Studies were conducted to evaluate maize cob cultured with white-rot fungi: Pleurotus ostreatus and P. pulmonarius for 21 days as a means of improving their nutritive value for ruminant animals. The substrates obtained after biodegradation were analyzed for the chemical composition, mineral content and in vitro fermentation. The results of the chemical composition showed an increase in the crude protein from 3.89% (control) to 10.11% for Pleurotus ostreatus treated maize cob (POC) and 7.46% for P. pulmonarius (PPC) treated maize cob. On the contrary, the crude fiber (CF) decreased significantly (p<0.05) from 28.69 % in the control to 19.53% in POC and 21.48% in PPC. Decrease in the values of neutral detergent fiber (hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin) and acid detergent fiber (lignin and cellulose) were detected. The value obtained for cellulose ranged from 28.70 to 34.70%; hemicellulose ranged from 19.05 to 23.18% and acid detergent lignin ranged from 12.44 to 16.88%. There were significant (p<0.05) increase in the Calcium, Magnesium, Iron and Manganese contents of the treated substrates compared with the untreated. The fractional fermentation rate (c h -1 ) was highest for PPC followed by POC. The fermentation of the insoluble but degradable fraction (b) increased significantly (p<0.05) from 37.00% in the control to 52.33% in POC and 49.33% in PPC. Gas volume at different incubation period was highest in POC. Methane decreased from 15 ml to 11 ml in the control and PPC, respectively. There were significant (p<0.05) differences among the treated and untreated substrates in terms of estimated metabolisable energy (ME), short chain fatty acid (SCFA) and organic matter digestibility (OMD). The estimated metabolisable energy (ME) ranged from 6.63 to 8.59 MJ/Kg DM for the control and POC. The POC showed the highest values for SCFA 0.9517 (µm) and OMD (60.75%). The result showed that fungi treated maize cobs had potential of being converted to value added ruminant feed.

A cross sectional study was conducted from June 2016 to August 2017 to identify the widespread of ectoparasites in indigenous chickens and its associated economic significance in randomly selected Local Government Councils and States in Nigeria.  A total of 1025 indigenous chickens were examined out of which 90.7% were infested with one or more ectoparasites species. Four types of ectoparasites genera were encountered in this study, 17.0% of the total chickens examined were infested with only one genera while 73.9% were infested with two or more different genera. Among the ectoparasites encountered, lice infestation (85.8%) was the most prevalent followed by mite (70.4%), Flea (27.3%) and tick (6.2%) in descending order of widespread. Ten different species of ectoparasites, namely Menopon gallinae, Lipeurus caponis, Goniodes gigas, Cnemidocoptes mutans, Dermanyssus gallinae, Epidermoptes species, Laminosioptes cysticola, Megninia species, Echidnophaga gallinacean and Argas persicus were identified in the study. Menopon gallinae (50%) was most frequently encountered while Megninia species (2.7%) was least prevalent. The findings of this study showed that ectoparasites infestations were highly prevalent among indigenous chicken flocks, which may likely affect their optimum productivity. Routine prevention and control of ectoparasites should be encouraged in the study areas.Key Words: Indigenous chickens, ectoparasites, infestations, selected local government councils and states in Nigeria.

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Three West African dwarf rams fitted with rumen cannula, were used in a completely randomized design for degradation of crude protein (CP) of groundnut cake (GNC), Panicum maximum, rumen epithelial scraping (RES), and diets containing increasing levels of RES. Concentrate diets were formulated such that 0% (A), 50% (B), and 100% (C) of groundnut cake were replaced with RES in a diet containing 20% GNC. The soluble fraction a, insoluble fraction b and rumen undegradable protein (RUP) obtained for GNC, grass and RES varied significantly (P<0.05). Significant (P<0.05) variations were also observed for a, b and RUP of the test ingredients. Effective degradability (ED) of CP in GNC, grass and RES (at outflow rate of 0.02) were 38.19, 19.63 and 2.13 respectively. The ED values obtained for the diets decreased significantly (P<0.05) with increased inclusion of RES. Panicum maximum and RES contained significantly higher (P<0.05) level of RUP when compared with GNC. The RUP values obtained for the diets were not influenced (P>0.05) by the inclusion of RES.

Solid fermentation using celllolytic fungi: Pleurotus sajor-caju and Pleurotus florida for upgrading of sugarcane bagasse to value-added ruminant feed were investigated. The fermentation of the substrate lasted for 21 days after which the changes in the chemical and mineral composition, and the in vitro gas production were evaluated. The results obtained showed an increase in the crude protein (%) from 6.43 (control) to 9.82 for Pleurotus sajor treated substrate (PSB) and 10.05 for Pleurotus florida treated substrate (PFB). The treatment effect on crude fiber, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) was significant. Fungal treatment decreased crude fiber (%) from 37.49 (control) to 31.67 (PFB), NDF (%) from 65.92 (control) to 53.34 (PSB), ADF (%) from 49.94 to 34.79 (PSB), and ADL (%) from 15.13 to 9.74 (PSB). Most of the major and trace minerals were higher in the untreated bagasse with the exception of phosphorus (0.15g/kg), magnesium (1.80g/kg), potassium (2.70g/kg) and zinc (21.60g/kg). The degradation of the insoluble but degradable fraction (b, ml) was higher in the control (19.00) followed by PSB (16.00). The estimated organic matter digestibility (%), short chain fatty acid (µ, mol) and metabolisable energy (MJ/Kg DM) increased from 38.77-50.06, 0.56-0.75 and 5.33-6.80 respectively. The gas volumes at 24h, 48h and 72h as affected by treatment was significant (P<0.05) with more volumes of gas produced in the treated bagasse. The result obtained in this study showed that fungal treatment of bagasse improved the nutrient contents and digestibility.