Executive Summary

In 2022, the research and development activities of scientists at CSIR-Animal Research Institute focused on three broad thematic areas of the Institute namely Food security and poverty reduction: livestock and poultry; Biomedical and public health; and Science and people: technology for livelihood and wealth creation as well as value chain promotion. Under food security and poverty reduction, a feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of the inclusion of varying levels of paper mulberry leaf meal (PMLM) on the performance of rabbits. The results showed that feed costs could be decreased and more profit made as one increases the level of the PMLM and that dietary inclusion of up to 20% could be used in rabbits to reduce feed costs per unit of rabbit weight gain. Another study looked at aggressive behavioural responses in pigs at the weaning stage after supplementing their diets with chicory herbs. The results showed that the herbal diet influenced the behaviour of piglets by making them less aggressive. In a study to determine the influence of corncob supplemented with either enzyme or flaked oyster mushroom as partial substitutes for the expensive conventional grains and protein poultry diets, it was found that total bacterial counts were lower in the diets that contained ground corncobs. Also, birds fed no corncob or corncob treated with enzyme or the oyster mushroom performed better than those whose diets were partially replaced with corncob alone. It was therefore concluded that to improve feed efficiency, body weight and gut performance, corncob diets with multi-blend enzymes supplement were significant. A study on the effect of strain and age of layer chickens on the proximate contents of egg yolk and albumen observed that the protein content of the yolk significantly increased as the birds advanced in age. However, yolk fat content significantly decreased as the birds grew. By their genetic constitution and ages, it was recommended that producers must select the best strains and factor in the appropriate hen ages to make the nutrient contents of eggs meet the specific needs of consumers. Research on Animal health and food safety was mostly under the one health concept to benefit both humans and animals. These included the characterization of tick-borne pathogenic and nonpathogenic microorganisms across the coastal savannah zone of Ghana to provide information that will contribute to the formulation of effective control measures against tick and tick-borne pathogens. This study revealed that Amblyomma variegatum and Rhipicephalus annulatus were the most common parasites in farm animals in Ghana. Due to the high morbidity and variable mortalities associated with respiratory disease outbreaks in poultry, a study was conducted to determine the pathogens involved. The results identified five major pathogens; Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG), Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), New Castle disease virus (NDV), Avian Influenza virus and Escherichia coli (E. coli) as being responsible for respiratory diseases in poultry in Accra... read full report here