A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding processed kidney bean meal (PKBM) by replacing soybean meal (SBM) on fertility, hatchability, embryonic mortality and chick quality of white leghorn (WL) hens. A total of 210 white leghorn hens (180 layers and 30 cocks) with uniform body weight (BW) (1121.17 g ± 24.92) and age (6.5 months) were randomly distributed into 15 pens and assigned to five treatments (i.e., T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5). A total of 195 eggs collected from all the treatment birds were used for the analysis. The feeds of the treatments were SBM substituted by PKBM at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% levels for T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5, respectively. Replacement of SBM with PKBM in the diet did not affect the fertility, hatchability and embryonic mortality. Chick length (15.63, 15.00, 15.33, 15.03 and 14.33(SEM ± 0.02)) and chick weight (34.13, 34.20, 33.13, 33.06 and 32.47(SEM ± 1.39)) for T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively, were significantly (P<0.05) lower for T5 than the rest treatments. Visual assessment of chick quality is lower for treatments containing higher proportion of PKBM than treatments containing lower proportion of PKBM. Therefore, as it affects the quality of chicks at 100% replacement, it is only up to 75% replacement of SBM by PKBM (dosed at 195 g/kg concentrate diet) is possible without having significant negative effect on chick quality.

cross-sectional study was carried out from October 2009 to March 2010 in and around Bahir Dar to determine the prevalence, identify the parasite species of lungworms in small ruminants by coprological and postmortem examinations, and to assess some of the determinant factors involved in the study area. Fecal and postmortem examinations were conducted in 534 (384 sheep and 150 goats) and 120 animals, respectively. An overall prevalence of 22.7% and 59.17% was observed by fecal and postmortem examinations, respectively. Dictyocaulus filaria was found the most prevalent species in the study area accounting 54.55% of the total positives. There was a significant difference (χ2=4.296, p<0.05) in the prevalence of lungworms between species of animals. The highest prevalence was observed in goats (28.7%) compared to the prevalence in sheep (20.3%). The infection rate between male and female animals also showed significant difference (χ2=17.645, p<0.05) with prevalence of 13.4% and 28.9%, respectively. Regarding to age, the highest prevalence (29.5%) was observed in young animals of less than a year of age while the lowest prevalence (13.9%) observed in animals of above three years of age. The difference between the prevalence among the different age groups was statistically significant (χ2=13.540, p<0.05). Different prevalence was observed between poor (33.8%) and good (19.1%) body conditioned animals, and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=4.259, p<0.05). Highest infection prevalence was observed in November and the lowest in February; however, it did not follow the climatic changes of the year between months. Due to its impact on production, emphasis should be given for the control and prevention of lungworm infection in the study area.

This survey was conducted with the aim of assessing the flock characteristics, management practices and performance of indigenous chickens kept under backyard chicken production system from November 2013 to May 2014 in rural areas of Bishoftu, East Shewa, and Ethiopia. A total of 160 selected respondents were included in the study from four purposively selected kebeles viz. Filtino, Dalota, Kality and Gote. An overall average flock size (Mean ± SD) was 19.9 ± 7.9 birds in the study area. About 35% of the respondents provide separate house to their birds. Majority of the respondents 70% in study area were using scavenging with additional supplements, out of which 56.3% of respondents were using food left over, frushika, maize and sorghum and 13.7% of respondents were using maize and frushika. Tap water was a major source in Dalota (100%) and Gote (67.5%) whereas river water accounts 62.5% as water source in Kaliti kebeles. About 55.6% of respondents use plastic ware for watering their birds. Major source of chicks was natural hatching (46.87%). Overall mean performance of the indigenous chicken for age at first lay, number of eggs laid/hen/clutch, numbers of clutches/hen/year, number of eggs laid/hen/ year, number of eggs incubated/hen/clutch, number of eggs hatched/hen/year, hatchability on the basis of eggs incubated and chicken mortality to an age of 8 weeks in the study area were found as 5.49 ± 0.8 months, 13.18 ± 3.5 eggs, 3.30 ± 0.5 clutches, 44.20 ± 9.6 eggs,10.92 ± 3.1 eggs, 28.42 ± 6.7 eggs, 72.10 ± 5.5%, 27.52 ± 4.7% respectively. The hatchability and mortality were significantly different (p<0.05) among four kebeles under study. The mortality of chicken was observed as major constraint in backyard chicken production in the area of study followed by diseases, predation and improper veterinary service at village level. Therefore, efforts should be geared towards the improvement of health and management practices to improve rural backyard chicken production.