Evaluation of Body Weight and Other Linear Parameters of Marshall Broiler for Repeatability Estimates

This study was designed to evaluate the body weight and other linear parameters of Marshall Broiler for repeatability estimates. A total of one hundred (100) broiler chickens (Marshall) was used in estimating the repeatability of body weight and linear parameters of day old from 2 to 8 weeks of age. Body weight (BW) and other linear body parameters such as body length (BL), shank length (SL), thigh length (TL), breast girth (BG) and keel length (KL) were taken every two weeks. The mean values for body weight and other linear variables revealed increase for BW (374.78g - 1981.34g), BL (11.63cm - 21.41cm), SL (9.27cm – 13.54cm), TL (6.10cm – 10.97cm), BG (3.47cm – 11.59cm) and KL (9.54cm – 18.14cm) at 2nd and 8th weeks age respectively. The repeatability of body weight (0.332, 0.032, 0.457 and 0.384) was respectively low at 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks of age with high repeatability values for BL (0.813) at 4th week, SL (0.691) and TL (0.697) at 2nd week respectively and BG (0.759) at 6th week of age with KL (0.695) at 8th week of age, indicating that the tendency for successive records of Marshall Broiler chickens to be more alike is low. Repeatability and variance components over the eight weeks of the study for body weight and other linear parameters revealed high values for BL (0.614) and TL (0.606). Therefore, selection for improvement using any of the traits (body weight, breast girth and keel length) will result in good performance and a significant genetic gain throughout the lifetime of Marshall Broiler chickens.Keywords: Repeatability, Marshall Broiler, linear body variables

Anthelmintic efficacy of pawpaw (Carica papaya) seeds in commercial layers

The anthelmintic efficacy of the aqueous and crude extract of Carica papaya seeds was studied in 40 Isa Brown commercial layers infected naturally with nematodes. They were randomly divided into 4 groups: A, B, C and D with 10 birds per group. Group A birds were untreated, while groups B, C and D were treated orally with proprietary anthelmintic (piperazine 322 mg/kg body weight/day), powdery (300 mg/day/bird) and aqueous (1:10 ml water required/day) extracts of C. papaya, respectively. Two weeks after treatment, blood and faecal samples were collected to evaluate for hematological values and faecal egg counts respectively. The results of this study showed that the powdered and aqueous extract of C. papaya after its administration, produced a significant increase (P < 0.001) in packed cell volume, red blood cells, haemoglobin concentration, lymphocyte counts and significant decrease in eosinophil counts. The faecal egg counts also showed a remarkable and significant reduction in  the levels of the identified helminths. The reduction in faecal egg counts was more pronounced with the aqueous extract than crude extract administered. The effects of the C. papaya seed extracts in this study therefore showed that C. papaya extracts can serve as a source of chemical substance for use in the development of effective anthelmintic agents.Key words: Carica papaya, anthelmintic, piperazine, helminths, haematology

Biochemical characterization of indigenous Fulani and Yoruba ecotypes chicken of Nigeria

The study was carried out to characterize two indigenous chickens of Nigeria using protein markers; haemolglobin (HB) and carbonic anhydrase (CA). Separation of the two proteins was achieved by cellulose acetate electrophoresis and direct gene counting method was employed to interpret the result. Palentological statistics was used to generate dendrogram that measured genetic similarity within and between each of the population studied. HB was interpreted into three phenotypes: AA, AB and BB which were genetically controlled two codominant alleles HBA and HBB. Allele frequencies of HBA and HBB in Yoruba ecotype chicken were 0.34 and 0.66, respectively, while those of Fulani ecotype were 0.28 and 0.72, respectively. CA was also interpreted into three phenotypes (FF, FS and SS) which are genetically controlled by two codominant alleles CAF and CAS; their respective allele frequencies were 0.33 and 0.67 in Yoruba ecotype chicken and 0.24 and 0.76 in Fulani ecotype chicken. Genetic similarity within ecotype indicated 60% in Fulani, 80% in Yoruba and 40% between Yoruba and Fulani at HB locus while at CA locus, genetic similarity was 69% in Fulani ecotype, 50% in Yoruba ecotype and 42% between Yoruba and Fulani ecotype. Cavalli-Sforza genetic distance between the two Ecotypes was 2.1x10-2. Conclusively, the two populations were genetically related and further studies should focus on other protein markers and at molecular level.Keywords: Ecotype, protein marker, genetic distance and selectionAfr. J. Biotechnol. Vol. 12 No. 5