This study reports a survey of Marek’s disease virus (MDV) antibody done in 21 selected poultry flocks in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states of southwestern Nigeria. A total of 315 serum samples were examined using the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique. Marek’s disease virus antibody was present in 88.3% of the serum samples, while 11.7% were negative. Various ranges of flock mean optical densities (OD) were observed, with 8 flocks having a low (0.310-0.550 nm) level, medium (0.551-0.750 nm) level was observed in another 8 flocks, while high (0.751-0.950 nm) level was observed in 3 flocks. The OD level was very high (0.951-1.200 nm) in 2 flocks. Optical density levels also increased with age of the flocks. This shows that even after vaccination against Marek’s disease, not all flocks acquire over 90% positivity.Keywords: Poultry, chicken, Marek’s virus, antibody, Nigeria
Growth performance of the Ross broiler chicks during an 8th week growing period was studied, in the humid tropical environment of Imo State, Nigeria, using growth data derived from 100 broiler chicken, consisting of 57 males and 53 females. Weekly mean body weight of males and females ranged between 44.24 and 1986.36 g and 43.68g and 1648.53 g respectively. The weekly body weight gain ranged between 103.33 and 414.24 g for males and 102.21 and 340.00 g for females. Differences between mean body weight of males and females became significant (p
Eight young West African Dwarf (WAD) goats of relatively the same age (about 11 months), weighing 8 – 10 kg each were used in this study to determine the effect of supplemental feeding on WAD goats using grass mixtures of Panicum maximum, Pennisetum purpureum and Andropogongayanus at equal ratio. These were supplemented at 1:1 ratio with palm kernel cake (PKC), brewers grain (BG), wheat offal (WO) to produce diets A, B and C respectively, while Diet D served as control, containing only the three grass mixtures at equal ratio. The animals were fed ad libitumduring the experimental period of 10 weeks. The quantity of feed consumed each day was noted and weight observations made on the animals biweekly. The body weight observation on the WAD goats due to the effect of the diets showed that there were significant differences (p
This study investigated the occurrence of cryptosporidium and cryptosporidiosis in calves from Jos, Northern Nigeria. Two hundred fecal samples were collected from the calves, recruited for an all year round study (January to December 2007). Fecal samples were obtained directly from the rectum of each animal. The samples were processed based on the formol ether concentration technique and the saturated sodium chloride flotation method. Cryptosporidium spp. was detected using the modified Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) method. Significant relationships (p>0.05) between the prevalence and distribution of cryptosporidium and other enteric pathogens in the calves examined were recorded. Cryptosporidium species recorded the highest prevalence in the calves (38.5%), while coccidian had 21.2%, and Monizia expansa and Neoascaris vitulomum recorded 18.6%. There was a significant difference (p>0.05) in the prevalence of cryptosporidium species across sex and ages of the calves. Prevalence decreased with age. Infection was more common in animals aged 1-10 to 21-30 days, while in relation to sex, the female calves recorded slightly higher prevalence (38.7%) than the Males (38.3%). Keywords: Cryptosporidium, cryptosporidiosis, coccidian calves, Nigeria
Crop contents may serve as important sources of Salmonella carcass contamination within processing plants. This study, evaluated the effect of feed withdrawal before the slaughtering time on Salmonella existence in the crops of broilers from ten commercial broiler flocks reared inindividual houses. Crops were collected aseptically from 50 randomly selected broilers in each flock before feed removal and at the end of the feed withdrawal period, immediately before capture and transport to the processing plant. Similarly, the ceca were collected before and after feed withdrawal in six of the ten broiler flocks. The presence of Salmonella in the crops and ceca was determined by enrichment culture in tetrathionate broth followed by culture on XLT4 and Brilliant green agar. The incidence of Salmonella in crop contents increased significantly (p< 0.05) in five of the ten flocks during feed withdrawal. The total number of Salmonella contaminated crops from all ten flocks increased significantly (p< 0.005) from 11/500 (2.2%) before feed removal to 55/499 (11.0%) at the end of feed withdrawal. The increased incidence of Salmonella in the crop contents was associated with an increased tendency of the broilers to consume contaminated rearing house litter during feed withdrawal. The incidence of Salmonella in the ceca increased none significantly from 19/300 (6.3%) before feed removal to 25/300 (8.3%) at the end of feed withdrawal. Theresults indicate that the incidence of Salmonella crop contamination may increase as much as five fold during pre-slaughter feed withdrawal and represent a critical pre-harvest control point in reducing Salmonella entry into the processing plant. Keyword: Broiler chickens Salmonella, pre-slaughter time, crop content, ceca
