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The menace of food insecurity precipitated by climate change, zoonotic diseases and natural disasters poses a great threat to the sub-Saharan African region. Promoting food security and sustainable food systems is a priority for enhancing development in Africa. Holistic techniques such as _one health _approach recognises the linkages between the health of people, animals and the environment, and foster collaboration among various disciplines and stakeholders to address complex challenges. This review explored one health as a holistic approach in contributing to improved food security and sustainable food systems in African agriculture. Reviewed studies provided ample evidences demonstrating the robustness of one health approach as a multidisciplinary approach capable of increasing food production while enhancing health and environmental sustainability. The one health approach is not without challenges, however its capacity to encompass education and capacity building, policy formulation and execution, funding, advocacy and collaborations among multiple disciplines, makes it a veritable tool to improving food security and food systems in Africa. Achieving the balance between food production, food security, healthy living, and sustainable utilisation of natural resources in providing for the existing population while preserving the benefits for future generations hinges on integrative actions such as one health approach.

The menace of food insecurity precipitated by climate change, zoonotic diseases and natural disasters poses a great threat to the sub-Saharan African region. Promoting food security and sustainable food systems is a priority for enhancing development in Africa. Holistic techniques such as one health approach recognises the linkages between the health of people, animals and the environment, and foster collaboration among various disciplines and stakeholders to address complex challenges. This review explored one health as a holistic approach in contributing to improved food security and sustainable food systems in African agriculture. Reviewed studies provided ample evidences demonstrating the robustness of one health approach as a multidisciplinary approach capable of increasing food production while enhancing health and environmental sustainability. The one health approach is not without challenges, however its capacity to encompass education and capacity building, policy formulation and execution, funding, advocacy and collaborations among multiple disciplines, makes it a veritable tool to improving food security and food systems in Africa. Achieving the balance between food production, food security, healthy living, and sustainable utilization of natural resources in providing for the existing population while preserving the benefits for future generations hinges on integrative actions such as one health approach.

The menace of food insecurity precipitated by climate change, zoonotic diseases and natural disasters poses a great threat to the sub-Saharan African region. Promoting food security and sustainable food systems is a priority for enhancing development in Africa. Holistic techniques such as one health approach recognises the linkages between the health of people, animals and the environment, and foster collaboration among various disciplines and stakeholders to address complex challenges. This review explored one health as a holistic approach in contributing to improved food security and sustainable food systems in African agriculture. Reviewed studies provided ample evidences demonstrating the robustness of one health approach as a multidisciplinary approach capable of increasing food production while enhancing health and environmental sustainability. The one health approach is not without challenges, however its capacity to encompass education and capacity building, policy formulation and execution, funding, advocacy and collaborations among multiple disciplines, makes it a veritable tool to improving food security and food systems in Africa. Achieving the balance between food production, food security, healthy living, and sustainable utilization of natural resources in providing for the existing population while preserving the benefits for future generations hinges on integrative actions such as one health approach.

This study investigates numerically the 2D laminar natural convection in a Saltbox roof type geometry under summer climate conditions as obtained in Africa, particularly Nigeria using ANSYS FLUENT to model the boundary conditions. The effects of Rayleigh number (Ra) within the range of 103-107 and pitch angles (top and base) on heat transfer, the flow structure, temperature distribution and entropy generation within the geometry were analysed. Results show that the flow is nearly symmetric at lower Ra, while for higher Ra, the flow becomes asymmetric. The Nusselt number (Nu) has a proportional relationship with the top pitch angle and an inverse relationship with the base pitch angle when the Rayleigh number is fixed. The effect of the Ra on the Nu is insignificant at lower Ra, but becomes noticeable at higher Ra. The total entropy generation increases with an increase in top pitch angle and a decrease in base pitch angles, at fixed Rayleigh numbers. The physical implication is that, for a Saltbox roof type geometry, at fixed Ra, the best convective heat transfer process is achieved by lowering the base pitch angle and increasing the top pitch angle.

The gut microbiota is a complex ecological community and widely recognized in many aspects of research, but little is known on the relation between gut microbiota and embryonic development in chickens. The aim of this study was to explore the dynamic distribution of gut microbiota in chickens' embryos during stages of developments (chicken embryos that had incubated until day 3 [E3], day 12 [E12], and day 19 [E19]). Here, 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed on the gut microbiota in chicken embryos across different developmental stages. Twenty-one phyla and 601 genera were present in chicken embryos, and 96 genera such as Ochrobactrum, Phyllobacterium, and Amycolatopsis were the core microbiota in the 3 stages of development. Second, 94 genera of microbes were found to change significantly between E3 and E12, and 143 genera significantly differed between E12 and E19 in chicken embryos (P

Pituitary Specific transcription factor 1 (PIT-1) gene is one of the POU gene family and play key roles in the regulation of muscle development which is important for body weight in chickens. This study was carried out to detect the polymorphism of PIT-1 gene and study its association with body weight in Fulani and Yoruba ecotype of Nigerian indigenous chickens. A total of 100 day-old chicks comprising of fifty chicks of Fulani and Yoruba ecotypes were used for this study. These chicks were genotyped using PCR-RFLP technique and their growth rate was also measured throughout the study. Our results showed two alleles A and B controlling genotypes AA and AB which were significantly associated with bodyweight of the chickens. Interestingly, we found out that AA genotype had the highest frequency of 0.64 and 0.76 compared with AB genotype which had a frequency of 0.36 and 0.24 in the Fulani and Yoruba ecotype respectively. Furthermore, the PIT-1 genotypes (AA and AB) were significantly associated (p < 0.05) with body weight at week 4 and week 12 in Fulani and Yoruba ecotype chicken respectively. PIT-1 gene was polymorphic in Fulani and Yoruba ecotypes of Nigeria Indigenous Chickens.

The present study investigated the association among the host genome, the gut microbiome, and S. Pullorum infection in chickens. The results suggested that the gut microbial structure is altered in S. Pullorum-infected chickens., Pullorum disease is one of the most common diarrhea-related diseases caused by Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Gallinarum biovar Pullorum (S. Pullorum); it negatively affects the poultry industry. However, limited studies have explored the association between the gut microbiota and S. Pullorum infection in chickens. In the present study, we performed a microbiome comparison and a microbiome genome-wide association study (mGWAS) to investigate the association among the host genetics, the gut microbiota, and pullorum disease in chickens. We found that S. Pullorum infection in chickens could alter the abundance of 39 bacterial genera (P

The common pheasant Phasianus colchicus, belonging to the order Galliformes and family Phasianidae, is the most widespread species. Despite a long history of captivity, the domestication of this bird is still at a preliminary stage. Recently, the demand for accelerating its transformation to poultry for meat and egg production has been increasing. In this study, we assembled high quality, chromosome scale genome of the common pheasant by using PacBio long reads, next-generation short reads, and Hi-C technology. The primary assembly has contig N50 size of 1.33 Mb and scaffold N50 size of 59.46 Mb, with a total size of 0.99 Gb, resolving most macrochromosomes into single scaffolds. A total of 23,058 genes and 10.71 Mb interspersed repeats were identified, constituting 30.31% and 10.71% of the common pheasant genome, respectively. Our phylogenetic analysis revealed that the common pheasant shared common ancestors with turkey about 24.7-34.5 million years ago (Ma). Rapidly evolved gene families, as well as branch-specific positively selected genes, indicate that calcium-related genes are potentially related to the adaptive and evolutionary change of the common pheasant. Interestingly, we found that the common pheasant has a unique major histocompatibility complex B locus (MHC-B) structure: three major inversions occurred in the sequence compared with chicken MHC-B. Furthermore, we detected signals of selection in five breeds of domestic common pheasant, several of which are production-oriented.

Muscle growth and development are important aspects of chicken meat production, but the underlying regulatory mechanisms remain unclear and need further exploration. CRISPR has been used for gene editing to study gene function in mice, but less has been done in chick muscles. To verify whether postnatal gene editing could be achieved in chick muscles and determine the transcriptomic changes, we knocked out Myostatin (MSTN), a potential inhibitor of muscle growth and development, in chicks and performed transcriptome analysis on knock-out (KO) muscles and wild-type (WT) muscles at two post-natal days: 3d (3-day-old) and 14d (14-day-old). Large fragment deletions of MSTN (&gt, 5 kb) were achieved in all KO muscles, and the MSTN gene expression was significantly downregulated at 14d. The transcriptomic results indicated the presence of 1339 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the 3d KO and 3d WT muscles, as well as 597 DEGs between 14d KO and 14d WT muscles. Many DEGs were found to be related to cell differentiation and proliferation, muscle growth and energy metabolism. This method provides a potential means of postnatal gene editing in chicks, and the results presented here could provide a basis for further investigation of the mechanisms involved in muscle growth and development.

Background Highly diversified in morphology and structure, feathers have evolved into various forms. Frizzle feathers, which result from a developmental defect of the feather, are observed in several domestic chicken breeds. The frizzle phenotype is consistent with incomplete dominance of a major gene, but the molecular mechanisms that underlie this phenotype remain obscure. Kirin, a Chinese indigenous chicken breed that originated in the Guangdong province, is famous for its frizzle feathers. The KRT75 gene is considered as the dominant gene responsible for the frizzle trait in several chicken breeds, but this is not the case in the Kirin breed. Thus, the objective of our study was to investigate the genomic region and mutation responsible for this phenotype in this particular breed. Results A resource population was produced by crossing Kirin and Huaixiang chickens to produce F1 and F2 generations. DNA samples from 75 frizzle feather and normal feather individuals were sequenced with double-digest genotyping by sequencing (dd-GBS). After the detection of 525,561 high-quality variants, a genome-wide association analysis was carried out and the gene responsible for the frizzle phenotype was localized within the type II α-keratin cluster on chromosome 33. Sanger sequencing was used to screen for mutations in the exons of five genes of this type II α-keratin cluster. A 15-bp deletion in exon 3 of KRT75L4 that showed complete segregation with the frizzle phenotype was detected within the F2 population. Transcriptome sequencing demonstrated that KRT75L4 was expressed but that the transcript was shorter in Kirin than in Huaixiang chickens. In addition, by using Sanger sequencing, we were able to confirm that the deletion was in complete linkage with frizzle feathers. Conclusions A deletion in the KRT75L4 gene is responsible for the frizzle feather phenotype in the Kirin chicken. The identification of this mutation, which causes a developmental defect of avian integument appendages, will improve our understanding of the mechanisms that are involved in feather formation. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12711-018-0441-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.