Predicting live weight of rural African goats using body measurements

The goal of the current study was to develop simple regression-based equations that allow small-scale producers to use simple body measurements to accurately predict live weight of typical African goats. The data used in this study were recorded in five African countries, and was composed of 814 individuals of 40 indigenous breeds or populations and crosses that included 158 males and 656 females. Records included the live weight measured with a hanging scale, linear body measurements, country, breed, owner, and age. Country, breed, age, chest girth, height at withers, body length, and shoulder width had large effects (p76 cm, the prediction model selected that included linear terms for chest girth, body length, shoulder width and height at withers plus a quadratic term for chest girth was selected as the most accurate. When analyzed within country from Uganda and Zimbabwe, animals with chest girth \u3c 55cm the linear model with additional quadratic terms for chest girth and body length was selected. For animals with chest girth 55-75cm the linear model with the added quadratic terms for chest girth and body length was selected for animals from Malawi and Zimbabwe while the linear model with a quadratic term for chest girth was selected for Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. For animals with chest girth of \u3e76 cm the linear model with a quadratic term for chest girth was chosen for Tanzania, while for the other countries the linear model with quadratic terms for chest girth and body length was most accurate. In all cases, the models produced smaller mean prediction errors than the BM method

VarGoats project : a dataset of 1159 whole-genome sequences to dissect Capra hircus global diversity

Since their domestication 10,500 years ago, goat populations with distinctive genetic backgrounds have adapted to a broad variety of environments and breeding conditions. The VarGoats project is an international 1000-genome resequencing program designed to understand the consequences of domestication and breeding on the genetic diversity of domestic goats and to elucidate how speciation and hybridization have modeled the genomes of a set of species representative of the genus Capra. A dataset comprising 652 sequenced goats and 507 public goat sequences, including 35 animals representing eight wild species, has been collected worldwide. We identified 74,274,427 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 13,607,850 insertion-deletions (InDels) by aligning these sequences to the latest version of the goat reference genome (ARS1). A Neighbor-joining tree based on Reynolds genetic distances showed that goats from Africa, Asia and Europe tend to group into independent clusters. Because goat breeds from Oceania and Caribbean (Creole) all derive from imported animals, they are distributed along the tree according to their ancestral geographic origin. We report on an unprecedented international effort to characterize the genome-wide diversity of domestic goats. This large range of sequenced individuals represents a unique opportunity to ascertain how the demographic and selection processes associated with post-domestication history have shaped the diversity of this species. Data generated for the project will also be extremely useful to identify deleterious mutations and polymorphisms with causal effects on complex traits, and thus will contribute to new knowledge that could be used in genomic prediction and genome-wide association studies

Using the community-based breeding program (CBBP) model as a collaborative platform to develop the African Goat Improvement Network—Image collection protocol (AGIN-ICP) with mobile technology for data collection and management of livestock phenotypes

Introduction: The African Goat Improvement Network Image Collection Protocol (AGIN-ICP) is an accessible, easy to use, low-cost procedure to collect phenotypic data via digital images. The AGIN-ICP collects images to extract several phenotype measures including health status indicators (anemia status, age, and weight), body measurements, shapes, and coat color and pattern, from digital images taken with standard digital cameras or mobile devices. This strategy is to quickly survey, record, assess, analyze, and store these data for use in a wide variety of production and sampling conditions.Methods: The work was accomplished as part of the multinational African Goat Improvement Network (AGIN) collaborative and is presented here as a case study in the AGIN collaboration model and working directly with community-based breeding programs (CBBP). It was iteratively developed and tested over 3 years, in 12 countries with over 12,000 images taken.Results and discussion: The AGIN-ICP development is described, and field implementation and the quality of the resulting images for use in image analysis and phenotypic data extraction are iteratively assessed. Digital body measures were validated using the PreciseEdge Image Segmentation Algorithm (PE-ISA) and software showing strong manual to digital body measure Pearson correlation coefficients of height, length, and girth measures (0.931, 0.943, 0.893) respectively. It is critical to note that while none of the very detailed tasks in the AGIN-ICP described here is difficult, every single one of them is even easier to accidentally omit, and the impact of such a mistake could render a sample image, a sampling day’s images, or even an entire sampling trip’s images difficult or unusable for extracting digital phenotypes. Coupled with tissue sampling and genomic testing, it may be useful in the effort to identify and conserve important animal genetic resources and in CBBP genetic improvement programs by providing reliably measured phenotypes with modest cost. Potential users include farmers, animal husbandry officials, veterinarians, regional government or other public health officials, researchers, and others. Based on these results, a final AGIN-ICP is presented, optimizing the costs, ease, and speed of field implementation of the collection method without compromising the quality of the image data collection

Predicting live weight of rural African goats using body measurements

The goal of the current study was to develop simple regression-based equations that allow small-scale producers to use simple body measurements to accurately predict live weight of typical African goats. The data used in this study were recorded in five African countries, and was composed of 814 individuals of 40 indigenous breeds or populations and crosses that included 158 males and 656 females. Records included the live weight measured with a hanging scale, linear body measurements, country, breed, owner, and age. Country, breed, age, chest girth, height at withers, body length, and shoulder width had large effects (p76 cm, the prediction model selected that included linear terms for chest girth, body length, shoulder width and height at withers plus a quadratic term for chest girth was selected as the most accurate. When analyzed within country from Uganda and Zimbabwe, animals with chest girth 76 cm the linear model with a quadratic term for chest girth was chosen for Tanzania, while for the other countries the linear model with quadratic terms for chest girth and body length was most accurate. In all cases, the models produced smaller mean prediction errors than the BM method.This article is published as Chinchilla-Vargas J, Woodward-Greene M J, Van-Tassell C P, Wandui-Masiga C and Rothschild M F. 2018. Predicting live weight of rural African goats using body measurements. Livestock Research for Rural Development. Volume 30, Article #123.</p

Environmental Communication: A Review of Information Sources and Communication Channels for Enhanced Community-Based Natural Resource Management in the Greater Mara Region of Kenya

The Mara-Serengeti is an ecosystem of immense importance to both Kenya and Tanzania, contributing significantly to the economies of both countries and forming a rich biodiversity reservoir. This ecosystem is among the most threatened ecosystems on the African continent. Increasing human population density and changing lifestyles have escalated demand for ecosystem services including timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs). These activities have resulted in reduced land productivity and threatened livelihoods. This environmental communication study is aimed at providing a link between effective environmental communication and participatory sustainable natural resource management. It sets out to identify and prioritize natural resource challenges within the Mara region. It subsequently contextualizes the available and effective communication sources and channels to promote participatory approaches to natural resource management in light of several pressures challenging the Mara region. Specific attributes of the community under study are also taken into account in addition to the correlation between the information source and the message

Drought tolerant tropical maize (Zea mays L.) developed through genetic transformation with isopentenyltransferase gene

Maize is a staple food crop for millions of Africans. Despite this fact, African farmers have been harvesting average grain yield of not more than 2 t/ha while there is a potential of producing more than 10 t/ha. Drought is one of the major abiotic constraints contributing to this low productivity. Drought diminishes crop productivity mainly by causing premature leaf senescence. The ipt gene codes for isopentenyltransferase (IPT) enzyme which catalyzes the rate limiting step in the biosynthesis of cytokinin and has been shown to enhance tolerance to drought in transgenic crops by delaying drought-induced leaf senescence. This created interest to investigate if ipt gene can be useful in enhancing drought tolerance in locally adapted African tropical maize genotypes. The tropical maize inbred line CML216 was transformed with ipt gene using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method. Five transgenic lines which were proved to be stably transformed through Southern blot analysis with copy number of 2 to 4 per event were developed. In drought assay carried out in the glass house, transgenic lines expressing the ipt gene showed tolerance to drought as revealed by delayed leaf senescence compared to the wild type plants. Transgenic plants maintained higher relative water content and total chlorophyll during the drought period and produced significantly higher mean grain yield of 44.3 g/plant while the wild type plants produced mean grain yield of 1.43 g/plant. It is proposed that the transgenic lines developed in this study can be further tested for tolerance to drought under contained field trials. Furthermore, transgenic lines developed can be used in breeding programs to improve drought tolerance in other commercial tropical maize genotypes through conventional breeding.Keywords: Cytokinin, delayed leaf senescence, drought inducible, CML216, ipt gen

Communication Methods in the Commercialization of Sericulture Technologies and Innovations in Uganda

The importance of communication for the successful development of new projects has been well documented. One of the hypotheses being tested in the commercialization of Sericulture Technologies and Innovations is that the success depends on effective&nbsp;communication. &nbsp;While it is an expensive process, we have observed that improving&nbsp;communication&nbsp;maximizes success and minimizes risks and has been useful in acquiring more land for expansion, more resources allocated to the project and more partners getting on board. Different subject matter specialists have come up with excellent agriculture programs/projects, but these interventions cannot succeed if they have not been properly communicated to the end user (the farmer) and all other key stakeholders. A survey in 26 different sericulture research stations was conducted for all stakeholders in Uganda with 170 questionnaires distributed but only 151 questionnaires satisfactorily completed and returned. Data analysis was done using the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS)19.0. The chi-square test showed that there was a high significant relationship between sex, geographical location of respondents to different communication methods used with p-value (0.0) below 0.05 while age of respondents had no significant relationship with communication method used with p-value (0.5) above 0.05. Effective communication was hindered by poor infrastructure (30.5%) in form of poor transport system, poor power supply, and shortage of knowledge and information centers and lack of communication materials (25.8%)