Actions and perceived impact of African swine fever control measures along the smallholder pig value chain in Uganda.

Pig production in Uganda is constrained by African swine fever (ASF) which is endemic in the country. Current measures taken by the Government of Uganda in controlling ASF outbreaks include trade and livestock movement restrictions, called "quarantine." Little is known about the actions of, and impact of value chain actors in response to ASF quarantines.

Multi-environment evaluation of rice genotypes: impact of weather and culm biochemical parameters against sheath blight infection.

Introduction: Sheath blight caused by is one of the major diseases of rice, causing widespread crop losses. The use of semi-dwarf rice varieties in the ongoing nutrient-intensive rice cultivation system has further accentuated the incidence of the disease. An ideal solution to this problem would be identifying a stable sheath blight-tolerant genotype.

Growth curve analysis in different generations of Boer x Central Highland goats using alternative estimation models.

Growth curve analysis can help to optimize the management, determine nutritional requirements, predict the weight of animals at a specific age, and to select highly productive animals. Therefore, this study aimed to find the best-fitted nonlinear functions to provide a specific shape of the growth curve from birth to yearling age in different generations of Boer x Central Highland goats. Gompertz, Logistic, Brody, Von Bertalanffy, Monomolecular, Negative exponential, and Richards models were evaluated to quantify their ability to describe the biological growth curve.

Approaches for disease prioritization and decision-making in animal health, 2000-2021: a structured scoping review.

This scoping review identifies and describes the methods used to prioritize diseases for resource allocation across disease control, surveillance, and research and the methods used generally in decision-making on animal health policy. Three electronic databases (Medline/PubMed, Embase, and CAB Abstracts) were searched for articles from 2000 to 2021. Searches identified 6, 395 articles after de-duplication, with an additional 64 articles added manually.

Metagenomic characterization reveals virus coinfections associated with Newcastle disease virus among poultry in Kenya.

Newcastle disease (ND) is an endemic viral disease affecting poultry and causing massive economic losses. This cross-sectional purposive study detected coinfections that are associated with the Newcastle disease virus among poultry from selected regions in Kenya. Cloacal (n = 599) and oral-pharyngeal (n = 435) swab samples were collected and pooled into 17 and 15 samples, respectively.

Reproductive performance and productivity of local and Dorper x local crossbred ewes under community-based management system, Ethiopia.

This study evaluated the reproductive and productivity of local and Dorper crossbred ewes in a community-based management system. We analyzed data collected from 2013 to 2021, taking into account different factors such as dam-breed, location, type of birth, season, and year of lambing. Lambing was observed all year-round, but the majority (35%) occurred in September, October, and December.

Fate and transport modelling for evaluating antibiotic resistance in aquatic environments: Current knowledge and research priorities.

Antibiotics have revolutionised medicine in the last century and enabled the prevention of bacterial infections that were previously deemed untreatable. However, in parallel, bacteria have increasingly developed resistance to antibiotics through various mechanisms. When resistant bacteria find their way into terrestrial and aquatic environments, animal and human exposures increase, e.

Association Mapping of Candidate Genes Associated with Iron and Zinc Content in Rice ( L.) Grains.

Micronutrient deficiencies, particularly of iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn), in the diet contribute to health issues and hidden hunger. Enhancing the Fe and Zn content in globally staple food crops like rice is necessary to address food malnutrition. A Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) was conducted using 85 diverse rice accessions from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to identify genomic regions associated with grain Fe and Zn content.

Estimation of crossbreeding and genetic parameters for reproductive traits of Boer x Central Highland goats in Ethiopia.

Additive genetic and non-additive parameters for reproductive traits of Boer x Central Highland goats were estimated. Pedigree and performance records comprised of Central Highland and their crosses with Boer goats were collected from 2009 to 2018 in the Sirinka Agricultural Research Center sheep and goat breeding station. Least-squares means for genotypes were obtained using a general linear model procedure in SAS.

Herd health and reproductive management associated with lamb weight gain and mortality in sub-Saharan drylands-a case from Ethiopia.

Sheep are important for food and livelihood security in sub-Saharan Africa, and maximizing lamb weight gain while minimizing mortality is essential to improve production. Using the Menz sheep breeding villages of Amhara region in Ethiopia as a case study, the weight gain and mortality rate of 208 lambs were monitored during their first 5 months of life. The study was conducted in intervention and control villages, where the intervention villages were part of community-based breeding programmes and had participated in various projects aiming to improve sheep production and management.

Sensitive and Specific Exonuclease III-Assisted Recombinase-Aided Amplification Colorimetric Assay for Rapid Detection of Nucleic Acids.

The development of a contamination-free and on-site nucleic acid detection platform with high sensitivity and specificity but low-cost for the detection of pathogenic nucleic acids is critical for infectious disease diagnosis and surveillance. In this study, we combined the recombinase-aided amplification (RAA) with the exonuclease III ( III)-assisted signal amplification into a platform for sensitive and specific detection of nucleic acids of African swine fever virus (ASFV). We found that this platform enabled a naked eye visual detection of ASFV at a detection limit as low as 2 copies/μL in 30 min.

Structural variation and introgression from wild populations in East Asian cattle genomes confer adaptation to local environment.

Background: Structural variations (SVs) in individual genomes are major determinants of complex traits, including adaptability to environmental variables. The Mongolian and Hainan cattle breeds in East Asia are of taurine and indicine origins that have evolved to adapt to cold and hot environments, respectively. However, few studies have investigated SVs in East Asian cattle genomes and their roles in environmental adaptation, and little is known about adaptively introgressed SVs in East Asian cattle.

Ownership of small livestock species, but not aggregate livestock, is associated with an increased risk of anemia among children in Ethiopia: A propensity score matching analysis.

Consumption of animal source foods, through livestock production, improves children's growth and micronutrient status. However, research on the relationship between livestock ownership and childhood anemia has produced conflicting results. The current study used robust analytical approaches to examine the effect of household livestock ownership on children's anemia using the most recent secondary data from the national demographic and health survey.

Understanding knowledge, attitude and perception of Rift Valley fever in Baringo South, Kenya: A cross-sectional study.

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a mosquito-borne viral hemorrhagic disease that affects humans and livestock. In Kenya, the disease has spread to new areas like Baringo County, with a growing realization that the epidemiology of the virus may also include endemic transmission. Local knowledge of a disease in susceptible communities is a major driver of prevention and control efforts.

Global dispersal and adaptive evolution of domestic cattle: a genomic perspective.

Domestic cattle have spread across the globe and inhabit variable and unpredictable environments. They have been exposed to a plethora of selective pressures and have adapted to a variety of local ecological and management conditions, including UV exposure, diseases, and stall-feeding systems. These selective pressures have resulted in unique and important phenotypic and genetic differences among modern cattle breeds/populations.

Breeding objectives for Central Highland goats using participatory and bio-economic modelling approaches.

The breeding objectives of Central Highland goats rearing under a low-input production system were defined through a participatory proportional piling method and bio-economic model. Additionally, the economic values and relative economic value of the breeding objective traits were derived. A participatory proportional piling method was used to estimate the relative weights of farmers attached to a list of goat traits identified, and the relative weights were statistically evaluated using a generalized multinomial logit model analysis.

Genome-wide diversity and admixture of five indigenous cattle populations from the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia.

The Tigray region, where we found around eight per cent of the indigenous cattle population of Ethiopia, is considered as the historic centre of the country, with the ancient pre-Aksumite and Aksumite civilisations in contact with the civilisations of the Fertile Crescent and the Indian subcontinent. Here, we used whole genome sequencing data to characterise the genomic diversity, relatedness, and admixture of five cattle populations (Abergelle, Arado, Begait, Erob, and Raya) indigenous to the Tigray region of Ethiopia. We detected 28 to 29 million SNPs and 2.

Evaluation of a novel liquid stabilised peste des petits ruminants vaccine: Safety and immunogenic efficacy in sheep and goats in the field in Jordan.

A novel liquid stabiliser was tested with the Nigeria 75/1 Peste des Petit Ruminants (PPR) vaccine over two field studies carried out in sheep and goats. PPR seronegative sheep and goats were selected from farms surrounding Amman, Jordan and were vaccinated with either a stabilised liquid PPR vaccine that had been formulated 3 months prior to use and stored at 2-8 °C or a reconstituted lyophilised PPRV vaccine reconstituted on the day of vaccination. Sera were taken immediately before vaccination and at approximately 1.

Genomic Regions and Candidate Genes Associated with Milk Production Traits in Holstein and Its Crossbred Cattle: A Review.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are a powerful tool for identifying genomic regions and causative genes associated with economically important traits in dairy cattle, particularly complex traits, such as milk production. This is possible due to advances in next-generation sequencing technology. This review summarized information on identified candidate genes and genomic regions associated with milk production traits in Holstein and its crossbreds from various regions of the world.

Determinants of farm mechanization in central and southeast oromia region, Ethiopia.

The study has been conducted to assess the farm mechanization level and tried to identify the determinants. The research utilizes primary data, collected through personal interview of 397 farm households located in the four districts of central and southeast Oromia region of Ethiopia. Multi-stage, purposive and random sampling procedures were used to select the respondents using probability proportional to size from each district.

Special Issue "African Swine Fever and Other Swine Viral Diseases in Africa".

African swine fever (ASF) has become the swine disease of most global concern since its second escape from Africa in 2007 resulted in its spread to five continents and the consequent devastation of industrial to subsistence pig farming [...