars was found to facilitate identification of high-yielding lines, promptly increase the yield of cultivars, isolate lines exceeding the initial population in oil yield, and obtain biotypes with unusual fatty acid composition. The best accessions demonstrated an increase of 1.0–2.9% in their oil content. Besides, the selected material had the yield at the same or higher level than the reference (on average, 3.22 t/ha). An increase of oil yield varied from 0.23 to 0.36 t/ha. The technique of recurrent individual selection of elite plants from interspecific hybrid populations with the use of selfpollination resulted in developing 3 brown mustard cultivars: ‘Zolushka’, ‘Nika’ and ‘Yunona’. One of the important trends in mustard breeding is the development of cultivars with a high content of allyl mustard oil. As a result of this work, a new brown mustard cultivar was developed (‘Gorlinka’). One of the representatives of the economically important Brassicaceae family is the black mustard. Its new cultivar ‘Niagara’ was developed by recurrent individual selection from accession k-2632 preserved in the collection of the Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR). In competitive trials ‘Niagara’ demonstrated an average yield at the level of 1.5–1.7 t/ha, and the oil content in seeds of 37.0– 40.0%. Cv. ‘Niagara’ has a short growing season.

СВЕТСКОЕ И «ИЗЯЩНОЕ» ОБЩЕСТВО В РОМАНАХ И ОЧЕРКАХ И. А. ГОНЧАРОВА

In his An Uncommon Story, written in the mid-1870s, I. A. Goncharov stated that he had never depicted high society because he had not known it. Meanwhile, all of his literary works were devoted to the nobility, and most of them represent the image of a noble man in this or that way. The interest in high society was natural for the writer of non-noble descent because of his wish to fit the image of noble man and to carve a career. The studies of Goncharov’s works still lack special research that could show the peculiarities of the writer’s understanding of high society, the evolution in the way he depicts it and in his attitude to it. The present article is an attempt to fill this gap. For this purpose, the paper analyzes not only the epic novels of the writer but also his essays and articles, where his opinion is stated fairly clearly. A comparison of literary and publicistic works of the writer allowed us to draw a conclusion that in the late 1840s I. A. Goncharov had an idea of ideal society, which was different from the commonly accepted idea of high society. He called it ‘select and refined society’ and always wanted to be part of it. The novels of the writer show the evident negative attitude to high society of both the author and his idealistic characters – Alexander Aduev, Oblomov, Rayskiy, though I. A. Goncharov did not offer any alternative to this society. I. A. Goncharov found his ‘select and refined society’ on board the frigate ‘Pallada’. It united officers, with their good breeding and professional education, and common sailors into one family, the Russian world, due to their deep patriotic feeling, sincere doing the duty and the belief in God. In the hard 1870s, the writer retained the trust in the reforms of Alexander II and in the possibility to integrate the progressively thinking members of high society and the democratic majority through those reforms.

Genetic variability and association analysis of Desi-type chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) advanced lines under potential environment in North Gondar, Ethiopia

The success of good breeding program usually depends upon the genetic variability present in the breeding materials, however, spatial and temporal studying on the amount, kind and magnitude of vari...

Characterization of Smallholder Beef Cattle Production System in Central Vietnam–Revealing Performance, Trends, Constraints, and Future Development

The objective of this study is to evaluate the characteristics of smallholder beef cattle production in Central Vietnam. A total of 360 households were interviewed by using semi-structured questionnaire; a total of 606 beef cows were investigated for evaluating calving interval (CI). Thirty-two fattening cattle were monitored for the estimation of diet structure. Results showed that the cattle herd size was 4.32-4.45 cattle/household. In North Central (NC), 55% of surveyed farmers kept local cattle, 45% kept crossbreeds, and none of surveyed farmers keeping exotic breeds. In South Central (SC), 63% of surveyed farmers kept cross cattle, 32% kept local cattle, and 5% kept exotic breeds. In the breeding method, 70% of surveyed farmers used artificial insemination (AI), 20% used natural mating (NM), and only 10% used both AI and NM in SC, whereas in NC 40% of farmers used AI, 40% used NM, and 20% used both AI and NM. The variety of feedstuffs fed to cattle including roughages and concentrate. The concentrate in the diet for fattening cattle was 25%-35% and protein level was 11%-13%, and the average daily gain of cattle was 0.51-0.63 kg/day. The CI of cows was 12-13 months in SC, whereas in NC it was 13-14 months. There were numerous constraints to cattle production in surveyed households including diseases, lack of good quality feed sources, breeds, knowledge, and lack of capital. In conclusion, cattle production in Central Vietnam is small scale and still largely extensive. There are constraints that must be solved to improve livestock systems in the near future, especially when shifting towards semi-intensive and/or intensive cattle production systems.

Early cold stress responses in post-meiotic anthers from tolerant and sensitive rice cultivars

BackgroundRice grain production is susceptible to a changing environment that imposes both biotic and abiotic stress conditions. Cold episodes are becoming more frequent in the last years and directly affect rice yield in areas with a temperate climate. Rice is particularly susceptible to cold stress during the reproductive phase, especially in anthers during post-meiotic stages which, in turn, affect pollen production. However, a number of rice cultivars with a certain degree of tolerance to cold have been described, which may represent a good breeding resource for improvement of susceptible commercial varieties. Plants experiencing cold stress activate a molecular response in order to reprogram many metabolic pathways to face these hostile conditions.ResultsHere we performed RNA-seq analysis using cold-stressed post-meiotic anther samples from a cold-tolerant, Erythroceros Hokkaido (ERY), and a cold-susceptible commercial cultivar Sant’Andrea (S.AND). Both cultivars displayed an early common molecular response to cold, although the changes in expression levels are much more drastic in the tolerant one. Comparing our datasets, obtained after one-night cold stress, with other similar genome-wide studies showed very few common deregulated genes, suggesting that molecular responses in cold-stressed anthers strongly depend on conditions and the duration of the cold treatments. Cold-tolerant ERY exhibits specific molecular responses related to ethylene metabolism, which appears to be activated after cold stress. On the other hand, S.AND cold-treated plants showed a general downregulation of photosystem I and II genes, supporting a role of photosynthesis and chloroplasts in cold responses in anthers, which has remained elusive.ConclusionsOur study revealed that a number of ethylene-related transcription factors, as putative master regulators of cold responses, were upregulated in ERY providing promising candidates to confer tolerance to susceptible cultivars. Our results also suggest that the photosynthesis machinery might be a good target to improve cold tolerance in anthers. In summary, our study provides valuable candidates for further analysis and molecular breeding for cold-tolerant rice cultivars.

Duck Production for Food Security

Poultry meat and eggs are one of the most widely consumed animal origin food in various parts of the world, across a wide variety of cultures, traditions and religions. In 2016 the duck population (Anas spp.) throughout the world reached 1.24 billion and 1.1 billion (89 percent) were in Asia. The production of meat and duck eggs is still lower than chickens, but ducks make a significant contribution in providing high-quality nutritional food needs. The consumption of duck eggs accounts for around 10-30% of total egg consumption in China and Southeast Asia. Duck eggs contain all essential amino acids required by the human diet and are a good source of vitamins and minerals. Due to lower water content, they are more nutrient than chicken eggs. Asian is the leading continent in duck meat production with a share of 82.2%, followed by Europe with 12.4%. Asia has also the highest increase of total and of per capita duck meat by 308% and 244%, respectively. Almost 10 percent of poultry meat in Asia is compared to 4.1% in the world. People consume the duck meat because of their high nutritional value with complete essential amino acid composition and good fatty acid composition with a high percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids and a balanced ratio between omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3. Large-scale duck production requires more efforts for higher efficiency and improving product quality by breeding, nutrition and management in accordance with animal welfare requirements and environmental protection. Family duck farmers (small-scale production) with limited capital contribute significantly to food security, poverty alleviation, and the ecologically sound management of natural resources. Farmers must have more access to obtain good duck breed, appropriate technology, and service support, which can substantially increase productivity, income, and food security.

Strategi Pengembangan Kerbau Rawa Di Kabupaten Hulu Sungai Utara Kalimantan Selatan

This study aims to determine an alternative development strategy swamp buffalo in the region of Hulu Sungai Utara, South Borneo. This study uses survey method participation premises observation techniques, followed by analysis of the LFA (Logical Framework Approach). The results showed strategy development swamp buffalo in the Sapala Village Paminggir Districts namely increasing the use of appropriate technologies, held a contest races swamp buffalo, increase community participation skills, the role of extension workers and government, guidance / counseling from relevant agencies, increase capital, improve working relationships operation between businesses, farms made close to transport links, as well as improving land use with good breeding, and improve institutional performance.

Motivation of Owners to Purchase Pedigree Cats, with Specific Focus on the Acquisition of Brachycephalic Cats.

Simple SummarySelective breeding of domestic cats (Felis catus) has resulted in a variety of temperaments, body shapes, facial features and, in particular, coat types and colours. There are now over 70 recognised cat breeds, created over 150 years. Many cat owners select their cat for features that appeal to them, so cat breeders primarily focus on these aesthetic traits, changing cat features to their concept of beauty or appeal. Unfortunately, these changes can impact heavily upon cat health and welfare, as inbreeding and breeding for extreme physical conformations has become prevalent. Particular concern focuses on brachycephalic (BC) cats with wide flat faces (e.g., Persians and Exotic Shorthairs). Using a questionnaire for cat owners, we identified marked differences in how owners went about acquiring their cats when we compared owners of BC cats, pedigree (P), (but not BC) cats and non-pedigree (NP) cats; 1367 responses (BC n = 85, P n = 400, NP n = 882). Owners of BC cats were less likely to undertake significant research before buying their cat (e.g., not looking into management requirements or potential health problems associated with the BC face-shape and/or Persian coat) compared to P owners. Once owned, they did not consider their cat as healthy (especially related to eye and skin conditions) compared to P owners. BC owners were also less likely to recommend their breed to others, possibly reflecting poor health experiences and/or management issues.Background: Cats are globally popular pets and pedigree cats are increasingly prevalent, with brachycephalic breeds being the most registered breeds. How owners decide upon and acquire their cats is poorly understood. Moreover, there are growing concerns about the health and welfare of brachycephalic (BC) dogs and recent studies are raising the awareness of health and welfare problems in BC cats. Methods: An online survey investigated owners’ motivations, perceptions and behaviours prior to, during and following acquisition of non-pedigree (NP), extreme brachycephalic pedigree (BC; i.e., Persian and Exotic Shorthair) and mild to non-BC pedigree (P) cats. Results: The survey received 1367 valid responses (NP n = 882, P n = 400, BC n = 85 (6.2%)). There were marked differences between NP, P and BC owners’ perception of their cats’ health and welfare, reason(s) for acquisition and its process. Owners of NP were less influenced by appearance, behaviour and other features than P or BC owners. In contrast, P and BC owners were highly influenced by appearance, with P owners also placing greater importance on good breed health than BC owners. BC owners were less likely to recommend their breeds to prospective cat owners, apparently concerned by high maintenance requirements. Conclusion: Further research is needed to determine how decision-making is constructed and how it may be improved, especially in respect of welfare outcomes for extreme BC cats given the increased weighting given to appearance over health.

Comparison of yield characteristics of Damascus and Kilis goats in dry climatic conditions

In this study, the reproductive traits, lactation milk yield, and body measurements of the Damascus (Shami) and Kilis goats raised as dairy goats in the dry climatic conditions of the Southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey were compared. The animal subjects of the study consisted of 596 Damascus goats and 82 Kilis goats between 3–5 years old. This study observed that the litter size, lactation milk yield, lactation period, withers height, and leg circumference of the Damascus goats (150.70%, 175.86 kg, 227.48 days, 72.67 cm, and 74.10 cm, respectively) were significantly higher ( P <0.05) than those of the Kilis goats (140.00%, 107.48 kg, 170.39 days, 69.70 cm and 71.83 cm, respectively). This analysis indicated that the Damascus goat may be a good breed for dry climatic conditions. Therefore, more focus on growing Damascus goats can increase productivity in the Southeastern Anatolian region of Turkey.

Effects of different extenders and storage temperatures on longevity of small East African goat (Capra hircus) semen

Goat production is central to resource-poor rural livelihoods in the tropics. However, it is constrained by high inbreeding levels and poor access to good quality breeding bucks. In this study, semen extenders differing in egg yolk and energy level were compared in their ability to maintain liquid semen from a tropical goat breed, when stored at physiological (37 °C) or refrigerator (4 °C) temperature. Semen was collected weekly for nine weeks from seven bucks of the Small East African goat breed, diluted in three extenders and incubated at 37 °C or 4 °C for 24 h. The semen parameters: viability, motility and morphology were better preserved when semen was incubated at 4 °C compared to 37 °C across all extenders. Sperm motility after 24 h at 4 °C was 50.4 ± 5.5%, 50.4 ± 6.2% and 54.3 ± 5.4% for Extender 1 (high glucose, 18% egg yolk), Extender 2 (low glucose, 2.5% egg yolk) and Extender 3 (low fructose, no egg yolk), respectively. Extender 2 maintained significantly higher viability values (67.7 ± 2.5%) at 24 h compared to Extenders 3 (59.3 ± 2.1%) and 1 (46.7 ± 4.2%). Normal morphology after 24 h (88.1 ± 3.1% at 4 °C and 85.6 ± 3.1% at 37 °C) fell within the acceptable range for good quality semen. Acceptable quality was maintained within 8 h and up to 24 h from collection for non-frozen goat semen stored at 37 °C and 4 °C temperature, respectively. These results imply that Small East African goat semen diluted in low or non-egg yolk based extenders and stored at refrigerator temperature can be valuable for artificial reproduction of native goats on low resource capacity farms in developing countries.

The prevalence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in healthy captive ophidian.

BackgroundSnakes are globally considered as pet animals, and millions of ophidians are bred in captivity. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitous Gram-negative bacterium that can act as an opportunistic pathogen of man and animals and is frequently present in the oral and cloacal microbiota of healthy ophidians. It can cause severe clinical diseases and often shows antibiotic resistance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and antibiotic resistance profiles of P. aeruginosa isolated from the cloacal microbiota of a large population sample of healthy captive ophidians and to evaluate the statistical associations with farming conditions.MethodsA total of 419 cloacal swabs were collected from snakes belonging to the Boidae (n = 45), Colubridae (n = 48) and Pythonidae (n = 326) families and inoculated onto complete culture media. Food, water and bedding samples were also analyzed. The antimicrobial susceptibility of P. aeruginosa isolates was evaluated through the Kirby-Bauer agar diffusion test. Statistical analyses were performed with the chi-square test.ResultsThe prevalence of P. aeruginosa was 59.9%, and 35.5% of these strains were multidrug resistant (MDR). The prevalence of MDR P. aeruginosa was significantly higher in adult samples than in young samples, and widespread resistance to Cephalosporins, Polymyxins and Sulfonamides was observed. Statistically significant differences in the prevalence of P. aeruginosa were observed depending on the farm size and snake family. Feeding thawed prey was associated with a higher P. aeruginosa and MDR P. aeruginosa prevalence. Moreover, snakes fed home-raised prey had a significantly higher MDR P. aeruginosa prevalence than snakes fed commercially available feed. Less frequent terrarium cleaning was associated with a higher MDR P. aeruginosa prevalence. On the other hand, snake reproductive status was not significantly associated with P. aeruginosa or MDR P. aeruginosa prevalence. All food, water and bedding samples were negative for P. aeruginosa presence.DiscussionThe overall P. aeruginosa prevalence found in this study was lower than that found by other authors, but a high proportion of the isolates were MDR. This study highlighted the presence of constitutive (such as age and taxonomic family) and managerial (farm size, cleaning cycle frequency and food type) factors associated with P. aeruginosa and/or MDR P. aeruginosa prevalence. Good breeding management and proper antibiotic treatment of P. aeruginosa infections could help reduce the presence of P. aeruginosa and MDR P. aeruginosa in the gut microbiota of snakes and consequently reduce the risk to public health.

Review Work on Productive and Reproductive Performance of Crossbreed Dairy Cattle in Ethiopia

Ethiopia enowed with alarge livestock population in africa as well as in the world. Dairy farming is one of the world wide practiced farming including Ethiopia. The main aim of this review is to know the overall preformance (both productive and reproductive) of crossbred dairy cattle in Ethiopia. According to inputs, agro-ecology, intensity of production dairy farming is catagoized as low land pastoralism, high land smallholder, urban and peri-urban small scale dairy farm and intensive (specialised comercial) dairy farming systems. The feed resourse for low land pastoralism and highland small holders is mostly natural pastures and crop by products. However, for urban and peri-urban small scale and intensive farms is purchased hay, green legum and other concentrats. Ethiopia has divrrsified dairy cattle breeds and the cross breeds have different production performance. Those differences in performance with in and between breeds could be due to management activity. There are also constraints that can influence the performance of dairy cattle like shortage of feed, poor genetic performance and poor management systems. The existing opportunities to improve thire performance includes the presence of diversified breeds as well as introducing of artificial insemination service technology. Besides these, the productive and reoroductive performance can be improve through good management. Therefore, good forage development strategy and good breeding strategies must be under taken by the government as well as other concerned bodies. Keywords : Productive, Reproductive, Preformanec, Dairy Cattle, Management DOI : 10.7176/JBAH/9-6-04 Publication date :March 31 st 2019

Progress in tetraploid wheat breeding through the use of synthetic hexaploid amphiploids

Four amphiploid lines (SHW) based on T. monococcum (Tm) and T. boeoticum (Tb) were crossed to T. durum varieties to generate 13 combinations. Field germination and winter survival of hybrid plants in F2 were assessed. Among all crosses, those with SHW8A-Tb and SHW9A-Tm showed highest field germination but with different degrees of spike fragility. The variation on seed number and weight per main spike was studied in F4–6 from SHW8A-Tb/Progres and SHW5A-Tb/Severina crosses after individual selection for these traits. Ten lines with durum phenotype from the former and three genotypes with dicoccum plant shape from the latter cross were developed. SDS-PAGE indicated the presence of HMW-GS 1Ax2*+1Aynull subunits in four lines, among which 1Ax2* was inherited from T. boeoticum acc.110 through SHW8A-Tb. Most of the selected genotypes possessed γ-gliadin45, which was relating to good end-use quality. Powdery mildew testing showed that all progenies resulted from the SHW8A-Tb/Progres were susceptible to 12 races of the pathogen, while three lines derived from the SHW5A-Tb/Severina cross behaved differently: G32 expressed resistance to six, G33 to 2, and G34 to 5 races. The selected genotypes from crosses involving SHW with T. boeoticum exhibited good breeding performance compared to tetraploid wheat parents, and might be of breeding interest to further research.

Analysis of Functional Substances in the New Cucumis melo Cultivar ‘Chammel’

‘Chammel’ is a new breed from a cross between oriental melon and melon. It has an orange pulp similar to the melon, while its shape is similar to the oriental melon. Additionally, it has a high sugar content, crisp taste, and a strong resistance to powdery mildew. The contents of free soluble carbohydrates, citric acid, and β-carotene in the ‘Chammel’ extracts were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to identify the functional substances present. The moisture content was not significantly different between the oriental melon ‘Kkulstar’ and ‘Chammel’. The glucose and sucrose contents were higher in ‘Chammel’ than in the oriental melon. The citric acid content of ‘Chammel’ was twofold higher than in the oriental melon. The β-carotene content of the oriental melon was 1.3 mg·kg-1 FW and that of ‘Saekomchammel’ was 54.7 mg·kg-1 FW, which was 42 times higher than that observed in the oriental melon. Moreover, the β-carotene content of ‘Dalkomchammel’ was 107.0 mg·kg-1 FW, which was twice that of ‘Saekomchammel’ and 82.3 times that of the oriental melon. Therefore, it is clear that ‘Chammel’ contains higher amounts of citric acid and β-carotene than the oriental melon. The citric acid of ‘Chammel’ can be used in a variety of beverages. On the other hand, β-carotene, a substance that is converted in the body into vitamin A and acts as an antioxidant, is an important component in health food. These applications make the highly functional cultivar line of ‘Chammel’ a good breed for continued research.

Significance of sustainable eco-tourism for Serbia's economic development

Sustainable development of eco-tourism in Serbia has great prospects and opportunities for the intensification of entrepreneurship based on natural resources in rural and mountainous areas. In the world after euphoria due to staying in hotelsskyscrapers, ice hotels, boat hotels and other exotic places with Japanese, Thai, Italian and French specialties, tourists return to the gentle landscapes, primal values and ethnic food. Food producers in Serbia have potential on large areas of fertile soils and pastures, high-quality varieties of crops, good breeds of sheep, pigs, cows, goats and mangules. There is practically no general marketing and promotion of the tourist offer in our country, as well as branding of Serbian food products for placement on world markets. To attract investment, it is necessary to develop Serbian tourism brands and promote eco-tourism in mountainous and rural areas at international fairs. Hunting, fishing, hiking, trekking and horseback riding, supplemented by the consumption of ethnic food and organic food products, marked with local brands and geographical origin can make a significant contribution to the sustainability of tourism, ecotourism and other forms of entrepreneurship in Serbia.

A Study on Annual Expenditure and Income from Goat Farming in Kerala

A study on goat farmers from three districts of Kerala viz., Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram districts was carried out to study the annual expenditure and income from goat farming under field condition in Northern Kerala. Study revealed that small flock size (16-45) got the highest net return per goat per annum. The net return worked out to be Rs. 1748, 2374, 2960, 2258 and 1602 per goat /annum, respectively. The net profit (per goat/annum) increases and reaches a maximum point and again decreases with the increase of flock sizes due to inadequate nutrition and management practices by larger goat keepers. B:C ratio also showed a similar pattern of change with flock size. Selling of goats was the major source of income followed by milk, manures and urine. In the present study, shrinking of grazing resources, lack of good quality breeding stocks improper management practices, high and labour cost were found to be the major constraints in making the goat farming more remunerative. Therefore, rearing of goat cannot sustain only on grazing resources and cut fodder and needs to switch over to systematic commercial goat farming systems via., semi-intensive / intensive system of management. Recurring cost need to be curtailed by adopting mechanization and modernization especially in large farms and also cultivating fodder and formulating and preparing concentrate in the farm itself.

Battle of the Sexes in Best of Breed: Sex Influences Dogs' Success in the Show Ring.

Simple SummaryWhen breeding dogs, the dam and the sire contribute equally to the genetics of each of their puppies, and so each parent should be equally important to show-ring success. The current study collated samples of dog show results to explore relationships between sex and the likelihood of success in the show ring. It focused on toy and giant breeds to explore any differences in equity, if it existed, at either end of the size spectrum. It revealed that the rate at which male and female dogs were exhibited were similar but that male dogs were a significant advantage of winning Best of Breed titles.Much of the research on pedigree dog breeding has been directed towards understanding the implications of reduced genetic diversity and the prevalence of inherited disorders. An example is the potential role of the popular sire effect in perpetuating genetic defects. If male dogs are more likely than bitches to be identified as examples of members of a breed that align with breed standard, they may be selected for breeding earlier. This may contribute to the influence of individual males and contribute to popular sire effect. Conversely, if breed standards are written in a sex-neutral fashion, and if dogs are entered, exhibited, and judged in a sex-neutral fashion, then we would expect the success of female dogs in the show ring to be equal to that of their male counterparts. With a focus on toy and giant breeds, the current pilot study collated samples of dog show results to explore relationships between sex and the likelihood of success in the show ring. It focused on toy and giant breeds to explore any differences in equity, if it existed, at either end of the size and concomitant age-at-maturation spectrum. For the purpose of this study, toy breeds were those that weigh < 10 kg at maturity while giant breed dogs were those that exceed 45 kg. Within these two clusters, the least (n = 3) and most popular (n = 3) breeds were then selected to explore any potential role of sex on success in the show ring. The popularity of breeds was determined using the numbers of dogs registered with the Australian National Kennel Council. Using results from dog shows (n = 18) from 2015 to 2016, data on 1,080 dogs were obtained. Within these 12 breeds for the 18 shows, there were 137 Best of Breed (BOB) titles awarded: Pug (n = 18), Toy Poodle (n = 18), Bullmastiff (n = 14), Rottweiler (n = 17), Fox Terrier (Smooth) (n = 18), Bloodhound (n = 3), Schnauzer (miniature) (n = 15), Great Dane (n = 17), Norfolk Terrier (n = 10), Norwich Terrier (n = 5), Central Asian Shepherd Dog (n = 2). Despite the near parity of male and female dogs being exhibited, of these 137 titles, 86 (62.8%) were awarded to male dogs (at least 41 individuals) and 51 (37.2%) to female dogs (at least 32 individuals) showing that male dogs are more likely to win BOB titles (χ2 = 9.4455, df = 1, p-value = 0.002117). Among the toy subset of breeds, this effect was higher (χ2 = 6.798, df = 1, p-value = 0.009126) than among the giant breed subset, for whom the advantage to male dogs did not reach statistical significance versus χ2 = 3.0967, df = 1, p-value = 0.07845). This suggests that judges find the male dogs more appealing, presumably because they are more aligned with breed standards.

Predicting and Validating Malaria Vulnerability in Rural Kwara State, Nigeria: A Geospatial - Clinical Laboratory Approach

Background: Geographical Information System (GIS) establish relationship or link between vector borne diseases and associated environmental factors thereby providing explanation for the spatial distribution pattern, possible causes of diseases outbreak and implication on the community. We hypothesized, if GIS data could correlates with laboratory-based quantitative assessment of malaria prevalence pattern in rural Kwara State, Nigeria. This work focuses on utilization of GIS hardware, software to map, predict, communicate risk, in some selected geographic area and was substantiated with determination of malaria prevalence with RDTs and Giemsa Microscopy. Methods: Garmin GPS was used to capture the coordinates (Lat/Long) of 6 selected settlements and overlaid with a geo-referenced satellite image in the study area. A total of One hundred and thirty five (135) vulnerable individuals were diagnosed for Malaria with light Olympus microscope and rapid diagnostic kit. Data were entered and analyzed using R-Package for Statistical Computing and Graphics. Results: Apodu and Elemere had the highest malaria vulnerability index within 300m radius and the vulnerability index increases as one move away from the center of the settlement. The possible explanation for this high vulnerability could be the presence of pond/lake in Apodu. This is a good breeding site for mosquito couple with dense vegetation as one move from the centre of the settlements. Unlike Apodu, Gbugudu was at highest risk at 100 m buffer (60%) but the vulnerability index decreases as one move away from the settlement centre. The absence of thick vegetation and presence numerous cultivated farmlands on the eastern part could have been responsible for this observation. The RDT results revealed 37% malaria prevalance in all three communities combined while Light microscopy recorded 48% positivity rate. However, with Light microscopy, Apodu community had a higher infected to non-infected persons' ratio at 58.7% to 41.3% than Gbugudu and Elemere, both of which showed lower prevalence rates at 30.3% and 46.2% respectively. Conclusions: Findings of this study showed dense vegetation and ponds within Apodu, Elemere and Malete centres serves a good breeding site for mosquito coupled with dense vegetation was responsible for the high vulnerability index at these areas. Settlements within 1 km radius around KWASU campus recorded lower index possibly due to low vegetation. Results from this study indicate that the degree of malaria parasitaemia in the three settlement correlates directly with the remote sensing data. Funding Statement: Oluwasogo A Olalubi was a recipient of Tertiary Education (Tetfund) Institution Research Grant No:KWASUTETFUND/2016ABUJA/1/31. Declaration of Interests: No competing interests were disclosed. Ethics Approval Statement: All aspects of the study were approved by Kwara State University Research Committee and Ethical Review Board. Verbal and written Informed consent was obtained from all the community leaders/respondents in the three major settlement screened. They were assured of voluntary participation,confidentiality of their test results and responses and the opportunity to withdraw at any time withoutprejudice in line with the Helsinki Declaration was emphasized (World Medical Association, 2001).

Qualitative morphological diversity of female Pelung Chickens in West Java, Indonesia

Asmara IY, Garnida D, Tanwiriah W, Partasasmita R. 2019. Qualitative morphological diversity of female Pelung Chickens in West Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 20: 126-133. Pelung chickens are indigenous chickens in Indonesia derived from Cianjur District, West Java Province. The chickens which are raised as singing chickens have a distinctive body shape compared to other local chickens. Regular contests are conducted as a media to show singing ability and performance including morphological characteristics of Pelung chickens. Pelung keepers believe that the chickens inherited their singing capability from their parents. Pelung keepers perceived qualitative traits for example plumage color as an indicator of a good female breed. The objective of this study was to determine the qualitative traits of female Pelung Chickens in West Java. This study recorded comb type, color of eye, beak, skin, plumage and shank including traditional name related to the morphological traits. A survey was conducted to gather data involving 160 chickens in four districts in West Java Province, including Cianjur, Sukabumi, Bandung, and Garut Districts. The results showed that adult female Pelung chickens have similar qualitative characteristics except for plumage color. The majority of pelung chickens in Bandung, Garut, and Sukabumi have black plumage, while in Cianjur District have yellow-brown color. The chicken contest seems to be the main factor dictating keepers’ preferences in terms of plumage color in Bandung, Garut and Sukabumi Districts. This study indicates a decreasing variation in plumage color of female Pelung chickens. These findings are important in terms of breeding strategy of Pelung chickens.