Asian Research Journal of Agriculture

A study was conducted to investigate the distribution and gene frequency of some qualitative traits of indigenous chickens of Bekwarra, Southern, Nigeria. One thousand and sixty adult scavenging chickens were sampled from 208 rural households. Data obtained were subjected to chi- square test and gene frequencies were calculated using both the Hardy – Weinberg equilibrium and the Mendelian principle of inheritance. The most predominant skin colour, eye colour, comb type, feather distribution, foot feathering and plumage colour were white (75.85%), black (44.72%), single (88.49%), fully feathered (93.21%), smooth feet (73.59%) and black (39.43%), respectively. There were highly significant (P˂0.001) differences between and within sexes for comb type, feather distribution, foot feathering and plumage colour. The dominant genes for rose comb, pea comb, naked neck and feathered feet segregated at low frequencies (0.083; 0.094; 0.035; and 0.142). The dominant alleles segregated at lower frequency probably due to social preference, natural selection, adaptation and interaction of genes. The indigenous chickens constitute a store of useful genetic materials that are well adapted to their environment and should be improved for better productivity.

A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2016 at College of Agriculture, Hassan, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru to evaluate different pre and post emergent herbicides on growth and yield of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) the soil of experimental site is red sandy loam in texture, neutral in reaction and medium in available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The experiment was laid out in a RCBD with seven treatments replicated thrice. The higher yield was obtained in weed free check, while among the herbicide treatments fenoxaprop–p-ethyl 54 g a.i. ha^-1 as early post emergent recorded between components such as number of tubers per plant (r= 0.977*), and tuber weight per plant (r= 0.977*) with tuber yield. The correlation between growth and yield attributes of potato was positively correlated while significant negative correlation between yield and weed density and dry weight.

Grafting practice has been common agricultural application in fruit-bearing vegetables in several countries. Since scion can be grafted on rootstock seedling with or without root in Cucurbitaceous crops, rooting capabilities of rootstocks during healing processes has critical importance. Rooting characteristics of some commercial hybrid rootstocks and eight Turkish bottle gourd accessions (Lagenaria siceraria) was studied when they were used as rootstocks for watermelon in splice grafting method. The study was carried out at three steps. At the first step, gourd seedling cuttings were prepared by cutting one cotyledon and growing point and roots then they were transplanted into irrigated  rooting media consist of peat and perlite (2:1 v:v) under high air humidity and low light intensity conditions in a plastic tunnel covered with shading material (post graft care unit). Root formation capability of the cuttings was evaluated three weeks after transplanting. Crimson Tide watermelon cv. was grafted onto gourd genotypes without root by splice grafting method, and they were transplanted in growth media (2:1 v:v) in post graft care unit at the second stage of the experiment. At the third stage, rootstock effect of the bottle gourd accessions on plant growth parameters was investigated. Rooting performance (1-5 scale), root characteristics (length, thickness, fresh and dry weight) and graft compatibility rate (%) were determined three weeks                  after grafting. Rootstocks effect of different local bottle gourd accessions on leaf number and                area, plant length, and fresh and dry weight of shoots and roots were investigated at the last                 stage of the study. While bottle gourd accessions showed significant variation in rooting                 capabilities after grafting, root characteristics, graft compatibility and plant growth (leaf number, leaf area and biomass accumulation), it was found out that local calabash accessions presented similar rootstock performance with commercial hybrid rootstocks. The survival rate of grafted plants ranged from 84% to 100%. All grafted combinations produced significantly higher biomass than ungrafted control plants. A number of local bottle gourd accessions produced higher leaf number, leaf                     area, dry root weight and shoot dry weight than commercial rootstocks were three, five, six and                six, respectively. 

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of graded levels of slaughterhouse residue (SHR) on performance and haematological parameters of broiler chickens over the period of 35 days. One hundred day-old chicks were fed diets containing SHR at 0 (control), 5, 10 and 15% dietary levels represented as T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively. Diets were fed to experimental birds in a completely randomized design (CRD). Each treatment was replicated five times consisting 5 birds per replicate (25 chicks/ treatment). The control diet was a commercial feed in the experiment. The parameters of performance considered were weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), dressing percentage, weight of breast, thigh, wing and abdominal fat. Similarly, the parameters of haematology were haemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). Heart, liver, spleen, proventriculus and gizzard weights were also measured and recorded. The final body weights of broiler chickens fed T1, T2, T3 and T4 were found 1732.20 g, 1731.12 g, 1776.20 g and 1930.80 g, respectively. The total feed intake of treatment groups (T1, T2, T3 and T4) were 2711.64 g, 2707.94 g, 2720.89 g and 2751.18 g, respectively. The FCR was predicted by calculation for T1, T2, T3 and T4 (1.57, 1.56, 1.53 and 1.43 respectively). On the other hand blood parameters (Hb, PCV and ESR) were found statistically similar. It is concluded that the use of SHR as an alternative source of protein can be included in the diet of broiler chicken up to 15% dietary level as it might enhance the overall performance of broiler chickens without any adverse effect on growth with some reduction in the cost of production.

Mealybugs are considered as the most important insect pests of fruits, vegetables and cotton in Swaziland. However, lack of sound identification and information on the mealybug species attacking these crops in the country represents a major barrier to establish satisfactory pest management strategies. In this study, a DNA barcoding approach was used to identify mealybug species attacking wild hosts, ornamentals and cultivated crops in the country. Molecular identification using fragment of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase sub-unit I revealed the presence of six mealybug species belonging to four genera. A significant (0.00-0.68%) within species similarity and between species sequence divergence (6.90-16.80%) was observed. Of the species identified Phenacoccus madeirensis and Phenacoccus solenopsis, were the dominant and were highly polyphagus. Phenacoccus solenopsis, was recorded from 12 host plants belonging to six families in three regions, whereas, P. madeirensis was recovered from five wild host plants growing in Middleveld regions. Other mealybug species collected were Saccharicoccus sacchari, Planococcus citri, Paracoccus burnerae and Phenacoccus solani. The study has validated the efficacy of sequence diversity in the COI gene for identifying mealybugs. This is the first DNA-based characterization of mealybugs from Swaziland and the findings will help in decision making while considering biological control programs.