2015

The study was conducted at three upazilla of Patuakhali during the period from the 1^st February, 2013 to the 31^st July, 2013 to evaluate the flowering and fruiting behavior of velvet apple germplasm. Twelve velvet apple germplasm were selected from three locations (DD 01, DD 04, DD 06, and DD 09 from Dumki; DD 02, DD 05, DD 08 and DD 10 from Mirzaganj; DD 03, DD 07, DD 11 and DD 12 from Patuakhali sadar upazilla) by field survey. The age of plant varied from 10 to 25 years having satisfactory growth and good health. A lot of variations in different parameters were observed among the germplasm. Flowering season started from 22 February and continued up to 20 April. Percentage of fruit setting ranged from 65.15 % to 92.26 % in DD 07 and DD 01, respectively. Required time for fruit maturation ranged from 116 days (DD 01) to 129 days (DD 07). Single fruit weight varied from 198.10 g (DD 12) to 238.90 g (DD 01). The highest number of seeds (8) was found in DD 07 while DD 01 was seedless. The length and diameter of fruit ranged from 6.72 cm (DD 07) to 8.04 cm (DD 01) and 6.09 cm (DD 07) to 7.27 cm (DD 01), respectively. The maximum edible portion (87.33 %) was recorded in seedless germplasm DD 01, while it was the lowest (42.00 %) in DD 07.

 Avian influenza (AI) is considered as one of the greatest global threat for the poultry industry that the animal health sector has ever had to face. It is primarily an infectious disease of birds caused by influenza virus Type A strain. The major concern now is that a highly pathogenic strain (H5N1) has also been shown to transmit to humans and has the potential to be fatal. Since March 2007, outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) have been occurring in commercial and backyard poultry in Bangladesh. Good bio-security practices can help reducing the risk of spreading and controlling the disease. This investigation describes the bio-security practices of small scale poultry holders (500-2000 birds/ farm) of Gazipur district, their knowledge and attitude in prevention and control of avian influenza. This was assessed using prescribed questionnaire. This study has been conducted on 100 poultry raising farmers through household-based individual interviews. Though respondents had different opinions on the magnitude of AI in their respective area, almost everyone realized AI is a big problem for Bangladesh. Generally, the respondents were not aware of the common infection sources such as, sick poultry, their pens, cages, backyard poultry, wild animals, migratory birds etc. Most of the interviewed small scale farmers in this area were not aware about the strict bio-security process like segregation of diseased birds, cleaning and disinfection of premises to prevent AI. Although there was a basic knowledge about the dangers and economic consequences of AI, there needs to be an updating of information on sources of infection, symptoms and prevention techniques, as well as an understanding of the cross species dangers of the infection. The study has, to a large extent, successfully drawn up a picture of how Bangladeshi small holder farmers have perceived and responded to AI and what they have understood and what practices they are taking against AI in their respective areas.

Sheep is the common name for a group of grazing mammals that may be either wild or domesticated; the domesticated varieties are amongst the most widely distributed types of domestic animal, found in nearly all countries. Bangladesh is a densely populated developing country and its economy is primarily based on agriculture. The current study was designed for isolation, identification and characterization of bacterial flora from the upper respiratory tract of sheep. Thirty (30) apparently healthy sheep were selected at the adjacent areas of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) for this experiment. Swab samples were collected from nasal swabs (10), lung swabs (10) and tracheal swabs (10). All samples were subjected into inoculated on to bacteriological media (nutrient broth, nutrient agar, Salmonella-Shigella agar, MacConkey agar, blood agar, brilliant green agar). Furthermore, all of the bacterial isolates were characterized by Gram’s staining, biochemical tests (sugar fermentation tests, catalase test, coagulase test, indole test, MR-VP test), antibiotics sensitivity tests and pathogenicity tests. None of the isolated Bacillus, E. coli and Staphylococcus spp. was found to be pathogenic. Isolated Pasteurella spp. were found to be pathogenic as observed in different experimental models and showed a degree of variation in antibiotic drug sensitivity test. Ciprofloxacillin was sensitive to all of the isolated bacteria. Through the bacteria that were isolated from various organs of apparently healthy sheep is normal micro flora, however these may act as primary pathogen and may produce diseases when the sheep are immunologically suppressed due to severe stress conditions.

The antifungal activity of methanolic extracts of leaves of Tridax procumbens was studied. Fungal strains Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus ocraceous were selected for the study. Disc diffusion method was applied against the selected fungal strains and compared to the drug ciprofloxacin to observe the antifungal activity of the methanolic extracts of Tridax procumbens leaves. The present study demonstrated that the disks of methanolic extracts of T. procumbens showed effective inhibition against A. niger and A. ocraceous compared to ciprofloxacin. The results of the current investigation suggest that the methanolic extracts of T. procumbens leaves can be used for the treatment of the diseases caused by the tested organism and it has significant scope to develop a novel broad spectrum of antifungal herbal formulations.

The trial was conducted at Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) regional station, Baghabari, Shajadpur, Sirajgonj to determine the biomass yield, morphological characteristics and nutritive value with the effect of different sources of organic manure such as biogas slurry, broiler litter and layer litter for fodder production. Significant (P<0.05) difference was observed in biomass yield among different treatment group. Biomass yield (t/ha) was in order of biogas slurry (26.80)> fertilizer (26.56)> broiler litter (22.34)>layer litter (22.20). This study also showed that DM yield and survival percentage were also significantly (P≤0.05) differed among the treatments. The DM% in all groups was mostly similar but DM yield (t/ha) was the highest (3.94) in biogas slurry and the lowest (3.13) in layer litter. The cost (Tk/ha) was significant (P<0.01) difference among the treatment group. The highest cost (15856Tk/ha) was observed in fertilizer group and the lowest (5705 Tk/ha) was biogas slurry group. There was no significant (p>0.01) effect of different organic manures on nutritive value of BLRI Napier-4. It may be suggested that biogas slurry may be used as sources of fertilizer for fodder cultivation.