Comparative evaluation of the physiological responses and blood profile of the Fulani eco-type chicken, Arbor acre broilers and its crosses during the dry season

This study was conducted to compare the physiological response and blood profile of 20 each of 4month old Fulani Eco-type Chicken (FF), Arbor Acre broiler (BB), its crosses (BF) and reciprocal crosses (FB). The study lasted for 8weeks with each bird group having 10 Matured cock and 10 Hen respectively. The live weight of the birds were determined using a digital weighing scale while physiological parameters Rectal Temperature (RT), Respiratory Rate (RR) and Heart Rate (HR) were measured during the hot afternoon between 1-3pm. The ambient temperature and humidity were measured using a digital thermo-hygrometer. Blood samples were collected for the determination of haematological indices and serum analysis. The result indicated that strain influenced the physiological parameters (p<0.05), FF had the lowest RT (41.30C) while the highest was recorded in BB (42.30Cunit), RR and HR followed the same trend with BB having the least mean while FF, BF and FB were similar. RR recorded for FF, BF, FB and BB were 30.6, 31.8, 32.4 and 42.0 breaths/minute while HR was 198.6, 193.8, 201 and 219beats/minute respectively. All parameters evaluated were influenced by sex (P<0.05). RT was higher in males (41.90C) compared to females (41.50C). The RR (37.5 breaths/minute) and HR (210.00 beats/minute) of hens were higher than those of cocks which were 30.9 breaths/minute and 196 beats/minute respectively. The strains influenced (p<0.05) Red blood cells, White blood cells and blood platelets while packed cell volume and Heamoglobin were not affected. The red blood cells and white blood cells followed similar trend with FF having higher count while BF and FF had similar counts whereas BB had the lowest count. Parameters such as Albumin, Aspartate aminotransferase, Alanine aminotransferase and Alkaline phosphatase were not influenced whereas total protein, Glucose, Globulin and creatinine were influenced (P<0.05) by strain. It is concluded from this study that the Fulani Eco-type chicken (FF) followed by the crosses (BF and FB) had better physiological response compared to the Broiler Chicken

EBSD characterization of cryogenically rolled type 321 austenitic stainless steel

Electron backscatter diffraction was applied to investigate microstructure evolution during cryogenic rolling of type 321 metastable austenitic stainless steel. As expected, rolling promoted deformation-induced martensitic transformation which developed preferentially in deformation bands. Because a large fraction of the imposed strain was accommodated by deformation banding, grain refinement in the parent austenite phase was minimal. The martensitic transformation was found to follow a general orientation relationship, {111}γ||{0001}ε||{110}α′ and 〈110〉γ||〈11-20〉ε||〈111〉α′, and was characterized by noticeable variant selection

Martensite-to-austenite reversion and recrystallization in cryogenically-rolled type 321 metastable austenitic steel

The annealing behavior of cryogenically-rolled type 321 metastable austenitic steel was established. Cryogenic deformation gave rise to martensitic transformation which developed preferentially within deformation bands. Subsequent annealing in the range of 600 C to 700 C resulted in reversion of the strain-induced martensite to austenite. At 800 C, the reversion was followed by static recrystallization. At relatively-low temperatures, the reversion was characterized by a very strong variant selection, which led to the restoration of the crystallographic orientation of the coarse parent austenite grains. An increase in the annealing temperature relaxed the variant-selection tendency and provided subsequent recrystallization thus leading to significant grain refinement. Nevertheless, a significant portion of the original coarse grains was found to be untransformed and therefore the fine-grain structure was fairly heterogeneous

Economics of duck marketing in Oyo State

This study examines the economics of duck marketing in Oyo State with the aim of identifying the marketing channels and determining the efficiency and constraints associated with the trade in Oyo State. The marketing survey involved 50 duck traders selected from Ibadan, Oyo and Ogbomoso. Majority (72%) of the marketers procured their stock of duck from rural areas through middlemen (46%). The muscory duck (Cairina moschata) was the commonest species sold by 86% of the traders. Prices of drake (N557.30) were significantly higher than prices of duck (N424.90) across the locations and also ducks were sold at significantly higher prices during festival periods than non-festival periods (

Comparative genomic variation in porcine species could lead to species-specific responses to ASF

African Swine Fever (ASF) is a highly contagious viral disease of pigs and is of utmost concern due to its presence in list A diseases by the United Nations Office International des Epizooties (OIE). It causes significant economic losses in affected countries due to resulting high mortality rates associated. In contrast, the porcine species endogenous to Africa tolerate infection. The ability of the virus to persist in one host, while killing another genetically related host implies that the disease may influence by the hosts genetic variation. This study identify genetic polymorphism among three suidae family species in susceptibility to ASFV based on five genes such as RELA, NFATCI, PPIA, PPP3CB, NKBIA. It also predicts the protein structure of each gene and draw phylogenetic trees of each gene using human as an out-group. The nucleotide and amino acid sequence (AAS) of the 5 genes of pig, warthog and Babyrus were downloaded from the National Center for Biotechnology information (NCBI) data base, United State of America and Universal protein resources (Uniprot) database, United Kingdom. Data and phylogenetic trees were constructed using MEGA7. The variation observed at position 531 in RELA gene between warthog and domestic pig may be a significant factor behind the susceptibility or tolerance to ASFV. This study could give genomic bases to the discovery of a potent vaccine for prevention, control and prophylaxis.Keywords: African Swine Fever, Pigs, Warthogs, Babirus