Ks Huque

Genetic Diversity of Red Chittagong Cattle Using Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA Markers

Problem statement: Red Chittagong Cattle (RCC) is a potential genetic resource in Bangladesh having dairy potentialities, high resistance to disease and survive harse environmental condition while require low input supply. This resource is now disappearing due to indiscriminate crossing with other local and exotic cattle. To conserve this resource, find out the genetic diversity of RCC is prime concern. Approach: To determine the genetic variation of Red Chittagong Cattle and to find out the genetic present status for their future improvement and conservation program. The experiment was conducted in the Molecular Genetics Laboratory under Animal Production Research Division, Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI), Saver, Dhaka, Bangladesh. DNA was extracted from 100 RCC blood samples and the extracted DNA was observed by gel electrophoresis. Randomly 16 primers were tested among them three primers were matched and found polymorphic. Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RAPD-PCR) analysis was carried out using DNA samples of RCC. Only unambiguous, reproducible and scorable polymorphic fragments were taken into consideration for analysis. Data were analyzed by using a computer program POPGENE (Version 1.31). Results: The highest and the lowest level of gene frequency value (0.9590 and 0.0440) were observed in allele 0 and 1 with BMC1222-2 locus and only one monomorphic locus (OPB07-1) was found. The Nei’s gene diversity and Shannon’s information indicated that the highest and the lowest diversity were found in Anwara (0.2925) and Chandonish (0.2147) respectively. The pair-wise mean genetic distance value ranged (below diagonal) from 0.0092-0.0279. The minimum distance was found between Satkania and Chandonish. On the other hand maximum distance was found between RCC BLRI and Potia. The dendrogram segregated the five population of RCC into two clusters: RCC BLRI and Anwara is one cluster whereas Satkania, Chandonish and Potia made another cluster. Conclusion: The genetic diversity of RCC is relatively higher for a prescribed breed and therefore, have an opportunities to improve them using selective breeding like ONBS.

Study of chemical composition and nutritional values of vegetable wastes in Bangladesh

Highlights • Determination of chemical composition and contamination in vegetable wastes.• Development of value addition technique of vegetable wastes into marketable feed.• Feeding of processed vegetable wastes to bulls by replacing usual concentrate.

Feeding of processed vegetable wastes to bulls and its potential environmental benefit

The study was conducted with the objectives to quantify year round availability of different vegetables waste (VW) in a wholesale market and to determine the inclusion level of a processed VW (VWP) in the diets of bulls. The daily VW biomass availability at Kawran bazaar, Dhaka, Bangladesh was quantified by weighing the vegetable supply and their wastes by visiting 2 days in a week. Concurrently, VW of cucumber, bitter gourd, spotted gourd, brinjal, pumpkin, potato, tomato, ladies finger, and snake gourd representing 0.21, 0.18, 0.17, 0.16, 0.09, 0.07, 0.06, 0.03, and 0.02 as fresh fractions, respectively were blended, dried and stored while adding rice polish and common salt at 200 and 20 g/kg DM, respectively; it was tested in bulls as an ingredient of concentrate mixture. Four dietary groups, each of 6 bulls, with initial average live weight (LW) of 85.47 ± 17 kg, were fed fresh German grass (Echinochloa polystachya) ad libitum supplemented with 4 different concentrates containing 0, 10%, 20% and 30% VWP at the rate of 1% of LW for 89 days. The availability of VW biomass of the market was 42.51 t/d and recycling of them as feed, instead of using landfills, might reduce annual methane emission by 0.43 Gg. The inclusion of VWP in the diet up to 9.7% of DM, or 0.30% of LW of bulls showed no significant effect on the DM intake, digestibility, growth performance and health status of bulls. The dietary DM intake represented 3.10%, 3.09%, 3.20% and 3.14% of LW resulting in daily gain of 302, 300, 312 and 344 g, respectively. The digestibility of DM of diets was 56.9%, 62.8%, 62.8% and 63.4%, respectively. It was concluded that VWP may be included at a level of 9.7% of the diet (DM basis) or 0.30% of LW of bulls.

Study of Intake, Growth and Nutrient Utilization of Growing Bulls Fed Forages as Sole Diets

The study was conducted to rank Napier, jumbo, maize and rice straw on the basis of their yield, production cost, nutritional value and productivity of native growing bulls. Thirty native bulls (Bos indicus) of 135 (+28/-28) kg live weight (LW) were randomly allocated to five treatments in a completely randomized design and fed silage of maize (Zea mays; Hybrid, PG-1000), jumbo (Sorghum bicolor; Hybrid Sugar graze), Napier (Pennisetum perpureum; hybrid) and urea molasses straw of whole straw (UMS-WS) and UMS of stover (UMS-S) for a period of 90 days. The dry matter (DM) intake of Napier, jumbo, maize, UMS-WS and UMS-S was 2.08, 1.79, 2.01, 1.92 and 2.08 % LW, respectively which differed significantly (P<0.01). The DM digestibility of UMS-WS or UMS-S (45.49 and 44.37 %) was significantly (p<0.01) lower than that of Napier, jumbo and maize (50.22, 53.01 and 58.75 %, respectively). The LW gain was greater (p<0.01) in bulls fed maize silage (273.3 g/d) followed by Napier silage (81.4 g/d), UMS-S (75.3 g/d), jumbo silage (39.9 g/d) and UMS-WS (39.6 g/d). Considering the cost of beef production, maize may be ranked on the top followed by Napier, jumbo, UMS-S and UMS-WS, respectively which may be taken in profitable beef production system.