Search

Grasscutter farming is becoming common in Ghana. However, having access to sufficient and quality feed resources has been the major challenge for grasscutter production. To assess available feed resources, management practices and mitigating strategies to feed scarcity among grasscutter farmers, we interviewed 38 grasscutter farmers in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Fifteen local feed resources were identified as feedstuffs for grasscutters. Majority of farmers strongly agreed that their management practices were based on experiences from daily feeding (68.4%), education from field agents (78.9%) and cooperating with family members (65.8%). The majority of the farmers (71%) indicated inadequate rain in the dry season as the major cause of feed scarcity. Forty one percent of farmers traveled long distances to look for grasscutter feed while about 38% of farmers conserved feed toward feeding in the dry season. Grasscutter farmers must be encouraged to conserve adequate quantities of crop residues from cereals, legumes, roots and tubers and grass that are left in the field after harvest for feeding in the dry season. This study provides useful information on local feed resources and management practices that allow grasscutter production under the harsh environments in northern Ghana.

Grasscutter (Thryonomys swinderianus) has been a subject of domestication for the past several decades in West and Central Africa. In Ghana, attempts are being made to intensify the domestication efforts because grasscutter meat is a delicacy and huge agribusiness opportunities are expected. Tameness and reproductive ability are two important traits that underlie any successful animal domestication event. Androgen receptor gene has been reported to influence behaviour and fertility. The objective of this study was to identify genetic polymorphism in the androgen receptor gene that is likely to influence tameness and reproductive traits. Tissue samples were collected from a total of 116 including 81 domestic and 35 wild grasscutters in Accra and Mankessim, respectively, and genotyped at the androgen receptor glutamine repeat (ARQ) locus. Results of this study showed that ARQ ranges from six to 19 repeats and heterozygosities (H) were 0.769 and 0.778 for domestic and wild females respectively, indicating that this locus is highly polymorphic in grasscutters. As this locus influences transcriptional activity of the androgen receptor gene, these polymorphisms could influence tameness and reproductive traits in grasscutter. However, further studies are required to test the association of these polymorphisms with phenotypes.

• Premise of the study: Protorhus deflexa is an endemic large-seeded tree in Madagascar that depends heavily on insects for cross-pollination and on large-bodied frugivores for seed dispersal. Because such mutualistic relationships are vulnerable to human disturbance, the development of microsatellite markers will enhance analyses of gene flow in this tree species in degraded forests. • Methods and Results: Nineteen microsatellite markers were developed for P. deflexa using 454 pyrosequencing. The number of alleles ranged from two to nine, and the ranges of observed and expected heterozygosities were 0.200–0.800 and 0.303–0.821, respectively. The parentage exclusion probability by the 19 loci reached 0.98583 for the first parent and 0.99971 for the second parent. • Conclusions: These markers will be useful for studying gene flow via pollination and seed dispersal by animals and the genetic structure of P. deflexa in protected and degraded forests in Madagascar.