Browsing by Author "Salako, A.E"

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    Discriminant analysis of morphometric differentiation in the West African Dwarf and Red Sokoto goats
    (Department of Animal Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi., 2010-04-14) Yakubu, Abdulmojeed; Salako, A.E; Imumorin, I.G; Ige, A.O; Akinyemi, M.O
    This study evaluated the usefulness of morphological characteristics to distinguish two important indigenous goat breeds in Nigeria. Fifteen morphometric traits were measured on West African Dwarf – WAD (n = 160) and Red Sokoto – RS (n = 142) goats that ranged in age of up to 19 months and were reared extensively in villages in southern and northern Nigeria. Univariate analysis revealed that the body measures of RS goats were significantly higher than those of WAD goats. Canonical discriminant analysis gave better resolution, as only seven external morphological characteristics of strong discriminating power were extracted. The most discriminant variable between the two goat populations was rump height, followed in order by body length, horn length, face length, chest girth, neck circumference and head width. The discriminant function obtained correctly classified 100% of individuals from the sample of known goat populations. The classification accuracy of the function was cross-validated using the split-sample method, and indicated a 99.7% success rate (99.4% of WAD goats and 100% of RS goats were correctly assigned to their source genetic group). This study indicates that a discriminant tool may be used successfully in the field to separate WAD and RS goats. The present results could be complemented by molecular characterization using DNA markers for better management and conservation strategies of genetic resources for indigenous goats.
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    EFFECTS OF FEED RESTRICTION ON PERFORMANCE, CARCASS YEILD, RELATIVE ORGAN WEIGHTS AND SOME LINEAR BODY MEASUREMENTS OF WEANER RABBITS
    (Department of Animal Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi., 2008-04-14) Yakubu, Abdulmojeed; Salako, A.E; Ladokun, A.O; Adua, M.M; Bature, T.U.K
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    EFFECTS OF GENOTYPE AND HOUSING SYSTEM ON THE LAYING PERFORMANCE OF CHICKENS IN DIFFERENT SEASONS IN THE SEMI-HUMID TROPICS
    (Department of Animal Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi., 2007-04-15) Salako, A.E; Yakubu, Abdulmojeed; Ige, A.O
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    Multivariate Analysis of Spatial Patterns of Morphological Traits in West African Dwarf Goats in Three Agro-ecological Zones of Nigeria
    (Department of Animal Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi., 2010-12-07) Yakubu, Abdulmojeed; Salako, A.E; Imumorin, I.G
    A multivariate analysis of phenotypic trait distribution across agro-ecological zones (tropical rainforest, guinea savanna and sudan savanna zones) in Nigeria was carried out on 302 West African Dwarf (WAD) goats. Most of the morphometric traits of rainforest and guinea savanna goats were higher (P<0.05) than those of the sudan savanna zone. Abdominal circumference, rump width, ear length, chest depth and cannon circumference were the most discriminating variables among the goats of the three zones. Based on Mahalanobis distances, the least differentiation was observed between rainforest and guinea savanna goats. Only 24.38% of rainforest and 22.86% of guinea savanna goats were classified into their source population. The relatively low morphometric distances as well as intermingling between the three goat populations indicate that they are homogenous and share similar genetic identities. This could aid in their conservation and formulation of appropriate breeding and selection strategies.
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    PATH COEFFICIENT ANALYSIS OF BODYWEIGHT AND MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF NIGERIAN INDIGENOUS CHICKENS
    (Department of Animal Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi., 2009-04-14) Salako, A.E; Yakubu, Abdulmojeed
    In this study, body weight and eight biometric traits namely, comb height, comb length, beak length, body length, neck length, shank length, chest circumference and thigh circumference of 238 adult Nigerian autochthonous chickens were subjected to multivariate analysis. The birds reared under the traditional scavenging system, were randomly selected in Nasarawa State, north central Nigeria. The investigation aimed at determining the explanatory variables that most effectively influenced the body weight of indigenous chickens of both sexes using path coefficient technique. Sex-associated differences (P<0.05) were observed in all the studied traits, with superior values recorded for males. Phenotypic correlations between body weight and body dimensions in cocks ranged from 0.55-0.97. Correspondingly, a range of 0.46-0.85 was obtained in hens. The path analysis revealed that thigh circumference had the strongest direct effect on body weight of male chickens, followed by comb height and body length (path coefficient = 0.681, 0.325 and 0.193 respectively). However, the direct effects of comb length, beak length, shank length and chest circumference on body weight were non-significant. A different trend was observed in females, where the influence of comb height on body weight was greatest, followed by thigh circumference, body length, chest circumference and shank length (path coefficient = 0.289, 0.277, 0.249, 0.246 and 0.180 respectively). Comb length, beak length and neck length did not significantly influence body weight. The optimum linear model in males included forecast indices such as thigh circumference, comb height and body length, with a determination coefficient (R2) of 0.952 and determination coefficient of error of 0.048. The corresponding indices in female birds were, comb height, thigh circumference, body length, chest circumference, and shank length, with R2 value of 0.820 and determination coefficient of error of 0.180. These models could be useful in weight estimation in the field and for selection purposes.
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    Predicting the effects of non-synonymous amino acid variants on protein function in prolactin receptor of cattle and chicken using the MEGA-MD algorithm
    (Department of Animal Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi., 2016-04-15) Salako, A.E; Yakubu, Abdulmojeed
    Prolactin receptor (PRLR) is a single transmembrane protein belonging to the cytokine receptor super family through which prolactin plays a wide variety of physiological roles such as mammary gland development, milk production, reproduction and immune function in vertebrates. Many non synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) at the PRLR locus in vertebrates are suspected to impact protein function. This study, therefore, aimed at predicting the likelihood of non synonymous (amino acid change) coding SNPs to cause functional impact on protein at the PRLR locus of cattle and chicken using the MEGA MD bioinformatics tool. In cattle, sixteen out of the first twenty non synonymous amino substitutions obtained: V5A, T9V, T12I, N18S, T19V, C20S, L26S, E32K, F34V, R49E, T52A, S61T, R66K, M72I, I79K and H87Y were beneficial, one was likely neutral, two were deleterious while one was likely deleterious. However, in chicken, L131V, E132N, A134T, V135L, I157A and T161S mutations were found harmless, three were likely neutral, eight were deleterious while three were likely deleterious. This was substantiated by the Evod (–10.70 65.32 versus 0.00-80.03), PolyPhen 2 (0.000- 0.859 versus 0.000-0.990) and SIFT (0.16-1.00 versus 0.00-1.00) values in cattle and chicken, respectively. Theoretically, the harmful amino acid substitutions would result in altered spatial structure and functions of the PRLR molecules. Further studies, however, are required to determine whether the beneficial amino acid substitutions obtained will affect the milk yield, reproductive and immune functions of Nigerian livestock species
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    Qualitative Traits Characterization of Yoruba and Fulani Ecotype Indigenous Chickens in Derived Savannah Zone of Nigeria.
    (Department of Animal Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi., 2012-03-12) Yakubu, Abdulmojeeb; Ige, A.O; Salako, A.E; Adeyemi, S.A
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    VARIMAX ROTATED PRINCIPAL COMPONENT FACTOR ANALYSIS OF THE ZOOMETRICAL TRAITS OF UDA SHEEP
    (Department of Animal Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi., 2011-04-17) Salako, A.E; Yakubu, Abdulmojeed; Abdullahi, A.R
    A study was conducted to determine the interdependence among the conformation traits of 359 Uda rams using principal component factor analysis. The body measurements were withers height, body length, heart girth, rump height, rump width, rump length, face length, foreleg length and shoulder width. Age group of animals was a significant (p<0.05) source of variation for the studied traits. The various constituent parts of the body developed at varying rates. From the factor analysis, with varimax rotation of the transformation matrix, two principal components were extracted, which accounted for 86.3% of the total variance. The first principal component alone explained 80.8% of the variation, and tended to describe general size, while the second principal component had its loadings for meat traits (rump width, shoulder width and rump length). The two extracted principal components could be considered in selection programmes to obtain animals with better conformation using fewer measurements