Journal of Agriculture and Ecology Research International

The study was conducted to assess the incidences of Rice Yellow Mottle Virus disease (RYMVD) in Kebbi State Nigeria, a field survey was conducted in four rice-growing areas of the State. Rice fields were selected randomly at 2 km interval, severity of the disease was assess using arbitrary five-point scale and disease incidence was assessed according to the proportion of the plants showing symptoms. Thirty plants were assessed in each field visited. Symptoms occurred in varying levels of incidence. The presence of RYMV in the collected samples was confirmed using Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). Mottle/yellowing symptom was found more on the plants assessed (46%) followed by leaf curling (21%), leaf necrosis (09%), leaf deformation (11%) and irregular patches (13%). RYMVD was found highly distributed in the State with average incidence of 54.38%. The highest incidence was recorded in in Yauri (67.50%) followed by Argungu (55.00%), Bagudo (52.50%) and the lowest was recorded in Suru (42.50%). The average symptom severity across all the four Local Governments visited was 2.8, the highest was recorded in Yauri (3.2), followed by Argungu (2.9), Bagudo (2.7) and Suru 2.3. The information obtained in this study would assist rice breeding programs to develop durable RYMV rice resistant cultivars and guide in the identification of RYMVD hot spot locations for seed multiplication trials in Kebbi State.

Yams cultivation in Togo is hampered by diseases caused by Potyviruses, mainly Yam mosaic virus (YMV) and Yam mild mosaic virus (YMMV). To understand the Potyviruses dissemination mechanism and to develop an efficient control method, the present study aims to establish the role of wild yams species as potential natural reservoirs of these pathogens. As such, Potyvirus susceptibility assessment was performed on four wild yams, D. dumetorum, D. bulbifera, D. togoensis and, D. smilacifolia, which grow spontaneously in yam fields in Togo. For this, phytosanitary surveys were carried out on yam fields and forests near yam plots, in July 2018 at the long rainy season, covering 27 localities in Maritime, Central and Plateaux regions of Togo, during which wild yam leaves were sampled for viruses identification. The leaves samples were analyzed first by ACP-ELISA test to detect Potyviruses using universal anti-potyvirus monoclonal antibodies, and then by RT-PCR test to identify YMV and YMMV, using respectively pairs of primers YMV1&YMV2 (196 pb) and YMV-CP-2F & YMV-UTR-1R (249 pb). Then 140 seedlings obtained from seeds of the four wild yams, were inoculated with YMV isolate 20-601/06. ACP-ELISA test revealed that only the leaves samples of D. dumetorum and D. togoensis, collected in Plateaux region, were infected by Potyviruses, with respectively 24.24% and 6.25% of incidence rate. But these samples were positive for neither YMV nor YMMV at RT-PCR test. However, after the inoculations, respectively 20% of seedlings of D. dumetorum, 52.5% of D. bulbifera, 64% of D. togoensis, and 3.33% of D. smilacifolia, were infected by YMV. This suggests a high potential of these yams, mostly D. bulbifera and D. togoensis, to become natural reservoirs for YMV, under high pressure of the viruses and their vectors. These wild yams control in and around yam fields can help limit Potyviruses infections.

A survey was conducted in three agro-ecologies of western zone of Tigray from June to September 2019 with the aim of identification of common poultry diseases and ethno veterinary practices. Multi stage sampling procedures were employed to select were das, sample kebeles and respondents in which three rural were das were selected by purposive sampling technique; stratified purposive techniques were employed to select nine sample kebeles, purposive random sampling techniques were used to select a total of 385 respondents and random sampling was employed to select chickens for ectoparasites identification. A pretested semi–structured questionnaire was employed to generate data. Descriptive statistics of frequency procedures of SPSS version 22 was used to analyze the survey data. Kruskal- Wall’s test option of Non-parametric test of SPSS 22 was employed to test proportion difference of each qualitative variable among the altitudes. Newcastle disease (27.79%), salmonella pullorum (25.45%), Coccidiosis (22.08%), fowl typhoid (10.95%), fowl cholera (7.53%), fowl pox (4.68%) and infectious Coryza (1.56%) were the major economically important infectious diseases that devastate village chicken production in the study area. A chicken mite (54.3%) was the most prevalent ectoparasites followed by lice (25.2%) and fleas (14.5%) while tick (6%) was the least prevalent ectoparasites. Forty-three medicinal plant species belonging to 30 families were identified and documented. Fabaceae and Rutaceae, the most dominant plant families, were represented by seven (16.28%) and four species (9.3%), respectively. Herbs (41.38%) and tree (47.4%) were the major growth forms of the medicinal plant species used for chicken diseases’ treatment and ectoparasites prevention, respectively. Leaf was the most frequently used plant parts for the preparation of remedies for chicken diseases’ treatment (41.38%) and ectoparasites’ prevention (57.9%). In conclusion, chicken producers used ethno veterinary medicine plant species for chicken health management in the study area. Further studies should be conducted to evaluate safety, toxicity, standardize dose and efficacy of the medicinal plant species. Moreover, species composition of the identified infectious diseases and parasites and its associated risk factors should be conducted.

The study was conducted at Humera agricultural research centre farm, northern Ethiopia aimed to evaluate the effects of supplementation of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) hay (CPH), wheat bran (WB) and their mixtures on feed intake, average daily gain (ADG)  and carcass characteristics of Begait lambs fed grass hay (GH) as a basal diet. The experimental lambs were divided into five groups based on initial body weight and randomly assigned to the five treatments. Treatments were ad libitum feeding of GH and supplemented with 300 g CPH, 225 g CPH + 75 g WB, 150 g CPH + 150 g WB, 75 g CPH + 225 g WB and 300 g WB DM/day for T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄  and  T₅, respectively. Total DM intake was 687.1, 669.4, 719.4, 631.0 and 673.47 gd^-1 for T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄ and T₅, respectively and significantly higher (p<0.001) and lower (p< 0.001) for T₃ and T₄, respectively and intermediate for others. The ADG was 36.4, 43.6, 52.9, 43.1 and 42.4 gd^-1 for lambs in T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄ and T₅, respectively was higher (p<0.001) for T₃. Consequently, the value for hot carcass weight (kg) was significantly higher for T₃ (12.92) than T₂ (12.61), T₁ (11.92), T₄ (11.96) and T₅ (12.42). Therefore, from the findings of this study, it can be suggested that feeding mixture of 150 g of cowpea hay and 150 g of wheat bran improved sheep performance.

Fasciolosis is one of the most economically important and widespread parasitic diseases of domestic animals. Accordingly, a cross sectional study was conducted in Mekelle, northern Ethiopia to assess the prevalence of small ruminants Fasciolosis. Fecal samples were collected from a total of 384 small ruminants comprising of 245 sheep and 139 goats and were examined by using the sedimentation technique to find out the eggs of Fasciola species. Out of the total, 384 examined fecal samples, 67 were found to be positive for Fasciolosis with an overall prevalence rate of 17.5 percent. The prevalence of Fasciolosis was higher in sheep (24.1%) as compared to goats (5.8%). There was a statistically significant difference (P=.00) among sheep and goats as regards to the occurrence of Fasciola spp. With body condition scores of the animals, Fasciolosis was statistical significant (P=.00) which was higher in animals with poor body scores followed by medium and good body conditions, respectively. However, the prevalence of Fasciolosis between males and females (P=.19) as well as young and adult animals (P=.92) was not statistically significant difference. The result among the origins of the animals also revealed that no statistically significance difference (P=.81). In conclusion, the burden of Fasciolosis still remains a great problem in the study area. Thus, we need for further investigation to study the impact of the disease on animal production and its economic values and requires integrated interventional strategies to be implemented to tackle such an economically important disease of small ruminants.