Annual Research & Review in Biology

The aim of this paper was to study rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) meat consumption in Côte d’Ivoire. To achieve this goal, a survey is conducted among consumers through a survey-valuation approach. Survey was carried out in 13 municipalities of Abidjan’s district between September 2017 and May 2018. The survey collected data from 1950 respondents targeted in the Abidjan’s district. In each municipality, 150 persons were interviewed, mainly in areas of great meeting such as car and bus stations, markets, restaurants and around schools. The method adopted in this work was random sampling. The data collection was done by self-counting (respondents completed the questionnaire themselves) and interview-assisted methods for each respondent. Results showed that rabbit meat is much appreciated by a large part of population (74.36%). The main buyers of rabbit meat are restaurant managers (35%) and households (35%). Reasons of non-consumption of rabbit meat are unavailability (49%), absence in eating habits (22%) and high cost (20%). Consumers ranked rabbit meat in third place compared to other meats (chicken, and sheep) consumed in Abidjan. 49.12% found rabbit meat more expensive than other meats. Therefore, the adoption of effective trade strategies such as entrepreneurial, training, promotion in mass media, competitive pricing and market diversification, could make rabbit meat available and reduce the cost of sale. This could encourage the population to include rabbit meat more in their menus.

The chemical composition of three different fractions (dichloromethane, methanol, benzene) obtained from the leaves of Cassia occidentalis via column chromatography was studied. The aim of the research is to identify the fraction with the highest composition of insecticidal compounds which may be responsible for the insecticidal activity of the plant. The leaves were dried and milled into fine powder, they were first extracted by maceration in various solvents and thereafter the resulting extracts were purified using column chromatography. Fractions obtained from the columns were analysed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GCMS). The GC-MS results revealed a total of nineteen compounds, prominent among them were hexadecane (45.10%) and heptadecane 8-methyl (13.61%) in the dichloromethane fraction. In the methanol fraction we had; pentadecanoic acid 14-methyl ester (15.50%) 9-octadecanoic acid (48.76%) and methyl stearate (27.6%). The benzene fraction contained; decane (4.70%); hexadecane (21.60%) and nonadecane (11.65%). The presence of decane, methyl stearate, hexadecane, 9-octadecanoic acic methyl ester, pentadecanoic acid -14 methyl ester, heptadecane 8-methyl and nonadecane in the plant extracts may be responsible for the insecticidal properties of Cassia occidentalis and should be of considerable interest to the development of novel natural insecticdes from this plant. All three fractions contained important insecticidal compounds, thus any of the solvents could be utilised in the formulation of potential biopesticides from C. occidentalis.

The study was carried out to determine marketing margins in the marketing of garri in Cross River Central Agricultural Zone, Nigeria. The study employed primary data which were obtained directly from garri marketers and analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics and marketing efficiency model. A three-stage (multi-stage) sampling technique was used in the selection of respondents and using 10% proportionality a sample size of 196 respondents was obtained from the sample frame of 1960. Analysis of the result showed that garri marketing in the area is greatly influenced by the socio-economic characteristics of garri marketers. Furthermore, the result indicated that marketers in Ofodua and Ochon markets recorded the lowest margin of ₦200 per bag of garri. This is against the ₦300 margin recorded by marketers in Apiapum, Okuni, Nko and Akparabong markets, ₦400 for markets in Ugep and Ikom Urban and ₦600 for the market in Agoi, respectively. The average marketing margin for garri in the markets was ₦378. Producers of garri sell it to the wholesalers in bulk sometimes through intermediaries like the village agents or directly to them. Retailers obtain the product from wholesalers and retail directly to final consumers also sometimes passing through movement agents and cooperative consumer outlets before reaching the final consumer. The mean marketing efficiency for garri across the study area is 0.78. This is slightly lower than the average efficiency level for Ugep, Apiapum and Ikom urban markets (0.90, 0.8. and 0.90, respectively). The following were recommended: trading activities and attributes of garri traders should be regulated by governments to ensure efficiency in the business, government, corporate bodies and NGO’s should assist in the rehabilitation of feeder roads to guarantee easy movement of garri from the producers to the consumers and traders in garri should be provided with training by government to increase their efficiency in the distribution of garri.

The recent increase in antibiotic resistance demands the discovery of novel antibiotics. Hence, this project was designed to explore novel antibiotic producing Actinomycetes from mud nest of wasps. For this, 9 types of active mud nests of wasp available in Rajshahi, Bangladesh were collected. For each nest, nest material was aseptically homogenized with a 1X saline solution and then diluted homogenate was plated in Actinomycetes Isolation Agar medium to isolate Actinomycetes. Total 27 purified cultures of bacteria were isolated from 9 collected mud nests of wasp. To collect the extract of mud nest, homogenate was filtered and centrifuged. Then, the extracts were assessed for their efficacy to inhibit bacterial growth with disc diffusion method. However, only extract of nest number 9 (N9) showed antimicrobial efficacy against tested bacteria, E. coli. Then antimicrobial efficacy of the 27 isolates was assessed using an agar cross-streak method and disc diffusion method. It was found that among the 27 isolates; only the isolate N9C2 was able to inhibit the growth of studied bacteria, E. coli. Then, 16S rDNA was isolated, amplified and sequenced from the isolate N9C2 for its identification. According to NCBI blast, the highest similarity of sequence (99%) of 16S rDNA of the isolate N9C2 was shown to that of Streptomyces coelescens strain AS 4.1594. Then, the isolate N9C2 was characterized. It was found that the isolate was a gram positive filamentous bacterium. It was found that the isolate N9C2 was resistant to Amoxicillin, Ampicillin and Cephalexin while it was sensitive to Tetracycline, Erythromycin and Ciprofloxacin. It was also found that the isolate N9C2 can grow optimally at pH 7 and at 37ºC. Finally, it can be concluded that mud nests of wasp is a vital source of antibiotic producing Actinomycetes such as Streptomyces coelescens strain AS 4.1594.

Aim: This study investigated relatedness among three indigenous chicken types using morphological features and morphological trait interdependence within three indigenous poultry species in Nigeria.

Study Design: A complete Random sample design was employed in this study to investigate morphological relatedness.

Place and Duration of the Study: Birds of reproductive age were sampled from 12 states across Nigeria between February 2013 and November 2015.

Methodology: Morphological traits were measured according to the FAO description. Nearest neighbor analyses (hierarchical cluster) were done using SPSS 23.0 version.

Results: The nearest neighbor analyses showed that higher degree of relatedness exists between the wild type chicken and the frizzle feather indigenous chicken type in Nigeria. Traits interdependence was observed between and among the different morphological traits within the different poultry species.

Conclusion: The characters measured could be of useful genetic importance that may play significant role as markers for selection or breeding programs for improved productivity under free range or scavenging feed resource-based production systems.