We examined the survivorship of Anopheles gambiae s.l. Giles (Diptera: Culicidae) larvae and habitat productivity in three major habitat types in the western Kenya highlands. The age-specific distribution was determined for larvae and pupae, and survivorship curves were constructed. Larval-to-pupal survivorship was 6.8% in drainage ditches, 4.3% in cow hoofprints, and 1.8% in disused goldmines,...

Low-cost, pasture-based forage systems are a viable management alternative for small to moderately sized dairy farms in the Northeast United States. A whole farm analysis was conducted to evaluate the potential long-term environmental impact and economic benefit of varying the level of concentrate supplementation on seasonal grazing dairies. A representative dairy farm was simulated with variou...

The objective of the present study is to investigate the effects of irrigation water salinity,cow manure levels and different planting methods on saffron quality compounds includingcrocin (coloring strength), picrocrocin (bitterness) and safranal (aromatic strength). A split-splitplot arrangement was conducted in complete randomized block design with irrigation watersalinity levels (0.45 (fresh...

Accumulation of sawdust and sugarcane bagasse can cause serious problems for the environment. In this study, we examined the growth and reproductive performance of Eisenia foetida in cow manure, cow manure + sugarcane bagasse (4:1, V/V) and cow manure + sawdust (4:1, V/V) waste and its effects on CO2 evolution. The results showed that the weight gain for E. foetida (live weight) per gram of dry...

Lactation increases considerably the demand for amino acids over that required for basal needs. The demand imposed varies with the quantity of milk produced and, between species, with the protein content of milk. Using data on milk composition from Blaxter (1989) and assuming milk production of 60, 1000 and 50 000 ml/d for a rat, human subject and dairy cow respectively, the ideal protein requi...

An Excel (v 7.0) spreadsheet was created to simplify balancing winter diets (energy and protein), estimating feed needs and evaluating the impact of winter feeding programs on annual cow cost and calf break-even price by using inputs readily found on the farm (e.g., forage test results, accounting and production records). The spreadsheet operates on the substitution method and requires the foll...

Somatic cell count (SCC) is an indicator of both udder health and milk quality and is measured at an animal level through national milk recording schemes. The objective of this study was to assess the animal and herd factors contributing to elevated SCC (i.e. poorer milk quality). Test day records (n = 2,658,928) from 519,456 cow lactations obtained between 2007 and 2011 were included in the an...

Johne's disease ('paratuberculosis') is a chronic, infectious, wasting disease that affects dairy cattle. Estimation of its impact on herd productivity and corresponding economic loss on US dairy operations was part of the USDA National Animal Health Monitoring System's (NAHMS) 1996 national dairy study. Johne's-positive herds experience an economic loss of almost US$ 100 per cow when compared ...

Investigation was conducted on (90) serum samples, (47) samples were collected from aborted cows and (43) samples from non-aborted cows from Babylon governorate, there were 7, 14.89% cases infected with Brucellaabortus by iELISA test while 10, 21.27% and 9, 19.14% cases infected with Brucellaabortus by Complement fixation test and rose Bengal plate test respectively from infected cow, there wer...