European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences最新文献

{"title":"Farmers’ Awareness of and Attitude towards Diversified Legumes Production in Singida Region, Tanzania","authors":"Caroline Fredy Lema, Michael Kadigi, K. Kayunze","doi":"10.24018/ejfood.2024.6.1.710","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24018/ejfood.2024.6.1.710","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000For an extended period, legumes have served as nutritional sources in the diets of both humans and animals. Efforts have been made to increase the yield of the legume crops in Tanzania, but there is still low awareness of and unfavourable attitudes towards legume crop diversification among farmers. The study, on which this paper is based, aimed at investigating farmers’ awareness of and attitude towards diversified legumes, specifically to analyze socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, assess awareness of and attitude towards diversified legumes production, and determine effects of awareness of and attitude towards diversified legumes production on management practices of diversified legumes production. A cross-sectional survey was employed whereby primary data were collected from 204 legume farmers using a semi-structured questionnaire. Content analysis was conducted using Nvivo software to analyze qualitative data. For quantitative data, Likert scale analysis was employed as a method for descriptive statistics, and Principal Component Analysis was used as a method for inferential analysis. These analyses were performed using Smart PLS software. The findings of the study revealed that several factors significantly influenced smallholder farmers' awareness and perception of diversified legumes. These factors included ease of cultivation, fair distribution of seeds, food availability, increase in income level, high legume harvest, and higher profitability of legumes (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the statement \"enough of information\" did not show statistical significance (p > 0.05). However, it exhibited a positive association. Conclusively, criteria like \"easy cultivation\" and \"fair seed distribution\" had a big impact on how smallholder farmers perceived and knew about diverse legumes. However, \"enough information\" did not appear to have a major significance. In addition, it was found that major influences on farmers' attitudes and understanding of diversified legumes included the availability of food, rising income levels, high yields of legumes, and perceived profitability. The paper recommends for the improvement of farmers' awareness and perception of diversified legumes, fair seed distribution methods must be established that provide equal access to high-quality seeds with the help of government organizations, non-profit organizations, and seed businesses.\u0000","PeriodicalId":11865,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences","volume":"59 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139533622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Factors Influencing the Use of Social Media to Access Market Information among Small-Scale Chicken Farmers in Arusha City, Tanzania","authors":"Juma Almasi, G. Shausi, Ahmad K. Athman, Dismas L. Mwaseba","doi":"10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.749","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000The study determined the level of use and factors influencing the use of social media to access market information among Small-Scale Chicken Farmers (SSCFs) in Arusha City. Data were collected from 260 SSCFs between June and August 2022 through interviews with key informants and a questionnaire. The data were descriptively analyzed to determine the level of use of social media. In addition, a binary logistic regression model was used to determine the factors influencing the use of social media in accessing market information. The study found that SSCFs had a high level of use (more than 16 times monthly) of WhatsApp as compared to Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube (all at less than 16 times monthly). Furthermore, the study identified the following factors as influencing the SSCFs use of social media to access market information: the perceived usefulness, extrinsic motivation, job-fit, attitude, relative advantage and outcome expectations, perceived ease of use, and complexity. Others include social factors and innovative image, perceived behavioural control, facilitating conditions and compatibility, and ownership of smartphone. The study revealed that perceived usefulness, extrinsic motivation, job-fit, attitude, relative advantage and outcome expectations, perceived ease of use and complexity, social factors, innovative image, and ownership of smartphone have a positive influence on the use of social media among SSCFs. Conversely, perceived behavioural control, facilitating conditions, and compatibility have a negative influence on the use of social media among SSCFs to access market information in the study area. The study recommends that the government should create a supportive environment to ensure that factors that have a positive influence on the use of social media platforms to access market information among SSCFs are maintained. Moreover, facilitating conditions, as factors with negative influence on the use of social media to access market information, need to be improved to enable SSCFs to use social media.\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000","PeriodicalId":11865,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences","volume":"774 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138982681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prerequisites as a Deterrent of Adopting Food Safety Management Systems by Public Universities Catering Facilities in the Mount Kenya and Aberdare Regional Bloc","authors":"Macharia Esther Mugure, Lillian Karimi Mugambi Mwenda, Dennis Cheruiyot Kiplang’a, P. W. Chege","doi":"10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.743","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.743","url":null,"abstract":"The public needs an assurance that the food they are consuming is safe and free from contaminants which can be achieved by taking adequate food safety measures, especially by adopting of food safety management systems. However, there have been various constraints that have deterred public universities catering facilities from adopting food safety management systems. This cross-sectional survey was carried out to assess the effects of prerequisites on the adoption of food safety management systems by public universities catering facilities in the Mount Kenya and Aberdare regional bloc. The 11 public university catering facilities in the bloc were purposively sampled through which 187 catering staff on permanent and pensionable terms of service were enumerated through the census. A structured questionnaire with a Cronbach’s coefficient of 0.79 was administered paving the way for the collection of data which realized a response rate of 80.7%. Descriptive and inferential analysis was executed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 26. Findings revealed that there was a moderate positive correlation between prerequisites (r = 0.475, p-value = 0.000 < 0.05) and adoption and that 22.6% of the variations in adoption were caused by prerequisites and had a significant effect on adoption of FSMSs (β1 = 0.582, t = 6.590 and a p-value 0.000 ≤ 0.05) by the public universities catering facilities in the Mount Kenya and Aberdare regional bloc. It is recommended that a longitudinal research design be used to conduct research on the adoption of prerequisites to gain further insights into whether the practices are carried out correctly or not.","PeriodicalId":11865,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences","volume":"14 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139263220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Corchorus olitorius Accessions by Simple Sequence Repeat Markers (SSR)","authors":"Senewa Bobby Pholoma, Goitseone Malambane, Joseph Adjetey, S. Tshwenyane, G. Haki","doi":"10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.745","url":null,"abstract":"Indigenous leafy vegetables such as Corchorus olitorius (jew’s mallow) have potential in contributing to food security as they can provide important nutritional requirements needed for human nourishment. However, in Botswana, this plant is not yet domesticated and its utilization is minimal due to lack of knowledge. To have the crop fully domesticated it is important to document important information on the available landraces and wild species. One of the important information is understanding the variation among the available genotypes as this will help not only in domestication but also in breeding purposes. Thus this study aimed to assess the genetic diversity of 49 accessions of jews mallow collected in Botswana and other African countries. Simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers were used to characterize fourty nine accessions. The results revealed that, out of 49 SSR primer pairs used, 46 showed scorable polymorphism by producing clear amplified products. The average polymorphic loci rate was 82.44% with the lowest rate (33.33%) detected in MJM-536 and the highest was 100% recorded by 27 of the primers. The polymorphism information content (PIC) potential ranged from 0.398 for MJM-475 primer to 0.979 for the primer MJM-623 with an average of 0.719. With the Shannon diversity index, an average of 3.626 was recorded under the studied accessions and this confirmed a very high diversity. In addition, a dendrogram was generated to illustrate the genetic diversity and possible relationships among the 49 Corchorus olitorius accessions using the unweighted pair group method (UPGM) with arithmetic means. This UPGM cluster analysis distinctively divided the accessions into five (5) groups at a cophenetic correlation coefficient 0.977. The total number of accessions per cluster varied from one group to the other. These results reinforced the effectiveness of the SSR markers in discriminating individuals within species even within a narrow genetic background.","PeriodicalId":11865,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences","volume":"37 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139277195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Analysis of the Level of Agricultural Mechanization in Eritrea Based on USDA Data Sources","authors":"T. Medhn, Simon Ghebrehiwet Teklay, M. Mengstu","doi":"10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.664","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.664","url":null,"abstract":"Mechanical power is one of the main drivers of agricultural production systems and a key parameter in assessing the level of agricultural mechanization (LAM). The LAM has so far been evaluated based on the amount of mechanical power available per unit area. However, as African nations have gained autonomy over the past several years, it is difficult to directly monitor and compare each country's progress in the existing LAM assessment. Thus, determining LAM progress in Eritrea and comparing it to that of other African countries is the main point of departure, on which this study places a prior emphasis. For this purpose, data is filtered from the datasheet made available online by the USDA. On a comparative basis, Eritrea is ahead of the other 33 African countries with an average annual LAM progress of 0.0013 hp/ha/year. Eritrea ranks 12th in the SSA and 3rd in the EA, indicating relatively good and promising progress. Based on the data analyzed, around 10% of the countries’ rates of advancement in the level of agricultural mechanization are less than their rates of decline; as a result, the rate (AAP (LAM)) is showing a negative value. It is clear, however, that the AAP (LAM) of Eritrea is ten times slower than that of the country ranked first (Zimbabwe).","PeriodicalId":11865,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences","volume":"7 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139277856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Production Potential and Shelf-Life of Shallot as Affected by Inorganic Fertilizers Complemented with Organic Fertilizer and Rice Husk Charcoal in Dryland","authors":"Baiq Nurul Hidayah, Titin Sugianti, Muhammad Tahir Hamsyah, Mohammad Rani, None Nurhaedah","doi":"10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.738","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.738","url":null,"abstract":"Shallot (Allium cepa L.) is one of the important horticultural commodities with high economic value in Indonesia. The extent of planting areas in marginal land requires technological innovation for the development of shallot such as improvement and location-specific technological innovation. This research aims to observe the effect of various doses of inorganic fertilizers complemented with organic fertilizer and rice husk charcoal on the production and shelf-life of shallot. The study was conducted from March to June 2019 in East Lombok using a completely randomized block design with 1 factor and 5 levels of treatment: A1 (farmer’s practices: 0 kg/ha organic fertilizer; 0 kg/ha rice husk charcoal; 300 kg/ha urea; 250 kg/ha NPK+Zn; and 100 kg/ha SP-36), A2 (10,000 kg/ha organic fertilizer; 10,000 kg/ha rice husk charcoal; 75 kg/ha urea; 62.5 kg/ha NPK+Zn; and 25 kg/ha SP-36), A3 (10,000 kg/ha organic fertilizer; 10,000 rice kg/ha husk charcoal; 150 kg/ha urea; 125 kg/ha NPK+Zn; and 50 kg/ha SP-36), A4 (10,000 kg/ha organic fertilizer; 10,000 kg/ha rice husk charcoal; 225 kg/ha urea; 187.5 kg/ha NPK+Zn; and 75 kg/ha SP-36) and A5 (10,000 kg/ha organic fertilizer; 10,000 kg/ha rice husk charcoal; 300 kg/ha urea; 250 kg/ha NPK+Zn; and 100 kg/ha SP-36). Results showed that plant height and leaf number were not significantly different in various treatments. The bulb number showed that at the age of 20 and 70 days after sowing, the highest value was shown in the A3, and the lowest value was shown in A1 and A2 treatments. Meanwhile, treatment of A5 can reduce weight loss of the prospective seeds.","PeriodicalId":11865,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences","volume":" 972","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135186843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Efficacy of Vegetables Intercropping in Mulberry on Sericulture Productivity and Economy","authors":"Md. Shoriful Islam, Faruque Ahmed, Md. Mostafizur Rahman","doi":"10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.688","url":null,"abstract":"A field experiment was carried out in three (03) areas viz: experimental field of Bangladesh Sericulture Research and Training Institute (BSRTI), Rajshahi, 05 farmers field of Bholahat, Chapainawabganj and 05 farmers of Paba, Rajshahi during 2020–2022. The objective of this research was to assess the effect of vegetables intercropping in mulberry garden on sericulture productivity and economy. Randomized completely block design (RCBD) with 3 replications and 7 treatments which includes, T0 = Sole mulberry (Control) T1 = Mulberry + Potato, T2 = Mulberry + Cabbage, T3 = Mulberry + Cauliflower, T4 = Mulberry + Red amaranth, T5 = Mulberry + Spinach and T6 = Mulberry + Data shak. The growth and yield parameters of mulberry viz average branch number per plant, total leaf number per plant, total branches height per plant (cm), nodes per meter per plant, length of longest shoot (cm), leaf present per branch, 10 leaves area (cm2), total leaf weight per plant (g), total shoots weight per plant (g) and total leaf yield/ha/crop (mt) were higher in T1 (10.89, 1223.35, 753.12, 23.03, 118.16, 20.58, 537.98, 833.35, 402.84 and 10.37) followed by other treatments except control (12.3, 1365.77, 768.82, 23.62, 122.5, 23, 572.92, 901.03, 414.76 and 10.82), respectively. Leaf quality viz moisture, total chlorophyll, crude protein, total sugar, reducing sugar and mineral percentage were significantly higher in T3 (75.7, 38.8, 20.85, 6.48, 4.1 and 12.71) respectively over the T6 (74.86, 38.05, 19.61, 5.59, 3.12 and 11.1). The silk cocoon attributes like weight of 15 larvae (g), single cocoon weight (g), shell weight (g), cocoon shell ratio, highest filament length (m), renditta and cocoon productivity/100 dfls (kg) were higher also in T3 (53.46, 32.41, 0.21, 19.85, 977.84, 11.1 and 70.66) as compared to T6 (51.48, 31.42, 0.18, 18.24, 966.04, 12.31 and 69.24), respectively. The growing of Cauliflower as an intercrop was given maximum B: C (2.31) due to expansion soil fertility, higher leaf yield (except control), leaf quality, cocoon yield and additional income paralleled with other intercrops (cabbage-2.09, red amaranth-2.05, spinach-1.67, potato-1.49, sole mulberry-1.34 and data shak-1.22).","PeriodicalId":11865,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences","volume":"73 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135685208","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Extension and the Adoption of Commercial Rabbit Production in Hai District","authors":"Orestes Medard Rugarabamu, Joshua Samwel Kidudu, Gosbert Lukenku Shausi","doi":"10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.737","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.6.737","url":null,"abstract":"Extension is the term, which is open to many interpretations. Every extension personnel have a unique interpretation of extension, based on experience and agent’s field. Generally, there is no single definition of extension, which is accepted worldwide. Briefly, extension is informal educational process directed toward rural community. The process offers information and advice that help rural population to make their decisions and solve their challenges. The main aim is to improve productivity and hence better living standard of farming families. This paper aims to show the relationship between extension and the adoption of commercial rabbit in Hai District as a means of improving livelihood and productivity of rabbit products and by-products. Rabbits are kept for both food and commercial purposes. Commercial rabbit production refers to raising rabbits for income-generation or for business. Commercial rabbit production has numerous advantages that all the products and by-products are of commercial value. For example, rabbit skins are used to make blankets and many items of useful clothing for children and adults, such as shirts, leggings, socks, hoods, purse, and handbags. Rabbit urine and manure are used in manufacturing organic booster and pesticide. Commercial rabbit production has been in Hai District since 2018 as initiated by the Saore Company Limited. Despite its numerous benefits and efforts made by Saore Company Limited to promote commercial rabbit production in the district, only about 0.001 per cent of the population is engaged in commercial rabbit production. Several studies have associated the adoption of innovations with extension. Taking commercialization of rabbit production as an innovation, this study determined the relationship between extension and the adoption of commercial rabbit production in Hai District. The study adopted a survey research design to collect data from 170 respondents (85 commercial and 85 non-commercial rabbit producers) using a questionnaire. Data triangulation was done through key informant interviews. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data whereby cross tabulation chi-square test of significance was fitted. The study found a significant relationship between extension and the adoption of commercial rabbit production in the study area. It is therefore, concluded that extension was significantly related to the adoption of commercial rabbit in the study area.","PeriodicalId":11865,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences","volume":"22 16","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135875088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Factors Influencing Rural Farmers' Access to Agricultural Extension Services Provided by Private Organizations in Kibondo District, Tanzania","authors":"Iman Masanja, Gosbert Lukenku Shausi, Vituce Jelasy Kalungwizi","doi":"10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.5.722","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.5.722","url":null,"abstract":"Agricultural extension plays a very important role in improving agricultural productivity in many countries, including Tanzania. Through agricultural extension services, farmers acquire useful information to minimize agricultural production challenges. Though farmers in many countries, including Tanzania, still rely on public extension services, the governments in many countries have started to open doors for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), farmer-based organizations, and private agribusiness firms to provide services to farmers. Regardless of their existence still access to extension services provided by private organizations has remained a main question. Studies have consistently pointed out that only a few farmers in rural areas get access to extension services provided by private organizations. Low access to extension services by rural farmers has contributed to low agricultural production in rural areas and has remained the main factor for persistent poverty. There are limited studies documenting the factors for low access to agricultural extension services provided by private organizations. This study aimed to determine factors influencing rural farmers’ access to agricultural extension services provided by private organizations in the Kibondo district. The study used a cross-sectional research design and data were collected by interviewing 120 farmers sampled from four villages. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression model techniques. The study found that only 18.3% of farmers had access to extension services. Gender, marital status, education level, farmers’ income, and group membership had a positive and statistically significant association with access to extension services. The study concluded that only a small proportion of rural farmers in the study area had access to extension services. It is recommended that the provision of extension services by private organizations should consider the identified factors.","PeriodicalId":11865,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences","volume":"214 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135928273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Alquremold Natural (AMN) for Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Bacterial Growth Inhibition of Commercial Broilers","authors":"Tanzina Akter, Sukumar Saha, David Diez Arias, Tusar Chowdhury, Afifa Afrin, Ankon Lahiry, Tanvir Ahmed, Mahbuba Sultana, Shahina Rahman, Shubash Chandra Das","doi":"10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.5.729","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24018/ejfood.2023.5.5.729","url":null,"abstract":"An experiment was conducted with 648-day-old Cobb 500 broiler chicks to evaluate the effects of Alquermold natural (AMN) on overall growth performance, carcass characteristics and inhibition of enteric bacterial growth of commercial broilers. The birds were randomly assigned to four different treatments: T0 (Control), T1 (0.5 g/kg AMN), T2 (1.0 g/kg AMN) and T3 (1.0 g/kg Mold Inhibitor (MI)), respectively. They were reared for up to 28 days. At the end of experiment, the birds’ growth performances in terms of body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), survival, and meat production characteristics were recorded and calculated. Weekly fecal sample collection and microbiological count were performed to determine the bacterial load, specifically Escherichia coli and anaerobic bacteria in the broiler feces. The results showed that birds receiving 1.0 g/kg AMN had significantly higher BW and BWG (p0.01) than the control, 0.5 g/kg AMN, and MI groups. The FI and FCR of broilers were comparable in all treatment groups. There were no significant (p &gt; 0.05) changes in meat yield parameters such as dressing percentage, neck, shank, drumstick, breast meat, thigh meat, and wing meat. However, when compared to the other dietary treatments, the bacterial load (E. coli and anaerobic bacteria) was significantly lower in the birds fed 1.0 g/kg AMN. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that feeding AMN at a rate of 1.0 g/kg may be considered for improving growth performance, maximizing feed utilization, and inhibiting bacterial load in the intestine of commercial broiler chickens.","PeriodicalId":11865,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134909914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}