The Effects of Bad Roads on Transportation System in the Gushegu District of Northern Region of Ghana

The study sought to investigate the effects of bad roads on transportation system and its maintenance and service cost in the Gushegu District in the Northern Region of Ghana. Both primary and secondary data were collected for the study. The primary data involved 150 Drivers, Driver Mates and Transport Owners using mainly questionnaire.  The findings showed that bad roads had effects on transportation system as this brought about frequent break down of vehicles and increased maintenance cost. It is therefore recommended that government should formulate a good road infrastructure policy that will enhance the sustainability of road infrastructure and should also encourage public participation in road infrastructure provision and maintenance to accelerate development of the District

Comparison of vent sexing and polymerase chain reaction for reliable sex determination in guinea fowls

The guinea fowl is an important poultry species with great economic potential in Africa. It is a monomorphic bird with less conspicuous sexual dimorphism. Inability to sex birds accurately early in their life imposes multiple challenges on breeding, conservation and production of these birds. Several methods have been employed for sexing monomorphic birds each with specific advantages and disadvantages. In the present study, sexes of 215 guinea fowls were determined by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Vent Sexing and determination of gonads. PCR was used to amplify a sequence homologous to Chicken EcoR1 fragment of 0.6 kb (EE0.6) using Universal Sex Primer (USP) 1 and USP3 and internal control primers. Vent sexing could only diagnose 48.7 % of males accurately while it was able to diagnose females with an accuracy of 81%. Results from PCR was in complete agreement with sex indicated by gonads. Differences in results between PCR and vent sexing were significant (p < 0.05). Vent Sexing alone is not reliable for sexing guinea fowls prior to breeding decisions. Molecular sexing using the method described is recommended for accurate sex determination for breeders and researchers while future research is necessary to develop farmer friendly guidelines for reliable sex determination of guinea fowls

Non-invasive sex determination of guinea fowl keets (numida meleagris) by polymerase chain reaction

Early sex determination of birds is crucial for controlled breeding for both production andconservation. Amidst the potential of the guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) industry for theeconomies of African countries and as a rich genetic resource to be conserved, inability toaccurately sex guinea fowl keets is a major constraint for breeding. In the present study sex of dayold guinea keets (n=132) and keets of 4 - 8 weeks (n=72) was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by amplifying a sequence homologous to Chicken EcoR1 fragment of 0.6 kb (EE0.6) using Universal Sex Primer 1(USP 1) and Universal Sex Primer 3 (USP 3) together with internal control primers using DNA extracted from feathers. Out of 72 keets, aged 4 - 8 weeks, 38 were identified as males and 34 were identified as females. Out of the 132, day-olds 69 and 63 were identified as female and male keets, respectively, were results from PCR were confirmed by the presence of respective gonads. The methods described can be used for accurate sex determination of guinea fowl keets from day-old with minimal stress and discomfort to the birds. The method can be used by researchers, breeders, conservationists directly or to develop farmer friendly methods in the future

Genetic parameters and genomic regions associated with growth rate and response to Newcastle disease in local chicken ecotypes in Ghana and Tanzania

Local chicken breeds play an important role in the livelihoods of people in both rural and urban areas of Africa. One of the main constraints to the poultry sector in many sub-Saharan countries is disease, with Newcastle disease (ND) being the most important. Because vaccination does not adequately control ND, selective breeding offers an effective complement, provided there is genetic variation in resistance, tolerance and/or response to ND. We investigated this topic by challenging 6 local ecotypes from Ghana and Tanzania with a lentogenic (vaccine) strain of Newcastle disease virus (NDV), then measuring growth, anti-NDV antibody levels, and viral load from hatch to 38 days of age. We estimated variance components and performed a genome-wide association study using 2800 birds genotyped with the 600K Affymetrix chicken genotyping array. Heritabilities were moderate to high (0.14 – 0.55) for all the traits studied, which indicates that selection to improve these breeds for resistance to ND can be feasible. GWAS also revealed several genomic regions that explained ≥0.5% of the genetic variance, including a candidate gene region for antibody response on GGA1. We conclude that all traits investigated in this study appear to be highly polygenic in nature. Future studies will characterize differences between the breeds/ecotypes, determine if large breed-specific quantitative trait loci can be identified, and evaluate the response of the same birds to endemic, velogenic NDV strains

Genotypic and phenotypic characterisation of three local chicken ecotypes of Ghana based on principal component analysis and body measurements

This study was to characterise three Ghanaian local chicken ecotypes, namely, Interior Savannah, Forest and Coastal Savannah ecotypes, based on morphological data and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes. Morphological data including shank length, body girth, back length, thigh length, beak length, comb length and wattle length were collected. Blood samples were also obtained for SNP genotyping with Affymetrix chicken 600k SNP chip. Principal component analysis showed that Forest and Coastal Savannah birds were closely related. Generally, all three ecotypes seemed very diverse especially birds from the Interior Savannah zone. Morphological characterisation showed ecotype, sex and pen had significant effect on body weights (p0.05). Very few of the phenotypes reported to be associated with heat resistance – frizzle (2%) and naked neck (1.6%) – were found in the current study. It is concluded that the three local ecotypes are genetically diverse but with similar morphological features

Modelling feed resources budgets in the moist savannahs of West Africa

A deterministic model was developed to evaluate the adequacy and utilization of ruminant livestock feed resources in the moist savannahs of W. Africa. Changes in land cropped and available as range, were used to project changes in feed resources over time and to evalaute whether these feed resources were adequate for the expected numbers of livestock in the region. Ignoring crop residues as feed resources would result in feed shortages especially in the drier northern parts of the moist savannahs. If 50 percent of the residues could be used as feed, feed shortage would be unlikely irrespective of area cropped. In that case range resources lost through expansion of cropped area are effectively substituted for by the resulting crop residues. Research on how much residues can be used as livestock feed without affecting land productivity is warranted

Efficiency of beef production systems: Description and preliminary evaluation of a model

A deterministic beef efficiency model (BEM) was developed for investigating production efficiency. Efficiency was defined, over the lifetime of the herd, as a ratio of total output (lean meat equivalent) from the herd to total input (feed equivalent in Mcal metabolizable energy, ME) to the herd, and has units of g lean meat Mcal -1 ME. The model combines three tandem submodels describing: (1) growth and feed intake, (2) herd structure, and (3) enterprise efficiency. It is capable of investigating efficiency of production in traditional cow-calf systems, dairy-beef systems as well as systems where an offspring's sex-ratio at birth is controlled. It treats the female and her offspring as the basic herd unit and evaluates efficiency in relation to how long the cow stays in the herd (age at culling) and the degree of maturity of her offspring when marketed, Procedures for validating and evaluating behaviour of a beef efficiency model are described. The model was most sensitive to the degree of maturity of the dam. Increasing the dam's maturity by 10% resulted in a large (up to 35%, depending on breed group) decline in efficiency. The model was moderately sensitive to maturing rate and carcass lean content but was not sensitive to mature size or the inflection parameter. Increasing the maturing rate or lean content by 10% results in up to 8.7% increase in efficiency