Browsing by Author "Petrus, Ndilokelwa P."

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    Characterisation and production performance of indigenous chickens in northern Namibia regions
    (2011) Petrus, Ndilokelwa P.
    Farmers in all the studied regions regard poultry production as their primary source of domestic animal protein, with the domestic fowl being the most widely kept poultry species. Other uses are participation in socio - cultural ceremonies, sellingfor money and gifts. The extensive system of management is the most frequent. This system requires minimal costs, but mortalities due to disease and predation are very high, and chicken production is low and irregular. The study confirmed the use of local knowledge by some farmers (13.7) in treating diseases. However, about (64) of the interviewed rural farmers did not treat their chickens. Numbers of birds per household in the entire region visited ranged from ten to fifteen per household. The adult body weights of females were found to range from 0.95 - 1.25 kg and adult males between 1.5- 2.0 kg. Scavenging system was the mode offeeding although birds were also supplemented with unknown quantities of pearl millet and it done ones. Rudimentary housing was available for indigenous chickens in 78 of the total households visited during rainy season only. The external characteristics of indigenous chickens in the four Northern regions showed the absence of autosomal dominant gene (I) that encoded for white plumage colour. Hence the study concluded that white leghorn might not have been introduced in Namibia. The single comb typewas the commonest of the comb type observed in the chickens surveyed. 53.9 of the chickens had single comb, while 38.0 and 9.6had rose and pea combs respectively. Average heterozygosity in the sub population was 0.0453 for Oshana, 0.1384 for Omusati, 0.0718 for Ohangwena a 0.221 for Kavango and these results indicated high level of inbreeding in the population. Principal component analysis was used to determine the genetic relationship of chickens between and within the four regions. Both scatter plot and phyllogenetic tree formed four major groupings and three sub-groupings with some overlapping. Based on this, the Kavango chickens were separated from the other Northern regions chicken populations. The same was also seen on the comb types where chickens from Kavango exhibited only a single comb type while the rest of the regions had the combinations of rose, pea and single combs. The experiment on the production performance and growth response of growing indigenous chickens was done for 32 weeks using 3 dietary protein levels. The experimental chickens were offered diets and water ad libitum with high and low protein level whereas the controls were fed on locally- available feed materials. Feed intake and mortality were recorded weekly. Mortality of chicks aged between 1-8 weeks of rearing was (28), those aged between 9-21 weeks (14.4) and those aged between 21 -32 weeks (5.6). There was no significant difference (P0.05) between body weight of chickens fed on high and those that were fed on low protein diet. However, the body weight of chickens fed on low and high protein were not significantly (P0.05) higher than those in the control group. The results of the analysis showed that varyingdietary protein level had a significant effect (P0.05) on nutrients deposited in chicken carcass especially a crude protein, energy and ash. Key words: Characterization, Production system, disease, indigenous chicken, feeding and blood typing
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    Coping with Climate Change Challenges by Feeding Indigenous Chickens under Intensive Systems in Namibia
    (OMICS Group, 2012) Petrus, Ndilokelwa P.; Mpofu, I.; Shikongo-Nambambi, Martha N.
    Floods that have hit Northern Communal Areas (NCAs) of Namibia in recent year pose feeding and other challenges to indigenous chicken. Indigenous chickens constitute a major source of livelihoods among rural farmers. The objective of this study was to determine the potential of intensive feeding of high and low plane of protein nutrition to indigenous chickens as one way of coping with environmental challenges caused by annual floods in the NCAs. Adequacy of protein inclusion in the diet is a viable option for improving the growth of small rural owned chickens. Two hundred and four indigenous chickens were subjected to two levels of plane of nutrition namely high and low plane of protein nutrition. At the low level, the protein was 18% in the 1-8 week age group, 16% in 9-22 week age group and 12% in the 23-36 week age. Feeding at high plane of protein nutrition was as follows; 23% in the 0-8 week age group, 20% in the 9-22 week age group and 16% in the 23-36 week age group. The control group was fed according to the Namibian poultry industry standards. The results showed significant and highest responses between the treatments in weeks 1-8 of age. Between 9-22 weeks, chicken mortality lowest at 5.6% in the high plane of nutrition group compared to 14.4% in the low plane of nutrition. The birds in control group consumed significantly (P<0.05) less feed than those fed with the high and low protein diet. Intensive feeding has a potential of alleviating nutritional stress of indigenous chickens under adverse environmental conditions. Farmers however, have to respond by cropping more intensively for the feed resources to be available.
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    Relationship of age and live weight to linear body traits in female intensively reared Boschveld chicken in Namibia
    (2019) Petrus, Ndilokelwa P.; Kangootui, K.; Kandiwa, Erick; Madzingira, Oscar; Mushonga, Borden
    The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between linear body measurement and age and body weight in indigenous female chickens of the Boschveld breed in Namibia. Thirty-five chickens were reared from day old to 18 weeks of age at the university farm. Neck length, shank length, comb length, keel length, chest length, chest girth, wing length, beak length and body length.
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    The role, isolation and identification of Vibrio species on the quality and safety of seafood
    (Academic Journals, 2012) Shikongo-Nambambi, Martha N.; Petrus, Ndilokelwa P.; Schneider, Martin B.
    Seafoods in their natural environments are associated with a variety of microorganisms. Fish shelf life reduction results from microbial metabolism, mainly by Gram negative bacteria that produce chemical compounds responsible for bad odour, texture and taste. Shelflife is estimated by performing total viable bacterial counts at ambient and refrigeration temperatures. The type and number of bacteria present on seafood depends on the microbial composition of the surrounding waters, on the intrinsic factors, extrinsic factors, processing, and implicit factors and on the microbial interactions within the fish itself. Although, sea food safety assessment is preferably determined by detecting indicator organisms; such as Enterobacteriaceae and coliforms, none of these groups fulfil all requirements that guarantee food safety necessitating direct detecting of relevant pathogens. Vibrio species are part of the bacteria genera associated with seafoods borne diseases. Prompt and accurate detection and identification methods of pathogens are imperative to determine the product compliance with seafood microbiological criteria. Although cultural methods have long been used in detecting human pathogens including Vibrio species in fish, these methods are time consuming and sometimes inaccurate. Also some pathogens have the propensity to change into the Viable but non culturable (VBNC) state in unfavourable environments. The use of molecular methods is hampered by drawbacks, such as inter species 16S rRNA sequence similarity and that some strains carry multiple copies of the 16S rRNA gene. A combination of classical, numerical taxonomy and Multi locus sequence analysis (MLSA) methods are promising to give absolute resolution between closely related Vibrio species.