Commercial poultry production is one of the flourishing ventures of animal production in Ethiopia. It has been providing to the demands of proteins at least to the urban population, though concurrent health constraints are hampering its intended potential. This study reports the influence of infectious diseases in commercial broiler farms in central Ethiopia. In this study, clinical signs, gross lesions, laboratory tests (serology, bacterial culture, histopathology and parasitology) and farm management data were used to identify major causes of outbreaks in an age specific manner in broiler chickens in three poultry farms in Debre Zeit, Central Ethiopia. The outbreaks detected in the farms were due to mycoplasmosis, salmonellosis, colibacillosis, coccidiosis and infectious bursal disease. It is observed that the occurrence of concurrent diseases in the farms significantly affects the productivity and health status of broilers. The risk factors that predispose birds to the various infections in the different farms studied were also recorded. In addition, recommendations were also provided.

Genetic relationships between thirteen genotypes of chilli and paprika collected from different places of India were analyzed using twelve RAPD and nine SSR primers. Clustering based on the generated markers was conducted using NTSYS software's. The RAPD primers produced a total of 78 bands of which 65 were polymorphic with a mean of 5.41 polymorphic bands per primer while the SSR primers produced 28 SSR loci with a mean of 3.22 alleles per SSR locus. The similarity index matrix ranged from 0.36 to 0.91 (RAPD) and 0.117 to 0.9 (SSR) with mean of 0.62 and 0.39 respectively. Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) values of the SSR primers ranged from 0.00 to 0.75 with an average value of 0.546. The resulting RAPD and SSR dendrograms separated the cultivars with small and erect fruit position from the large and medium fruited cultivars with declining fruit position. Both RAPD and SSR markers showed genetic variability in the studied pepper genotypes and they are powerful tools for estimating genetic similarities and diversity.

No abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate noug seed (Guizotia abyssinica) cake substituted with dried mulberry and Vernonia mixed leaves’ meal on feed intake, body weight change, and digestibility of Bonga sheep fed on Rhodes grass hay at Teppi Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia. The experiment was conducted using 25 yearling lambs with an average initial body weight of 20.83 ± 1.66 kg. Five lambs were allotted per treatment in randomized complete block design. Treatments were isonitrogenous supplements of 100% concentrate (49.5% NSC, 49.5% ground maize grain, and 1% salt) offered at 400 g DM/head/day (T1), 25, 50, 75, and 100 of NSC CP substituted by dried mulberry and Vernonia mixed leaves’ meal in T2 = 429.8 g/day, T3 = 459.5 g/day, T4 = 489.3 g/day, and T5 = 519 g/day, respectively. The sheep were fed Rhodes grass hay adlibitum and had free access to water and salt block. Intake and growth trail lasted for 90 days followed by 10 days of digestibility trial. The CP, NDF, and ADF contents of Rhodes grass hay were 7.9, 74.8, and 46.8 percent. The CP content of NSC, ground maize grain, dried mulberry, and Vernonia leaves was 32.4, 8.3, 18.5, and 22.5%, respectively. Total DM intake (g/day) was significantly higher for lambs in T3 (771.4) than in T1 (722.8) and T5 (642.8) but similar to T2 (754.9) and T4 (759.7). The CP intake was highest (P < 0.001) for sheep in T2 and T3, but lowest in T5. The apparent DM digestibility for T1 (70.8%), T2 (68.8%), and T3 (69.1%) was significantly higher than for T5 (64.4%), while T4 (67.9%) and T5 were not significantly different. The attained average daily gain (g/day) of sheep in T1 (87.7), T2 (82.0), T3 (83.4), and T4 (75.2) was higher (P < 0.01) than in T5 (56.0). The result of this study indicated that dried mulberry and Vernonia mixed leaves’ meal can substitute NSC as a protein supplement up to 75% inclusion level resulting in optimum DM and nutrient intakes and body weight gain of yearling Bonga sheep. This study also highlights the positive potential of dried mulberry and Vernonia mixed leaves’ meal as a supplement to ruminants on a basal diet of fibrous feeds.

This study was conducted in Gena Bossa district with the objective of assessing the productive and reproductive performance of indigenous chickens. Multistage stratified purposive and random sampling methods were used and a total of 138 households were interviewed in the study area. Fifteen, fifty four and sixty nine farmers selected for interviews from highland, midland and lowland agroecologies, respectively. From the interviewed farmers, 47, 47 and 44 farmers were poor, medium and rich wealth leveled, respectively. Farmers were categorized to their education level and 34, 34, 35 and 35 respondents were interviewed from illiterate, reading and writing, primary first and primary second cycle education level, respectively. Age at sexual maturity of pullets and cockerels were 5.64 and 5.25 months, respectively. The clutch number, eggs per clutch and total eggs/hen/year were 3.04, 12.78 and 38.53, respectively. In this survey, hatchability and survival rate of chicks were 81.72 and 38.85%, respectively. Sexual maturity, number of eggs per clutch and hatchability were significantly (p<0.05) different at different agro-ecology and education levels but not significantly (p>0.05) different at different wealth levels of farmers. Generally, low productive and reproductive performance of indigenous chickens were recorded under farmer's management condition in Gena Bossa District of Dawro Zone which needs further improvement from the government by organizing trainings for farmers on disease control, housing and feeding of chickens to improve productive and reproductive performance.