Frederick Neser

Village-based indigenous chicken production system in north-west Ethiopia

Surveys using both purposive and random sampling methods was carried out in four zones of north-west Ethiopia to describe the village-based poultry production systems and constraints in order to design future improvement and conservation strategies. The majority of the respondents were female (74.16%). This indicated that most of the time the women, whether in male-headed or female-headed households, are responsible for chicken rearing while the men are responsible for crop cultivation and other off-farm activities. About 99% of the respondents gave supplementary feeds to their chickens. Almost all farmers provided night shelter for their chickens, in part of the kitchen (1.36%), in the main house (39.07%), in hand-woven baskets (7.29%), in bamboo cages (1.51%) or in a separate shed purpose-made for chickens (50.77%). The major causes of death of chickens during the study were seasonal outbreaks of Newcastle disease (locally known as fengele) and predation. It is important to collect and conserve local poultry breeds before they are fully replaced by the so-called improved breeds. As most of the poultry production is managed by women, focusing on training and education of women will enable not only the improvement of poultry production but also family planning and the overall living standards of the family and the community.

Phenotypic variation of native chicken populations in northwest Ethiopia

Seven indigenous chicken populations were identified and characterized from four administrative zones in northwest Ethiopia. A total of three hundred chickens were characterized under field conditions for qualitative and quantitative traits following standard chicken descriptors. Large phenotypic variability among chicken populations was observed for plumage color. About 25.49, 22.3, and 16.4 % of the chickens have white, grayish and red plumage colors, respectively. The rest showed a considerable heterogeneity like black, multicolor, black with white tips, red brownish and white with red striped plumage colors. The following characteristics were also displayed: plain head shape (51.18 %), yellow shank color (64.42 %) and pea comb (50.72 %). About 97.52 % of the chickens did not have feathers on their legs. Variations were also observed on quantitative characters such as shank length, egg size and body weight and other reproductive traits characterized on intensive management system.

Factors influencing reproductive performance of cows from different Nguni ecotypes in southern Mozambique

The objective of this study was to assess the reproductive performance of two Nguni ecotypes (Nguni and Landim) raised in a subtropical environment to enhance strategies for livestock development and restocking programmes within the southern African region. Reproduction data collected between 1996 and 2009 from 365 cows of the Landim and Nguni ecotypes were analysed. From the results, ecotype, place of birth, year and season of birth/calving had significant effects on age at first calving (AFC) and calving interval (CI). Overall means for AFC and CI were 1,071u2009±u2009166xa0days and 432u2009±u200985xa0days, respectively, while average calving rate was 88.0u2009±u20094.7%. Heifers born in the dry season had lower AFC than heifers born in the wet season. Heifers born at Impaputo Breeding Center were the youngest at first calving, followed by the South African born ones. Heifers of the Landim ecotype also calved younger than heifers of the Nguni ecotype. CI was shorter in wet seasons (main breeding seasons) than in dry seasons. Interaction between ecotype and year–season (pu2009<u20090.005) showed that, in wet and dry seasons, Nguni cows had shorter CI than the Landim. This study demonstrates for the first time a possible genotype-by-environment interaction between Nguni ecotypes. This might aid future cattle development and restocking programmes in southern Africa taking into consideration the adaptation of indigenous genotypes and climate change.

Genetic diversity of Afrikaner cattle in southern Africa

The Afrikaner is an indigenous South African breed of “Sanga” type beef cattle along with breeds such as the Drakensberger and Nguni. Six composite breeds have been developed from crosses with the Afrikaner. Additionally, Afrikaner has been the base from which exotic breeds were established in South Africa through backcrossing. The study examined genetic diversity of Afrikaner cattle by genotyping 1257 animals from 27 herds in different geographic areas of South Africa and Namibia using 11 microsatellite markers. Multiple-locus assignment, performed using the Bayesian clustering algorithm of STRUCTURE, revealed three underlying genotypic groups. These groups were not geographically localized. Across herds and markers, the proportion of unbiased heterozygosity ranged from 0.49 to 0.72 averaging 0.57; mean number of alleles per locus ranged from 3.18 to 7.09, averaging 4.81; and allelic richness ranged from 2.35 to 3.38, averaging 2.67. It is concluded that a low inbreeding level of 2.7% and a moderate to high degree of variation still persists within the Afrikaner cattle breed, despite the recent decline in numbers of animals.

Factors influencing the reproduction and production performance of the Nguni cattle ecotypes in South Africa

The objective of this experiment was to assess the reproductive and productive performance of Nguni cattle distributed among 11 farms in four regions of South Africa. Only data of registered Appendix A to Stud Proper Nguni animals from the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa’s database were used. Data were collected from 2061 dams and 3285 calves between 1990 and 2009. Overall means for age at first calving (AFC) and calving intervals (CI) were 33.79 ± 4.90 months and 400.29 ± 78.70 days, respectively. Dry season-born heifers had lower AFC than wet season-born heifers. Dry seasons 4 and wet seasons 1 had lower CI than seasons 2 and 3, indicating that conceptions take place between December and May. Average growth weights of calves were 24.87 ± 3.13, 151.91 ± 21.09, 169.25 ± 23.68 and 237.96 ± 27.34 kg at birth (BW), weaning (WW), 12xa0months (YW) and 18xa0months of age, respectively. BW was higher in dry seasons 4 and wet seasons 1; WW and YW were higher in dry than in wet seasons. This is the first study demonstrating that performance of Nguni cattle is influenced by ecological regions of the dam’s origin, year-season of birth/calving, breeder’s management, parity and herdbook status, confirming that environment–genotype interactions influence the performance of Nguni cattle in southern Africa. This stimulated a follow-up study on the use of geographic information systems to specifically identify factors influencing the reproductive and productive performance of Nguni cattle in southern Africa.