Background and Aim: Rabies is a fatal zoonosis caused by RNA virus belonging to genus Lyssavirus. Nepal is one of the endemic countries in South Asia for rabies. This study was conducted to better understand the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of Nepalese community toward rabies across five developmental zones of the country. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out by face-to-face interview using structured questionnaires among 5000 respondents of five cities representing each of the five developmental regions of Nepal by adopting random cluster sampling procedure. The respondents were classified into four categories, including gender, age, education, and social status. The responses for KAP variables were analyzed using descriptive and Chi-square test. Results: The male and younger age respondents with higher education and social status were found more knowledgeable than their counterparts in terms of knowledge variables, including cause of rabies, mode of transmission, clinical signs, treatment, and preventive measures of this fatal disease. Similar findings were observed for attitude and practice variables such as vaccination practice, dog sterilization, health-seeking behavior, first aid practice, and use of first aid materials after dog bites. Some respondents in elderly age group still preferred to use traditional and local methods, which were application of turmeric powder and shrubs to cure dog bites rather than seeking medical facilities. Conclusion: There is a strong need for rabies awareness programs in the community targeting females, school, and college-level students, older age groups, and economically marginalized communities. The awareness materials need to focus on particular topics such as the risk of rabies, modes of transmission, the importance of first aid, health-seeking behavior following dog bite injuries, and practice preventive measures for their pets and community dogs.

The research aimed to study heterosis, combining ability and performance along with their interrelationship across three environments. Variance due to general (GCA) and specific combining abilities (SCA) and their interaction with environment was found to be significant for most of studied traits. For all the studied traits but ASI (Anthesis-silking interval), HI (Harvest index) and starch content, additive gene action was highly important than non-additive gene action for their expression as reflected by Baker's ratio which was near to unity. CML439, R13-1-1 and Tarun83-1-3-2 were the best general combiner for starch, protein and oil, respectively. R13-1-17, CML439 and Tarun83-1-3-2 were good general combiner for maturity characters and harvest index while TSK 196 and TSK 197 were good general combiner for cob length, cob girth, number of grains/row and grain yield. DMR9047×R13-1-17 and POP31Q×Tarun83-1-3-2 showed desirable heterosis and SCA effect for maturity characters. Regarding to SCA and heterosis, the prominent hybrids for grain yield were TSK197×R13-1-10, TSK194×POP31Q, DMR9047×POP31Q and R13-1-1×DMR9047. SCA established stronger relationship with per se performance of grain yield and quality traits than mid-parent (MPH) and best-parent heterosis (BPH), reflecting that an improvement in selection of SCA will results in an indirect improvement of MPH and BPH of hybrids.

An experiment was conducted during winter, 2010/11 at IAAS, Lamjung with the objective of studying effect of seed priming and nitrogen levels on yield and yield attributing characters of buckwheat. Altogether, there were 9 treatments of seed priming hours (0, 18 and 36) combined with nitrogen levels (30, 45 and 60 kg/ha). The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design and each treatment was replicated thrice. The seed priming of 36 hours had resulted in significantly higher germination percentage in both 15 days after sowing (DAS) (4.40%) and 30 (DAS) (5.74%) The total germination percentage was also significantly higher (48.4%) with 36 hr seed priming. The main and interaction effects of seed priming and nitrogen levels had significant influence on days to 50% flowering. The dry biomass per plant, grain yield, straw yield, harvest index and percentage moisture content of biomass at harvest were found non-significantly different due to seed priming and nitrogen levels. The highest value for dry matter accumulation per plant (5.24 gm/plant), straw yield (8706 kg/ha) and % moisture content (71.0%) was recorded with 36 hr seed priming whereas the highest value for grain yield (1599 kg/ha), and harvest index (19.8) was obtained with 18 hr seed priming. Likewise, dry matter accumulation (5.38 gm/plant), grain yield (1575 kg/ha) and harvest index (22.0) was found highest in 45 kg N/ha. Similarly, the straw yield (9153 kg/ha) and % moisture content (75.3%) was found highest in the treatment with 60 kg N/ha. The interaction effect between nitrogen level and priming was found non-significant and the highest grain yield (2091 kg/ha) was obtained from 18 hr seed priming with 45 kg N/ha. Phosphorus consumption rate was intrestingly higher in buckwheat plot with nitrogen application. Moderate consumption of potassium was also observed while nitrogen content in soil remain apparantly unchanged and similar was the case with soil pH and organic matter content. Application of phosphatic fertilizer would be benefitial for buckwheat cultivation. Further experiment should be done to verify the effective dose of fertilizer.Journal of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science. Vol. 33-34, 2015, Page: 47-54

AbstractA field experiment was carried out to study the effect of spacing and nitrogen level on growth and yield of maize in Parbat from February to July, 2019. The experiment was laid out in two Factorial Randomized complete Block Design (RCBD) comprising of spacing: 60×15 cm and 60×25 cm and nitrogen: 30, 60, 90 and 120 kg/ha level as treatment with three replications. “Arun-2” variety of maize was planted on clay loam and acidic soil (pH 5.3) having medium in total nitrogen (0.15%), medium in soil available phosphorus (48.1 kg/ha), medium in soil available potassium (218.8 kg/ha) and medium in organic matter content (2.92%). Result shows that yield was significantly increased with increment in N-level up to 90 kg N/ha. The grain yield (5.18 mt/ha) was significantly higher at 90 kg N/ha than at 30 and 60 kg N/ha but at par with 120 kg N/ha. Significant effect on grain yield due to spacing was observed. The grain yield (4.11 mt/ha) obtained at spacing 60×15 cm. Moreover, the highest grain yield showed that highest grain yield (4.33 mt/ha) was obtained under 90 kg N/ha plus 60×15 cm spacing. The result revealed that different spacing and nitrogen level significantly affect the plant height and leaf area index. The plant height and leaf area index were significantly high at close spacing (60×15 cm) and at 120 kg N/ha. Likewise, yield attributing characteristics like cob length, cob diameter, number of kernel/rows, number of kernel row, thousand gran weight were the highest at 90 kg/ha but as par with 120 kg/ha at close spacing (60×15 cm). This study suggested that maize production can be maximized by cultivating “Arun-2” maize fertilizing with 90 kg N/ha and maintaining 60×15 cm spacing.

A study was done to assess the goodness of fit of the regression lines using the data of silkworm larvae (J12 x C12 race) killed by various concentrations of M. anisopliae and LC71 of Metarhizium. anisopliae at different time intervals (hr) applying probit and logit function. The data were transformed before analysis using probit and logit transformations of proportion kill and with and without a logarithmic transformation of predictors. Analysis showed that the LC50 value were 5.969×106, 6.000×106, 7.250 and 7.235 spores mL-1 for probit, logit, log-probit and log-logit, respectively. The LT50 values were 204.247, 204.381, 2.304 and 2.305 hr for probit, logit, log-probit and log-logit, respectively. Significant Chi-square value indicates the necessity of heterogeneity factor for correction of variances under all functions. Residual deviance values were lower at the log-probit (2.826 for concentration and 0.292 for time) and log-logit (2.406 for concentration and 0.440 for time) models with higher p-values (≥ 0.587) compared to probit and logit model. In our study, p-values was higher (p>0.05) with lower residual deviance in log transformed data which indicated that the log-probit and log-logit models could best fit to the mortality data of silkworm larvae when the both concentration and time were as predictors. Results indicated that the log-transformation of predictors would be best for describing the mortality values of insects by concentration of Metarhizium. anisopliae and under different time values. However, it requires more précised complete datasets and good knowledge of statistics of samples values along with the conversion of results of probit and logit analyses back to original units before coming into concrete application of these analytical inferences into practice.