Animal Research International

3055 – 3064an

Authors: UGWU, Francis Stephen Ogbonna and ONWUZURIKE, Janet Chibuzo

Control of Anopheles vector is effective in halting malaria. Entrapping them by deceit with semiochemicals they must respond to could be a sustainable control approach but poverty and other impediments prevent the use of such luring strategy in Sub Saharan Africa. Elaeis guineensis could be an alternative accessible and cheap unexplored source of semiochemicals for mosquitoes control. We evaluated the response of Anopheles mosquitoes to categories of palm wine. Anopheles larvae were selected from mosquito juveniles collected from egbaite. At emergence, female mosquitoes were subjected to a 2-way olfactometer to evaluate their responses to odours from 4 categories of palm wines. Fresh up-palm wine attracted 50.00 ± 5.77% of mosquitoes, its sub-category, ebacha up-wine, attracted 45 %. Fresh down-wine attracted 70 % of vectors as against 68.33 % of ebacha down-wine. The foregoing categories compared to the control attracted significantly more mosquitoes (respectively, p = 0.007; p = 0.005; p = 0.002; p = 0.001). Comparison of fresh up-wine with fresh down wine showed that significantly more mosquitoes visited down-wine (t = - 5.060, p = 0.007). Ebacha up-wine and ebacha down-wine comparison revealed that significantly more mosquitoes visited ebacha down-wine (t = - 4.950, p = 0.008). The preference indices calculated for the 4 categories of palm wine ranged from 57.27 ± 14.90 to 85.98 ± 7.73. Palm wines are attractive to Anopheles mosquitoes. Down-wine was a more effective attractant. Up wine lost its activity faster than down-wine. Palm wines could sustainably be employed in malaria vector control programmes.

3070 – 3081

Authors: KHONDOWE, Paul, MUTAYOBA, Benezeth, MUHAIRWA, Amandus and PHIRI, Elliot

A study comparing the effects of low energy diets on liver HSP70 and iNOS gene expressions and blood indices of three Tanzanian chicken ecotypes was conducted. Four weeks old hens belonging to Kuchi (KU), Ching’wekwe (CH) and Morogoro medium (MM) ecotypes were allocated to 9 pens in a 3 x 3 factorial design, with three replicates. They were fed 3 diets containing 40, 55 and 0% less energy than prescribed. Only KU 55% restriction groups had marked up-regulation (p<0.05) of HSP70 after 3 weeks. After 7 weeks, expression levels of HSP70 for KU and CH 55% restriction groups increased, while those for MM restriction groups remained unaltered. The iNOS levels were notably up-regulated for KU and CH 55% restriction groups after 3 and 7 weeks, respectively. Significant elevations (p<0.05) of serum corticosterone were only noted for KU restriction groups after 1 and 3 weeks. Serum uric acid was significantly increased (p<0.05) in all ecotypes and groups but triglycerides were markedly reduced as determined after 1, 3 and 7 weeks. There were no significant differences between controls and restricted groups in Hb and Hct levels except for the CH ecotype, which showed lower (p<0.05) Hb and Hct levels after 5 and 7 weeks for both restricted groups. Results of this study show that low energy diets induced stress in chickens, and ecotype-specific tolerance was manifested through changes in liver HSP70, iNOS and blood parameters, with MM showing better tolerance at lowest energy levels and KU being least tolerant.

3090 – 3100

Authors: ADEROLU, Ademola Zaid, LAWAL, Muyideen Owonire, AWOBAJO, Funmileyi Olubajo, OLANIYAN, Stephen and BELLO, Yetunde

This study investigated the optimum dietary energy requirement of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus juveniles fed 35 % crude protein level and the effects on growth, nutrient performance, haematology and biochemical indices. The control diet A had 2800 kcal while, treatments B, C, D and E had 3000, 3200, 3400 and 3600 kcal energy inclusion respectively. Diets were fed to triplicate groups of eight catfish (51 ± 0.56 g) per tank twice daily to satiation for 8 weeks. Significant effects of graded energy levels across diets (p<0.05) on growth and nutrient utilization were recorded relative to diet A. The optimal dietary energy was within the range (3000 – 3200 kcal/Kg) on nutrients utilization and growth parameters. The least value (1.33 ± 0.17) and the best feed conversion ratio was recorded with fish fed 3000 kcal/kg while the protein efficiency ratio was significantly high (p<0.05) at 3200 kcal/kg (52.80 ± 3.33). There was no significant difference (p>0.05) recorded across diets in the measured blood parameters and fish organs. Some biochemical parameters like total protein, albumin, cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein were not significantly affected by dietary energy inclusion levels, other stress enzymes, like superoxide dismutase, was significantly different between diets with diet A and diet E respectively. Though diet A had the best-estimated investment cost (N 48.30), diet C had the highest values for both net profit (N 50.68) and benefit-cost ratio (N 1.79). Therefore, feed at 35 % CP would require between 3000 – 3200 kcal/Kg for optimum performance.

3112 – 3119

Authors: ONYISHI, Grace Chinenye and AGUZIE, Ifeanyi Oscar Ndimkaoha

Gastrointestinal helminth parasites fauna of fish from Ebonyi River was investigated from February to July 2016. Fish caught from the river were sacrificed and gastrointestinal parasites isolated. A total of 121 fish comprising (and number examined, n) Distichodus engycephalus (n = 28), Labeo senegalensis (n = 34), Auchenoglaris occidentalis (n = 14) and Synodontis clarias (n = 45) were examined out of which 78(65.0%) were infected. S. clarias had the highest prevalence of infection 37(82.2 %), followed by L. senegalensis 21(61.8 %) and D. engycephalus 14(50.0 %). The lowest prevalence of infection was observed in A. occidentalis 6(42.9 %). The prevalence of infection was significantly different between the fish species (χ2 = 11.713, p = 0.008). The parasites isolated were of three species, Camallanus sp., Neoechinorhynchus africanus and Acanthocephalus sp. Overall, the prevalence of the three parasites was in the range of 30 – 35 %. Overall, Camallanus sp. had the highest mean intensity [4.41 (3.95 – 4.89, 95% CI)]. Mean intensities of N. africanus and Acanthocephalus sp., were only slightly lower: [3.17 (2.81 – 3.48, 95% CI)] and [3.21 (2.79 – 3.66, 95% CI)] respectively. Infection was not significantly dependent on the sex of fish or the season of sampling (p>0.05). Helminth parasite infection prevalence is high in some fish species of Ebonyi River, Enugu State, Nigeria. This high prevalence of helminths infection may compromise the productivity of the fish species infected.