International Journal of Agriculture and Biosciences

Five cultivars of okra were selected based on some qualitative characters. Crosses were made among these cultivars based on some of these characters to generate the F1S in 2007 farming season. In 2008 the F1S were planted to generate the F2 generation. The parents, F1 hybrids and F2 generations were cultivated on the field in 2009 farming season at College of Agriculture Teaching and Research Farm Ganye, using randomized complete block design, with three replications. The Chi-square Test of goodness to fit for F2 data in the result table gives a 1:2:1 ratio for colour and fruit hairiness indicating co-dominance gene control for these characters. For fruit structure, it was observed in the F1 that ridge character is control by two dominant genes, the fruits are completely ridged when both the dominant genes are present in homozygous condition and in the presence of both the recessive genes the fruits are round, and the blending of the two genes is indicated by heterozygosity. The F2 generation segregate in the ratio of 15:1, indicating duplicate dominant gene epistasis. This study also revealed a monogenic pattern of inheritance for fruit pigmentation with the pigmented parent dominant over the non-pigmented parent.

Keywords: Colour, Cultivars and okra, Hairiness, Inheritance, Structure

One hundred and forty four two weeks’ old unsexed Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) of about the same weight were randomly assigned to three (3) dietary treatments with 48 quails per treatments. Each treatment was replicated thrice with 16 quails per replicate. The three diets had 0% (control), 25% and 50% (I-III respectively) Sun-dried Mango (Mangifera indica) kernel meal as a replacement for maize. Quails were fed the experimental diets over a period of nine (9) weeks. Feed intake was measured daily and the quails body weight were measured on weekly intervals. It was observed that quails fed control diet had similar result with those fed 25% replacement levels of SMKM in terms of weekly feed intake, body weight, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and feed efficiency. However, quails fed 50% replacement levels of SMKM performed significantly (P<0.05) poorer than quails fed control diet in all the aforementioned parameters. The findings suggested that SMKM could replace maize up to 25% level in growing Japanese quails’ diet without deleterious effect on growth indices.

Keywords: Japanese quails, Performance indices, SMKM

Zinc is an essential mineral that is found almost in every cell, implicated in many biological processes. Zinc deficiency is prevented in children in developed episode of diarrhea. The research project aims at the estimation of Zinc in children with persistent diarrhea. This was carried out in 12 children with persistent diarrhea and 12 healthy ones of the same ages range using Atomic Absorbance Spectrophotometer (AAS). Based on this, the relationship between Zinc deficiencies and persistent diarrhea was established. The result of the analysis shows the mean serum Zinc level for sufferers was 8.45±0.64 while that for healthy ones was 11.69±0.94 which indicates that Zinc deficiency leads to persistent diarrhea. Zinc is also lost in faces during persistent diarrhea, thereby lowering the body Zinc content. The research project also indicates that persistent diarrhea is prevalent among children of age 3-4. Therefore, Zinc supplementation according to Recommended Dietary Intake (RDI) reduces incidence of persistence diarrhea in children and also restores their Zinc status for normal body activities.

Keywords: Zinc, Persistence diarrhea, AAS, Children (1-6)

Pectin is a high molecular weight polysaccharide present in all plants, and composed of chains of 100-1000D galacturonic acid units linked by α-1, 4 glycosidic bonds. PME, a member of the pectinolytic enzyme family deesterified the methoxylated galacturonic residues in pectin compounds creating carboxylic groups and methanol (Simon et al., 2006). An extra cellular PME (EC 3.1.1.11) was filtered off from Aspergilus niger that was grown in agitated mineral medium cultures supplemented with various concentrations of pectin. The filtered enzyme was assayed by method of Bertheau et al. (1984) which showed highest activity of 8.886µequH+/min/ml in supplemented with 0.5% (w/v) BDH apple pectin. The activity was determined by titration of the liberated carboxylic groups with 0.01N NaOH in 0.5M NaCl. The protein concentration was by the Lowry method beyond this concentration.

Keywords: Pectinmethylesterase, pH, Sabouraud dextrose agar, Temperature

The simultaneous development of hemangiomas and myelocytomas was confirmed in 10,000 green-shelled-egg chickens (135 days old) and 7000 local Chai chickens (165 days old), which were raised on a farm in Jining city, China. Gross observations showed that the abdominal cavity was filled with dark red blood. Also, severe enlargement of the liver and spleen and development of hematomas of various sizes and multifocal gray-white nodules were discovered. The surfaces of the lungs, kidneys, and pancreas also exhibited hematoma formation. Furthermore, the capsule cavity was expanded and filled with erythrocytes and myelocytes. Basophilic cytoplasm and lopsided nuclei were observed in these organs by histopathological examination. Similarly, numerous myelocytes with basophilic cytoplasm, lopsided nuclei, and clusters of thrombocyte were observed on blood smears. The number of lymphocytes and mean platelet (PLT) volume were significantly increased and the PLT count was decreased compared with normal chickens. Two liver tissue samples extracted from diseased chickens and one cloacae swab sample collected from each flock were inoculated onto DF-1 cells to isolate ALV-J. The presence of ALV-J was confirmed by p27 antigen detection using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and indirect immunofluorescent assay with monoclonal anti-ALV-J antibodies. PCR with a specific 946-bp gp85 fragment showed that both flocks were positive for ALV-J and negative for ALV-A, ALV-B, ALV-E, Marek’s disease virus, and reticuloendotheliosis virus. Evolutional and phylogenetic analysis of the amino acid sequence showed that the homology between the three isolated ALV strains reached 99.4% and shared 88.0%–91.3% homology with the GD0510 and GD0512 isolates obtained from “yellow” chickens, and 89%-93.9% identity with eight domestic ALV-J reference strains isolated from white feather broilers. Compared with four international reference strains, the three different viruses shared higher homology (96.5%–96.8%) with the ALV-J prototype strain HPRS-103, which belonged to the same branch. This is the first study to demonstrate the formation of hemangiomas and myelocytomas induced by ALV-J infection in green-shelled-egg chickens and Chai chickens bred on the same farm.

Keywords: ALV-J, Chai chicken, Green-shelled-egg chickens, Hemangiomas, Myelocytomas

Accurate predictions of plant developmental stages are important in crop simulation models. Plant development has been measured using the number of days to flowering. The concept of flowering rate defined as the inverse of the time between emergence and flowering. It has long been recognized that photoperiod and temperature interactively modulate plant development. The multiplicative approach simulate the rate of development using a function of temperature multiplied by a function of photoperiod: R= f(T) × f(P). The relationship between temperature and photoperiod with developmental rate has been described with different equations. Our results revealed that between 24 combined models (8 equations for f(T) and 3 equations for f(P))combined model Beta-Negative exponential (B-NE) (as f(T) and f(P), respectively) has a good estimation of flowering date (or rate) in response to temperature and photoperiod. Base, optimum and ceiling temperatures as a cardinal temperatures based on B-NE were (1, 35 and 40 °C, respectively). Minimum biological required days from emergence to flowering, also, was determined as 36.85 days. Critical photoperiod and photoperiod sensitivity obtained (14.27 h and 0.37, respectively). Thermal time from emergence to flowering predicted to 1252.9. This combined model can be used for barley flowering prediction or as a sub model in other barley phonological models, although Assessment of the model using independent data and conducted several studies on other spring barley at different places are needed.

Keywords: Biological day, Critical temperatures, Modelling; barley, None-regression equations

Melon weevil, Acytopeus curvirostris persicus Thompson (Col.: Curculionidae), is one of the most important pests of melons that is spread in the Middle East countries. In February and March 2013, during a sampling from different regions in the South Khorasan province, a fungus was isolated from deformed pupae cultures of A. Curvirostris persicus. The isolation, purification and identification processes of fungi were carried out, and its pathogenicity was approved through Koch’s postulates. To perform pathogenicity test, purified isolates of the mentioned fungus with certain spore concentration were sprayed as suspension on the larvae and adult melon weevil. The fungal isolates were identified as Cunnighamella echinulata var. nodosa (Zygomycota: Mucorales) based on morphological characteristics and sequencing of ITS region of ribosomal DNA. This is the first report of the fungus on melon weevil worldwide.

Keywords: Entomopathogen, ITS rDNA locus, melon weevil, Zygomycetes

In this study, capability of diversity indices were investigated at the alpha and beta levels in Saraliabad rangelands, Golestan province. The required vegetation and environmental data were gathered randomly in 1 square meter sampling units. Species diversity was calculated using two indices of Shannon Wiener and Simpson in PAST software. The results of the cluster analysis in PC-ORD 5 showed 5 distinct ecological groups at 37% dissimilarity level. The Shannon diversity index at beta level showed that the whole area is one cluster. Whereas, Shannon index at alpha level recognized three clusters according to the plant compositions. In this study, it is suggested to use beta diversity index for studying between plant communities in large scale.

Keywords: Alpha diversity, Beta diversity, Species diversity

Four one-liter plastic bottles were used as anaerobic micro-digesters in a study to compare biogas production from mixtures of jackfruit waste co-digested with cow paunch and poultry droppings. It was found out that the mixture slurry of jackfruit waste and cow paunch (JW-CP) had the highest cumulative biogas yield of 610.20 ml/TMS than the mixture of jackfruit waste and poultry droppings (JW-PD) with the cumulative biogas yield of 550.66 ml/TMS within the 30 days hydraulic retention time (HRT). It was also observed that JW-CP produced less cumulative biogas of 298.28 ml/TMS within the first 10 days of observation compared with JW-PD with 380.80 ml/TMS within the same period. This is predicated with the fact that poultry droppings degrade faster than cow paunch. It was also observed that gas production reduced seriously in mono-digested substrate jackfruit waste alone (JW-A); cow paunch alone (CP-A); and poultry droppings alone (PD-A)) because of lack of synergistic nutrients with biogas yield of 343.56m/TMS, 265.65ml/TMS and 314.60ml/ TMS respectively. Result also show that JW-A had increase in gas yield from 343.56ml/TMS to 610.20ml/TMS within 30 days observation when co-digested with cow paunch an increase of about 77.56%; also, increased cumulative biogas yield from 314.60ml/TMS to 550.66ml/TMS when co-digested with poultry droppings within the same 30 days observation period. The trend of cumulative biogas yield at the end of the 30 days HRT was JW-CP > JW-PD >JW-A > PD-A > CP-A. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of biogas production from jackfruit waste co-digested with cow paunch and poultry dropping in batch mode.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion, Biogas, Co-digestion, Cow paunch, Jackfruit, Poultry droppings