Gender-Differentiated Contribution of Goat Farming to Household Income and Food Security in Semi-arid Areas of Msinga, South Africa

Small-scale goat farming can significantly contribute to livelihoods, particularly in semi-arid areas where rainfall is erratic and crop farming is too risky. The study investigated the gendered-differentiated contribution of goat farming to household food income and food security in the semi-arid area of Msinga in South Africa using focus group discussions, key informant interviews and a questionnaire survey of 241 households. Using the Household Food Insecurity and Access Scale to measure the household food security of goat farming households, descriptive statistics and the Chi-square statistics, results showed a significant relationship between food security and the household socio-economic parameters such as the education level of the household head (p < 0.05), the gender of the household head (p < 0.05) and the total household income (p < 0.01). The Tobit regression model showed that the main factors determining food security at the household level were education levels, gender and the total household income. Female-headed households were less food secure than male-headed households because they did not have reliable employment to provide adequate and nutritious food for their households. Therefore, empowering women is crucial to ensuring food security because unstable employment opportunities lead to households’ failure to cope with food insecurity adequately. Goat farming did not contribute to household food security because it generated little income as goat sales were generally low, with a mean of 2.1 for male headed-households and 1.0 for female headed-households in 12 months (p < 0.05). Farmers obtained little income from goat farming because goat flock sizes for most households did not increase due to poor nutrition, diseases, predation, and theft. With the household food basket cost reported to be ZAR3 400/US$188, a household would need to sell up to four goats each month to survive solely on goat farming. However, where goat flock size was small, households limited goat sales to maintain the potential to increase their flock size. Empowering women by promoting rural education may increase their chances of being exposed to better management options, acquiring a better understanding of goat management practices, and making informed decisions, thereby contributing to the improvement of food security. Enhancing goat production is essential to increase flock sizes, as this enables farmers to make more sales, thereby improving food security. Therefore, extension workers need to help farmers better manage and utilize goat farming to their full potential. Finally, rural households need to reduce their autonomy and dependency on supermarket goods and become more agri-oriented.

Pathomorphology of Concurrent Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) and Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia (CCPP) in a Cross Breed Goat Flock

Background: Respiratory diseases are very common in goats and cause severe economic loss to the rural poor farmers. Proper identification of the actual pathogen(s) responsible for the respiratory infections is critical for timely and proper management of those diseases. The present communication describes the spontaneous occurrence of concurrent Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) and contagious caprine pleuro-pneumonia (CCPP) in a goat flock.Methods: An outbreak of respiratory disease in a goat flock consisting of 45 Tellicherry cross bred animals in varying age groups was investigated during the month of February 2019 in Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu. Information of disease outbreak and flock details were collected. Samples from live (nasal, ocular and rectal swabs) and dead (lung, spleen and mesenteric lymph nodes) were collected for detection of Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) and Mycoplasma capricolum subsp.capripneumoniae (MCCP) antigen by polymerase chain reaction. Tissues from heart, lung, liver, kidney, intestine, spleen and lymph node were collected in 10% neutral buffered formalin for histopathological examination.Result: Out of 45 goats at risk, 23 showed clinical signs and 17 died of disease conditions with morbidity, mortality and case fatality rate of 51.11%, 37.77% and 73.91% respectively. PPR was confirmed by RT-PCR with M gene specific primers (191bp) and CCPP was confirmed by PCR with 16S rRNA gene fragment (316 bp). Affected animals showed clinical signs of pyrexia, anorexia, marked depression, mild erosions in the oral mucosa, nasal and ocular discharge, coughing and diarrhoea. Necropsy examination revealed congested oral mucosa, extensive pleuritis with large fibrin clots on lung surface and greyish pink consolidation of cranial lobes and anterior parts of diaphragmatic lobes. On section, consolidated areas were granular in appearance. Histopathology of lung revealed thickening of pleura, interlobular septa and alveolar wall by fibrin deposition and infiltration of inflammatory cells. Pulmonary congestion, infiltration of neutrophils and mononuclear cells, syncytial cell formation with eosinophilic intracytoplasmic and intranuclear inclusions were also noticed. Visceral organs showed degenerative and necrotic changes.

Phenotypic characterization and production potentials of exotic goat breeds and their crosses in Rajshahi metropolitan area of Bangladesh

This study was conducted to investigate the morphology, morphometry and production performances of exotic goat breeds and their crossbreds available at Boalia, Shahmokhdum, Rajpara and Matihar thana under Rajshahi metropolitan city. A total of 73 animals’ information was collected from 39 exotic goat flock owners using a semi-structured questionnaire through interviewing of farmers, visual observation and on-spot measurement of the animals. Exotic goat breeds and their crosses were found predominantly higher (>93%) in Rajshahi Metropolitan areas where less than 7% Black Bengal goats were identified. In most cases, deviation of breed specific coat color due to crossing between different types of crossbreds among the populations was noted. The genotype frequencies of Beetal, Kalahari, Sirohi, Jamunapari, Anglo Nubian and their crossbreds and Black Bengal goats were found to be 50.68, 15.07, 13.70, 8.22, 8.22 and 4.11%, respectively. The average mature live weight (12 to 18 months) of those corresponding exotic genotypes in male and female respectively were found 46.88±5.66, 56.07±8.03, 32.67±8.09, 59.54±7.96 and 64.06±4.67 kg, and 21.70±2.24, 22.41±3.64, 17.37±4.05, 24.5±0.5 and 27.47±6.85 kg. Irrespective of genotypes, the mean age at puberty, lactation length, litter size, kidding interval and days open were found 167.50±3.49 days, 76.61±4.90 days, 1.71±0.10, 224.44±5.56 days and 52.64 ± 2.30 days, respectively. However, none of the aforementioned traits differed significantly (P>0.05) among the five different exotic genotypes. In conclusion, this study provides some basic information on the performances of exotic goat breeds or their crossbreds at Metropolitan areas under intensive management conditions which could be utilized for designing proper breeding plan in their conservation and simultaneous improvement. Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2020. 49 (2): 100-107

Putative Novel Atypical BTV Serotype ‘36’ Identified in Small Ruminants in Switzerland

We identified a putative novel atypical BTV serotype ‘36’ in Swiss goat flocks. In the initial flock clinical signs consisting of multifocal purulent dermatitis, facial oedema and fever were observed. Following BTV detection by RT-qPCR, serotyping identified BTV-25 and also a putative novel BTV serotype in several of the affected goats. We successfully propagated the so-called “BTV-36-CH2019” strain in cell culture, developed a specific RT-qPCR targeting Segment 2, and generated the full genome by high-throughput sequencing. Furthermore, we experimentally infected goats with BTV-36-CH2019. Regularly, EDTA blood, serum and diverse swab samples were collected. Throughout the experiment, neither fever nor clinical disease was observed in any of the inoculated goats. Four goats developed BTV viremia, whereas one inoculated goat and the two contact animals remained negative. No viral RNA was detected in the swab samples collected from nose, mouth, eye, and rectum, and thus the experimental infection of goats using this novel BTV serotype delivered no indications for any clinical symptoms or vector-free virus transmission pathways. The subclinical infection of the four goats is in accordance with the reports for other atypical BTVs. However, the clinical signs of the initial goat flock did most likely not result from infection with the novel BTV-36-CH0219.

Towards objective measurement of reproductive performance of traditionally managed goat flocks in the drylands of Ethiopia

Reproductive performance is a key determinant for the efficiency of goat production. Regular monitoring of reproductive efficiency is essential to assess management and to avoid financial losses due to poor performance. To allow more objective measurement and comparisons over time, we propose a novel quantitative approach for defining annual reproductive performance by combining common performance indicators into a goat flock index. Commonly used reproductive performance measures were collected from 242 goat flocks in four districts in dryland of Ethiopia between July 2018 and February 2019. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to identify biologically meaningful latent components that explain annual reproductive output (ARO) and annual reproductive wastage (ARW). Together with the remaining annual reproductive performance measures, the ARO and ARW components were included in a PCA to derive an algorithm for a goat annual reproductive performance index (G-ARPI). One component representing variation in kidding interval, PCARO1 and PCARW1 was extracted and normalized to a 10-scale value. The flocks were classified into good performing (15.63%) with index > 8.5, moderately performing (48.21%) with index values ranging from 6.5 to 8.5 and poor performing (36.16%) with index < 6.5. Good performing flocks have higher scores for reproductive output measures, lower scores for reproductive wastage and lower kidding interval. The proposed G-ARPI can be used as an objective tool to compare reproductive performance between management systems, evaluate the costs of poor reproductive management and will be useful for economic models that aim to identify the most cost-efficient intervention option and monitor the impact of interventions. We present here the index for goat production in dryland systems in Ethiopia; the approach can easily be adapted to other production systems elsewhere.

Isolation and Cultivation of a New Isolate of BTV-25 and Presumptive Evidence for a Potential Persistent Infection in Healthy Goats

Recently, several so-called “atypical” Bluetongue virus (BTV) serotypes were discovered, including BTV-25 (Toggenburg virus), in Switzerland. Most “atypical” BTV were identified in small ruminants without clinical signs. In 2018, two goats from a holding in Germany tested positive for BTV-25 genome by RT-qPCR prior to export. After experimental inoculation of the two goats with the BTV-25 positive field blood samples for generation of reference materials, viremia could be observed in one animal. For the first time, the BTV-25-related virus was isolated in cell culture from EDTA-blood and the full genome of isolate “BTV-25-GER2018” could be generated. BTV-25-GER2018 was only incompletely neutralized by ELISA-positive sera. We could monitor the BTV-25 occurrence in the respective affected goat flock of approximately 120 goats over several years. EDTA blood samples were screened with RT-qPCR using a newly developed BTV-25 specific assay. For serological surveillance, serum samples were screened using a commercial cELISA. BTV-25-GER2018 was detected over 4.5 years in the goat flock with intermittent PCR-positivity in some animals, and with or without concomitantly detected antibodies since 2015. We could demonstrate the viral persistence of BTV-25-GER2018 in goats for up to 4.5 years, and the first BTV-25 isolate is now available for further characterization.

Identification of Genomic Characteristics and Selective Signals in a Du’an Goat Flock

The Du’an goat is one of the most important farm animals in the Guangxi Autonomous Region of China, but the genetic basis underlying its adaptive traits has still not been investigated. Firstly, in this study, the genomes of 15 Du’an goats from a breeding farm were sequenced (mean depth: 9.50X) to analyze the patterns of genetic variation. A comparable diversity (17.3 million single nucleotide polymorphisms and 2.1 million indels) was observed to be associated with a lower runs of homozygosity-based inbreeding coefficient and smaller effective population size in comparison with other breeds. From selective sweep and gene set enrichment analyses, we revealed selective signals related to adaptive traits, including immune resistance (serpin cluster, INFGR1, TLR2, and immune-related pathways), body size (HMGA2, LCOR, ESR1, and cancer-related pathways) and heat tolerance (MTOR, ABCG2, PDE10A, and purine metabolism pathway). Our findings uncovered the unique diversity at the genomic level and will provide the opportunities for improvement of productivity in the Du’an goat.

Epidemiological Observations on Infectious Pathology of Goats in the Northeast Area of Romania

The goat flock in our country is steadily increasing, so that if 1072013 animals were reported in 2007, they were 1804478 in December 2016 that reflecting the growing interest of breeders for this species. This paper aims to highlight the dynamics of infectious pathology in the goat population in the Northeast region of Romania during 2014-2017, the factors that led to the emergence of diseases, as well as the prevention and control measures. The most common diseases are those of the respiratory, digestive, reproductive and locomotors apparatus produced by infectious pathogens such as Pasteurella spp., Artrithis Encephalitis Virus, Orf Virus, Mycoplasma agalactiae, Dichelobacter nodosus and Fusobacterium necrophorum. Research has led to establishment of the prevalence of infectious diseases in goats, so the results show that the most affected breeds are specialized breeds: Saanen and French Alpine, kids being more sensitive compared to adult animals. Knowledge of the epidemiological situation is the basis for proposing specific control and / or prevention plans that allow the design, management and evaluation of goat health programs.