Indigenous Chicken production in Niger.

The breeding of local chicken is an important source of animal protein and income for the rural populations of Niger, and the improvement of its productivity requires a better knowledge of production practices. Hence, a socio-economic and technical survey was undertaken from July to August 2017 in order to provide necessary information on the practice of family poultry keeping in Niger. For this purpose, two hundred and sixteen (216) producers were interviewed in the different agro-ecological zones of Niger using structured questionnaire. Results from the study revealed that 43.1% of local chicken producers are women. The most production purpose of the chicken in Niger is for selling (38.31%), self-consumption (37.74%) and donation (22.99%). Scavenging is the most dominant feeding system (92.1%). Constraints related to family poultry production as identified by the study are mainly diseases (45%), lack of housing (16%) which favors predation, lack of food (11%) and lack of training (8%). It is clear that the development of the sector necessarily involves strengthening the surveillance of avian diseases, coupled with veterinary monitoring and supervision of producers.

Myosin XI is associated with fitness and adaptation to aridity in wild pearl millet.

Phenotypic changes in plants can be observed along many environmental gradients and are determined by both environmental and genetic factors. The identification of alleles associated with phenotypic variations is a rapidly developing area of research. We studied the genetic basis of phenotypic variations in 11 populations of wild pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) on two North-South aridity gradients, one in Niger and one in Mali. Most of the 11 phenotypic traits assessed in a common garden experiment varied between the populations studied. Moreover, the size of the inflorescence, the number of flowers and aboveground dry mass co-varied positively with a decrease in rainfall. To decipher the genetic basis of these phenotypes, we used an association mapping strategy with a mixed model. We found two SNPs on the same myosin XI contig significantly associated with variations in the average number of flowers. Both the allele frequency of the two SNPs and the average number of flowers co-varied with the rainfall gradient on the two gradients. Interestingly, this gene was also a target of selection during domestication. The Myosin XI gene is thus a good candidate for fitness-related adaptation in wild populations.