Nigerian indigenous hens show more discomfort-related behavior with visual separation than physical separation from their chicks: An exploratory study.

The Nigerian indigenous hens exhibit their full natural behavior repertoires, including maternal care. The strong maternal bond between the hen and her chicks is established prior to hatching. Maternal care of chickens is essential for both exotic and indigenous chickens.

Environmental enrichment improves the growth rate, behavioral and physiological response of juveniles of under laboratory conditions.

Environmental enrichment (EE) improves the growth rate and welfare of some cultured fishes. However, most cultured fish species are raised in non-enriched housing conditions. is an important commercial fish species, but little is known about the effect of EE on their welfare.

An exploratory study on differences in maternal care between two ecotypes of Nigerian indigenous chicken hens.

The Yoruba (YRE) and Fulani (FLE) are the two notable indigenous chicken ecotypes in Nigeria. They exhibit broodiness and post-hatch care of their chicks. Studies on welfare, productivity, and maternal behaviors of these two ecotypes are scarce, hence the need for this study.

Influence of exogenous corticosterone on testicular function and mating behavior of Nigerian indigenous cocks.

In bridging the knowledge gap on stress physiology of Nigerian indigenous chickens, this study investigated the effect of exogenous corticosterone (eCORT) as stress inducing agent on the testicular function and mating behavior of Nigerian indigenous cocks. Twenty-four (24) cocks and one hundred and forty four (144) hens (mating ratio of 1 cock: 6 hens) were grouped into four and assigned to each of the four eCORT treatments (0, 2, 4 and 6 mgeCORT/KgBW) daily for 14 days. Semen samples were collected on days 0, 7 and 14 and analyzed for semen volume (SV), progressive sperm motility (PSM), membrane integrity (MI) and sperm abnormality (SA).

Effect of acute heat stress on cognitive performance of chickens in a feed-related discriminant task.

Little is known about immediate and long-lasting effect of acute heat stress on chicken cognition. Thirty-five, 9-week-old birds were trained to differentiate two cone colours; white (rewarded, R; with feed underneath) and black (unrewarded, UR; empty). The sixteen birds that learnt the task were randomly assigned to three temperature regimens (TR: 22-24 °C (control), 30-32 and 36-38 °C for 3h/day) for three consecutive days during which rectal (RT), wing (WT) and eye (ET) temperatures were monitored.

The prognostic value of cyclin D1 in breast cancer patients treated with hormonal therapy: A pilot study.

The Aim: of the study was to determine the clinical relevance of cyclin D1 (cD1) and its association with clinicopathological parameters in breast cancer patients treated with hormonal therapy.

Material And Methods: The study included 96 primary breast cancer patients with known clinicopathological parameters. In adjuvant setting, 44 patients were tamoxifen-treated and 52 were treated with ovarian irradiation/ablation.

Behaviour and reproductive performance of Nigerian native chickens subjected to different mating ratios for a short term.

To date, there is no reported standard mating ratio for Nigerian native chickens despite their large population in the country. This study investigated the effect of mating ratio on behaviour, semen quality and level of stress. Sixty-three (9 cocks and 54 hens) sexually matured birds were randomly assigned to three mating ratios (MR) of 1 cock to 3 hens (1C:3H), 1 cock to 6 hens (1C:6H) and 1 cock to 9 hens (1C:9H), and each MR was replicated three times.

Genetic diversity, phylogeographic structure and effect of selection at the mitochondrial hypervariable region of Nigerian chicken populations.

In this study, the maternal genetic diversity, phylogenetic relationship and effect of natural selection on indigenous chickens from Nigeria were assessed. A total of 397-bp fragment of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop region of 171 indigenous chickens from four populations of Nigeria and four commercial egg line strains (two Anak titan, one Giriraja and one Yaffa) as out-groups were analysed. Thirty-one haplotypes (28 from Nigerian chickens and three from commercial strains) and 34 polymorphic sites were identified.

WITHDRAWN:Genetic diversity and effect of selection at the mitochondrial hypervariable region in major Nigerian indigenous goat breeds.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable region 1 ( HV1) sequences of three Nigerian indigenous goat breeds; West African Dwarf (WAD), Red Sokoto (RS) and Sahel were used to investigate the genetic diversity and effect of selection between and among these populations. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of Nigerian indigenous chicken was extracted from blood samples collected and preserved on Fast Technology for Analysis (FTA) paper. The extracted DNA were amplified and sequenced with predefined mitochondria (mtDNA) primer sets for HV1.