Genetic architecture of body weight, carcass, and internal organs traits of Ghanaian local chickens.

Information on the genetic architecture of the production traits of indigenous African chicken is limited. We performed a genome-wide association study using imputed Affymetrix Axiom® 600K SNP-chip genotypes on 1,113 chickens from three agroecological zones of Ghana. After quality control, a total of 382,240 SNPs remained. Variance components and heritabilities for some growth, carcass and internal organ traits were estimated. The genetic and phenotypic correlations among these traits were also estimated. The estimated heritabilities of body weight at week 22 (BW22), average daily gain (ADG), dressed weight, breast weight, thigh weight, wing weight, drumstick weight, and neck weight were high and ranged from 0.50 to 0.69. Estimates of heritabilities for head weight, shank weight, and gizzard weight were moderate (0.31-0.35) while those of liver weight, back weight, dressing percentage, and heart weight were low (0.13-0.21). The estimated heritabilities of dressed weight, breast weight, wing weight, drumstick weight, neck weight, shank weight, and gizzard weight, corrected for BW22, were moderate (0.29-0.38), while the remaining traits had low heritability estimates (0.13-0.21). A total of 58 1-Mb SNP windows on chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 18, and 33 each explained more than 1% of the genetic variance for at least one of these traits. These genomic regions contained many genes previously reported to have effects on growth, carcass, and internal organ traits of chickens, including EMX2, CALCUL1, ACVR1B, CACNB1, RB1, MLNR, FOXO1, NCARPG, LCORL, LAP3, LDB2, KPNA3, and CAB39L. The moderate to high heritability estimates and high positive genetic correlations suggest that BW22, ADG, dressed weight, breast weight, thigh weight, wing weight, drumstick weight, and neck weight could be improved through selective breeding.

Maternal Participation Level in a Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Intervention Matters for Child Diet and Growth Outcomes in Rural Ghana.

Background: Little is known about how the level of program participation affects child nutrition in rural interventions. Objectives: This study examined the association between participation level in a nutrition-sensitive agriculture intervention and children's diet and anthropometric outcomes in rural Ghana. Methods: Nutrition Links was a cluster randomized controlled trial (clinicaltrials.gov NCT01985243), which enrolled caregivers with children (aged less than 2 mo in 2014-2015 and less than 18 mo in 2016-2017). Of the 287 caregivers in 19 intervention communities who enrolled, 233 adopted the intervention and received layer poultry, garden inputs, and weekly child feeding education. The egg production and repayment of poultry were monitored, and feed was sold at the weekly meetings. After endline, the nutrition educators rated each woman who adopted the intervention on a scale [very poor (1) to excellent (5)] for: 1) meeting attendance, 2) egg productivity, 3) feed and poultry loan payment, 4) contributions during meetings, and 5) attentiveness towards group members. Participation level was classified as high, medium, and low by dividing the sum of these 5 items into tertiles; 54 women who did not adopt the intervention were classified as "no participation." Generalized mixed linear models tested the difference in changes in children's diet and anthropometric indices between the participation levels and the control category - 213 caregiver-child dyads in 20 communities who received standard-of-care health and agricultural services. Results: Compared with the control category, only high participation was associated with egg consumption [adjusted OR (aOR) = 3.03; 95% CI: 1.15, 7.94]. Both medium and high participation levels were associated with length-for-age z-scores (LAZ)/height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) [adjusted ß-coefficients (aß) = 0.44; 95% CI: 0.16, 0.72 and 0.40; 95% CI: 0.12, 0.67, respectively]. Conclusion: These results highlight the importance of promoting and monitoring the level of beneficiary participation to estimate the full potential of nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions to improve nutritional outcomes.

An agriculture-nutrition intervention improved children's diet and growth in a randomized trial in Ghana.

Stunting in Ghana is associated with rural communities, poverty, and low education; integrated agricultural interventions can address the problem. This cluster randomized controlled trial tested the effect of a 12-month intervention (inputs and training for poultry farming and home gardening, and nutrition and health education) on child diet and nutritional status. Sixteen clusters were identified and randomly assigned to intervention or control; communities within clusters were randomly chosen, and all interested, eligible mother-child pairs were enrolled (intervention: 8 clusters, 19 communities, and 287 households; control: 8 clusters, 20 communities, and 213 households). Intention-to-treat analyses were used to estimate the effect of the intervention on endline minimum diet diversity (≥4 food groups), consumption of eggs, and length-for-age (LAZ)/height-for-age (HAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ), and weight-for-length (WLZ)/weight-for-height (WHZ) z-scores; standard errors were corrected for clustering. Children were 10.5 ± 5.2 months (range: 0-32) at baseline and 29.8 ± 5.4 months (range: 13-48) at endline. Compared with children in the control group, children in the intervention group met minimum diet diversity (adjusted odds ratio = 1.65, 95% CI [1.02, 2.69]) and a higher LAZ/HAZ (ß = 0.22, 95% CI [0.09, 0.34]) and WAZ (ß = 0.15, 95% CI [0.00, 0.30]). Sensitivity analyses with random-effects and mixed-effects models and as-treated analysis were consistent with the findings. There was no group difference in WLZ/WHZ. Integrated interventions that increase access to high-quality foods and nutrition education improve child nutrition.