Browsing by Author "Marufu, Munyaradzi C."

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    Sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza juncea var. sericea) for sustainable small ruminant production : feed, helminth suppressant and meat preservation capabilities
    (Elsevier, 2020-10-10) Mahachi, Leo N.; Chikwanha, Obert C.; Katiyatiya, Chenaimoyo L. F.; Marufu, Munyaradzi C.; Aremu, Adeyemi O.; Mapiye, Cletos
    Small ruminants significantly contribute towards livelihood, food and nutrition security for people living in semiarid low-to-middle-income countries. However, their productivity is largely constrained by feed shortages, prevalence of gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) and postharvest meat losses. The current review explores the possibility of using sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza juncea var. sericea) as a natural helminth suppressant, feed ingredient and meat preservative for improving small ruminant health, meat production and shelf life. Sericea lespedeza has moderate contents of crude protein, fibre, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and diverse composition of physiologically active substances such as condensed tannins, sterols and flavanols from which it derives nutritional, anti-bloat, helminth suppressant, antimicrobial and antioxidative properties. Overall, the present review demonstrates the potential of feeding sericea lespedeza to small ruminants as a sustainable means of controlling GIN and enhancing meat production and shelf life, while also reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, more research is required to determine optimal feeding strategies and doses for reducing GHG emissions while improving health, meat production and quality of small ruminants.
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    Towards a new phenotype for tick resistance in beef and dairy cattle : a review
    (CSIRO Publishing, 2019-07-04) Burrow, Heather M.; Mans, Ben J.; Cardoso, Fernando F.; Birkett, Michael A.; Kotze, Andrew C.; Hayes, Ben J.; Mapholi, Ntanganedzeni; Dzama, Kennedy; Marufu, Munyaradzi C.; Githaka, Naftaly W.; Djikeng, Appolinaire
    About 80% of the world’s cattle are affected by ticks and tick-borne diseases, both of which cause significant production losses. Cattle host resistance to ticks is the most important factor affecting the economics of tick control, but it is largely neglected in tick-control programs due to technical difficulties and costs associated with identifying individualanimal variation in resistance. The present paper reviews the scientific literature to identify factors affecting resistance of cattle to ticks and the biological mechanisms of host tick resistance, to develop alternative phenotype(s) for tick resistance. If new cost-effective phenotype(s) can be developed and validated, then tick resistance of cattle could be genetically improved using genomic selection, and incorporated into breeding objectives to simultaneously improve cattle productive attributes and tick resistance. The phenotype(s) could also be used to improve tick control by using cattle management.Onthe basis of the present review, it is recommended that three possible phenotypes (haemolytic analysis; measures of skin hypersensitivity reactions; simplified artificial tick infestations) be further developed to determine their practical feasibility for consistently, cost-effectively and reliably measuring cattle tick resistance in thousands of individual animals in commercial and smallholder farmer herds in tropical and subtropical areas globally. During evaluation of these potential new phenotypes, additional measurements should be included to determine the possibility of developing a volatile-based resistance phenotype, to simultaneously improve cattle resistance to both ticks and biting flies. Because the current measurements of volatile chemistry do not satisfy the requirements of a simple, cost-effective phenotype for use in commercial cattle herds, consideration should also be given to inclusion of potentially simpler measures to enable indirect genetic selection for volatile-based resistance to ticks.