No abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between bacterial numbers found within the bedding material and those found upon the teats in cattle herds bedded on three different bedding materials; sand, sawdust and straw. The bacteria to be studied are known to be responsible for the development of mastitis within the mammary glands resulting in reduced milk quality and poor welfare conditions for the animal. Samples for the analysis were collected under natural housing conditions from the bedding and from the teats of a representative sample of each herd. These were then plated to isolate numbers of the environmental bacteria, Streptococcus uberis and Escherichia coli (E. coli), and to conduct a total viable count for comparison. Statistical analysis showed that six of the nine relationships tested resulted in a P<0.05. The microbial test results also showed that the straw bedding hosted the lowest total number of bacteria at 8.5 x 10. When compared with the incidence of mastitis infections within the herd, the straw bedding had a considerably higher number of infections than from the sand or sawdust with thirty-one cases recorded. In conclusion, minimising pathogen growth within the bedding material, results in lower numbers of pathogens being transmitted onto the cow's teats thereby reducing the possibility of intrammamary infections. It is recommended that further work is carried out through repeating the study on a larger number of farms to identify whether the relationship between the bacterial numbers exists on further farms. In addition to this, it is also recommended that further analysis of the pathogens responsible for the mastitis within the herds be undertaken to identify if the environmental pathogens are responsible for these intrammamary infections.

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This study aimed at improving the growth performance of young snails (Archachatina marginata) fed different levels of protein. This study was carried out between the months of January 2020 to April 2021 at the Helvy Farms-WVED Cameroon located at Station Bamenda. 150 growing snails Archachatina marginata snails weighing between 2.5g and 4.5g, full shells free of any form of injury carefully selected from among the many snails hatched and fed same diets for a period of four weeks before the commencement of the study were monitored for growth performance. These one-month-old snails were randomly allotted to four treatments of different protein levels (16%CP, 18%CP, 20%CP and 22%CP) and a control (natural plant feed) replicated three times with 10 snails each per replicate for a period of 10months during which data were collected. The snails were monitored daily, watered and fed, the snails in treatments T1, T2, T3, T4 received both the natural plant feed (30 g) and the formulated diet (30 g) meanwhile, the snails in the control received 60g of the natural plant feed daily. At the beginning of the trials and after every two weeks, the snails were weighed with a 0.01g precision balance and the shell lengths and widths taken using a vernier caliper of 0.02mm accuracy. The results showed that, average weight gain (39.17 ± 1.45 g), average feed intake (42.54 ± 1.65 g), percentage survival (90.00 ± 0.00), shell length gain (7.66 ± 1.45 cm) shell weight gain (5.73 ± 0.96 cm) were significantly higher (P<0.05) in snails fed 22% protein. We can therefore recommend that 22% CP be included in the diet of Archachatina marginata breeding snails for better growth performance.

Livestock health is a vital production factor in all production units. In the developed world, a lot of resources are invested in preventive measures unlike in the developing countries where resources are geared toward curative methods of livestock health care. Smallholder livestock production is an important sector of Cameroon’s economy, therefore for a sustainable production there should be a good livestock health care system. In Cameroon, livestock production is entrusted to poor, old and illiterate’s farmers with their indigenous methods of keeping livestock healthy and productive. For Cameroon to increase production, ethno veterinary medicine, which is adapted and affordable to smallholder breeders, should be developed for a sustainable smallholder production. Over 90% of the materials used in ethno veterinary medicine are from plants, hence there is an urgent need to conserve and propagate the medicinal plants already identified for fear of extinction due to random harvesting. Since ethno veterinary plants will be continuously used by smallholder livestock producers, there is a need to development ethno veterinary gardens for a sustainable use and conservation of these plants’ species for future generations. More research is needed to evaluate and validate the ethno veterinary properties of these plants’ preparations through collaboration between the ethno veterinary practitioners and researchers.