As part of its efforts to propel the country in to a middle-income economy through improvement of several programs, the Government of Rwanda (GoR) has put in place incentives for dairy intensification. However, despite these initiatives there has been limited follow up on their impacts on the production systems thereby making the planning of further interventions very difficult. A Study was to establish the status of dairying, identify challenges and recommend improvements. Pre-tested questionnaires were administered to 2,089 farmers, selected farmers by multi-stage sampling procedure on sectors and cells levels. Sample size was established basing on the procedure of Krejce and Morgan 1970, analyzed in SPSS 16. The majority of households had five to seven members. Natural breeding predominated with 57% compared to Artificial Insemination (AI) at 25%. Zero grazing was predominant in Gatsibo at 60%, fenced farms predominated in Nyagatare at 65%. Communal grazing has greatly declined with exception of Kayonza at 10%. Crop residues and salt were the predominant modes of supplementary feeding at 42%. Nyagatare District showed advance in supplementary feeding at 21% than Gatsibo 18%, Kayonza District with 5%. Rice bran was still minimally used despite being abundant in the area. Industrial dairy meals were not used. Farmers reported shortage of water, East coast fever; followed trypanasomiasis were mainly reported in Nyagatare and Gatsibo Districts. There is a need for training farmers in diary nutrition, scaling up AI services, water sources and control of vector born diseases and strengthening dairy cooperatives for efficient milk production and marketing.

The study was conducted to investigate the phenotypic and genetic parameters of growth traits of Red Chittagong Cattle (RCC). The least squares mean of Birth Weight (BW) of RCC calves was 13.2±0.39 kg. Sex had significant effect on BW of calves but season, year and sire did not have any effect on the trait. The overall mean weaning weight (WW) of RCC calves was 48.3±1.86 kg having no significant influence for any of those factors. The overall mean Pre-Weaning Daily Weight Gain (WDG) of RCC calves was 166.5±2.47 g/day having only significant effect for year of birth, where early year born calves seemed to gain higher weight than that of later born calves. The heritability of growth traits was medium to high ranging from 0.62±0.08 to 0.91±0.04. The phenotypic and genetic correlations of BW with WW and WDG were 0.32±0.01 and 0.34±0.06 and 0.09±0.01 and 0.22±0.07, respectively. Birth weight had highly significant (p<0.01) phenotypic correlations with WW, but not with WDG. The phenotypic and genetic correlations between WW and WDG were 0.61±0.1 and 0.62±0.03, respectively. The WW had highly significant (p<0.01) and positive phenotypic correlation with WDG. Considering the performance potential of RCC both in in-situ and ex-situ through community farmers’ participatory approaches there may be chance of improvement of genetic potentiality of RCC as indicated by their phenotypic variations and genetic parameters.

A trail was carried out to investigate the effects of the incorporation of rubber seed meal as sources of plant protein on the performance, feed intake and the carcass of poultry birds from day-old chicks to 12 weeks under traditional system of management. Unsexed 300 Jupiter chickens were randomly divided into 4 groups each of 75 birds. Four diets representing different levels of Rubber Seed Meal (RSM) and Blood Meal (BM):- R0 with 0% RSM and 0% BM; R10 with 10% RSM and 8% BM; R20 with 20% RSM and 6% BM and R30 with 30% RSM and 4% BM were fed ad libitum throughout the experimental period. Results showed significant differences between treatments indicating the superiority of the diet supplemented with 30% RSM and 4% BM.

The records of 1003 crossbred cattle sired by 68 bulls were analyzed to estimate breeding values of sires using Wombat sire evaluation method. The average breeding value for age at first calving in crossbred bulls was found to be 1198.26 days by Wombat method. The estimated overall average breeding value of sires by Wombat method for first lactation milk yield was found to be 2766.27 kg. The average breeding value of sires by Wombat method for first lactation period in crossbred bulls was found to be 324.58 days. The average breeding value of sires by Wombat method for first dry period in crossbred bulls was found to be 106.00 days. The average breeding value of sires by Wombat method for first calving interval in crossbred bulls was found to be 430.95 days. The average breeding value of sires by Wombat method for first service period in crossbred bulls was found to be 166.28 days. Average breeding value by Wombat method for life time milk yield in crossbred bulls was found to be 10305.59 kg. The estimated overall average breeding value of sires by Wombat method for life time lactation length was found to be 1102.99days. The estimated breeding values of sire’s estimates for first lactation and life time traits showed small genetic variation as estimated by Wombat method.

The simple correlations among all first lactation and life time traits estimated by the wombat method of sire evaluation were ranged from (-0.108 to 0.935) very low to very high.

However, the rank of sires for different sire evaluation methods revealed that 4-5% of top sires almost had similar rank for all the traits.

Gallidermin is a polypeptide-antimicrobial substance of proteinaceous character which belongs to lantibiotic bacteriocins. Broiler rabbits represent a very useful model animal but they also possess tastive meat. After weaning, they are most sensitive to different bacterial infection. Effect of gallidermin has never been tested in animals/rabbits; therefore our testing and results achieved have a novelty character. Forty-eight rabbits, aged 35 days, after weaning, both sexes were divided in the experimental group (E) and the control group (C); 24 animals in each group. Rabbits, meat line M91 fed a commercial granulated diet for growing rabbits. Rabbits in E group received gallidermin (a dose 5 µl-concentration 0.5 mg/ml) per animal/day for 21 days (from day 0/1) in drinking water. Rabbits in C group administered only commercial diet. Experiment lasted 42 days. At day 21, significant reduction of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) was noted in faeces of E group (p < 0.05), coliforms were also reduced. In caecum were significantly decreased enterococci, lactic acid bacteria, CoNS, Pseudomonas spp., coliforms at day 21 (p < 0.001, p < 0.05). Reduction of coliforms was also noted in the appendix. At day 42, significant increase in phagocytic activity was noted in E group compared to rabbits in C group (p < 0.001). The others parameters were not negatively influenced.