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- 2025| Hasanuddin Universit...Poultry production is a reliable animal protein source used in different communities. Malodor emitted from poultry houses limits their production and significantly contributes to air pollution. Mitigations are thus required to make broiler chicken production more environmentally friendly and productive. This study investigated the role of effective microorganism (EM) on broiler performance and odor emission from litter in broiler chicken production. A total of 180-day-old chicks were divided into four treatments: T0 (without EM-supplementation), T1 (EM-supplemented in water), T2 (EM-supplemented in feed), and T3 (EM-supplemented in water+ feed), with three replicates of 15 birds each. Data on broiler performance, including water intake (WI), feed intake (FI), average weight gain (ADG), feed conversion ratio, and carcass characteristics, were measured and analyzed using one-way ANOVA in SPSS (version 25). Malodor agents were characterized by using gas chromatography. Significant (p< 0.05) increase in WI and FI was delayed among chickens with EM treatments until 4th-6th and 5th–6th weeks, where T0 had lower (p< 0.05) FI and WI, respectively. T3 had the highest (p≤ 0.05) increased ADG at the 5th and 6th weeks. Heart, wing, thigh, girth, and live weight did not differ (p> 0.05) among treatments, while T0 had higher (p< 0.05) liver and gizzard weight compared to the estimates from other groups. T0 recorded higher (p< 0.05) gases, emitted from grower to finisher, compared with starter. EM treatment decreased (p< 0.05) the number of gases emitted, with T3 recorded as the lowest. Thus, EM applications may alter the emission of odor-causing compounds in the broiler chicken litter without compromising its performance.
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- Variation in Transmembrane Bax Inhibitor Motif 6 (TMBIM6) gene influences heat tolerance levels in eukaryotes. Characterizing genes in different goat breeds would provide valuable insights into animal genetic variation, potential adaptive significance and implications for breeding strategies aimed at improving stress tolerance and overall productivity in goats. Thus, this study characterized Nigerian goat populations by analyzing single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from exon 4 to intron 6 of TMBIM6 gene. Genomic DNA of 77 Nigerian goats: Red Sokoto (41), Sahel (16) and West African Dwarf (WAD)(20) from semi-arid, Sahel and humid regions, respectively, were isolated, sequenced and analyzed for number of alleles, allele frequency, heterozygosity (He) and other genetic indices. Fifteen SNPs (8, 5 and 2 for Sahel, WAD and Red Sokoto, respectively) were characterized. Allele frequencies of the SNPs ranged from 0.89 in the Sahel and WAD breeds to 0.63 in the Sahel breed. SNPs at exon 5 (11857A> G) in Sahel and intron 6 (12221C> T) in Red Sokoto had the highest He (0.47), while the lowest (0.20) for intron 4 (11714C> G) and exon 6 (12134G> A) in WAD and Red Sokoto, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis showed that WAD and Sahel goats remained more closely related. This first genetic study at exon 4 to intron 6 of TMBIM6 gene in Nigerian goats has preliminarily established that Nigerian goat breeds are highly diverse. Further research is needed to establish links between identified SNPs and heat tolerance in goats.
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- In recent years, the agricultural sector has increasingly embraced advanced technologies to tackle food security and animal health issues. Poultry farming, a crucial part of agriculture, faces significant challenges from diseases affecting poultry health and economic sustainability. This project employs Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), a form of deep learning, to enhance poultry disease prediction accuracy, using chicken diseases as a case study. CNNs have revolutionised various fields, including disease prediction, by extracting meaningful patterns from data like images. This project leverages CNNs to analyse a diverse dataset of chicken disease images, creating a robust prediction model. The process involves compiling an extensive dataset of high-resolution chicken disease images, designing a CNN architecture with convolutional and pooling layers, and exploring transfer learning from pre-trained models. Rigorous training, validation, hyperparameter tuning, and data augmentation ensure model reliability. The project’s goals are twofold: demonstrating the feasibility of using CNNs for poultry disease prediction and offering a comprehensive poultry disease prediction framework. The latter could enable early disease detection and target interventions, reducing economic losses and enhancing food security. The proposed model achieved an overall accuracy of 96.5% and an F1 score of 96.8% respectively, on the tested dataset of poultry disease, indicating its high performance in poultry disease prediction.
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- 2025| Faculty of Veterinar...Selenium (Se) deficiency is linked to poor reproductive performance in sheep, while indiscriminate use of pharmaceuticals in oestrous synchronisation imposes economic burden on sheep farmers. Optimisation of interventions that could improve reproduction in sheep at minimum cost required investigation. This study evaluated the effect of Se-supplementation and oestrous synchronisation protocols on reproductive performance of Merino ewes and immunity of their lambs. Sixty ewes were randomly grouped in a 2x2 factorial design: Se-supplementation plus equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG)(n= 15), Se-supplementation plus male effect (n= 15), non-Se-supplementation plus eCG (n= 15) and non-Se-supplementation plus male effect (n= 15). Ewes were hand mated with 8 Merino rams at 48 and 60 hours after CIDR removal. Data on oestrous response, distribution of oestrus, conception and lambing rates were analyzed using Chi-square test, while onset and duration of oestrus, gestation length, glutathione peroxidase, cortisol, oetradiol-17β, progesterone and Immunoglobulin G concentrations were analysed using PROC GLM with SAS®. Se-supplemented ewes had a higher (P< 0.05) oestrous response at 36 hours after CIDR removal. Se-supplementation had no effect (P> 0.05) on the onset, duration and distribution of oestrus, gestation length conception and lambing rate. Se-supplementation decreased (P< 0.05) the cortisol concentration of ewes at CIDR removal and IgG concentration of lambs 12 hours after lambing. The eCG protocol increased (P< 0.05) the number of ewes that displayed signs of oestrus at 24, 36 and 48 hours after CIDR removal compared to the male effect. Therefore, Se-supplementation combined with eCG administration improved oestrous response in Merino ewes and is more suitable for fixed-time artificial insemination.
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