Information-intensive and precise knowledge-based marketing approaches is a key aspect in ensuring the long-term viability of agriculture. Unfortunately, the economic potential of information and communication technologies used in agricultural marketing is not fully utilized. This study, therefore, unravelled the effects of information and communication technologies in the marketing of broiler birds in Enugu state, Nigeria. Primary data collected from 90 marketers were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The result showed that all the marketers accessed and used mobile phones very often to communicate with their customers but only a few (40%) used social media platforms while radio and television were rarely used. The gross margin analysis showed that broiler marketing was a viable enterprise with ₦80,972.72 (USD 197.29) gross margin monthly. The degree of use of information and communication technologies, level of education and marketing experience significantly affected the revenue margin of the respondents. High cost of information and communication technology facilities, inconsistence power supply, poor network coverage and connectivity and high cost of airtime and data were among the major constraints faced by the marketers. The study recommends that the problem of inconsistent power supply and poor network coverage should be rectified by the government and the network providers, respectively. The national communication commission should as a matter of urgency regulate, moderate and reduce the high call tariffs and internet data cost to enhance the profit margin of the broiler marketers.

The Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly), Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae), poses a significant threat to agriculture worldwide. This study examines the potential insecticidal effects of essential oils from Mentha arvensis and Cinnamomum zeylanicum on controlling C. capitata under laboratory conditions. Even at low concentrations, toxicity assays indicated that both essential oils significantly increased the mortality of adult Medflies. The concentration-dependent effect of these oils on C. capitata mortality is demonstrated, with Mentha arvensis achieving 100% mortality within 48 hours at 1% concentration and Cinnamomum zeylanicum exhibiting rapid efficacy, reaching a low LC50 value after only 1 hour of application. The concentration and application time of essential oils were found to have a significant impact on their effectivness. This study highlights the potential of essential oils for controlling C. capitata populations. Essential oils offer a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative for managing C. capitata but further studies are necessary for their successful incorporation into integrated pest management programs.

The physical properties of seeds and grain is a wide knowledge that can be useful in the sowing, harvesting and storage or in processing such as drying, freezing and other. This knowledge is important in the designing of machinery to harvest and in preparation of processing chain from grain to food. In this study, the physical properties, color characteristics, mechanical behavior, and germination parameters of three different cultivars (Reis, Töre, and Özkaynak) of forage peas were examined and compared. The statistical differences were observed between the cultivars on the length, width, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, and surface area of the forage pea cultivars. Significant differences were observed between cultivars on mass, thousand mass, volume, and bulk density. The effects of cultivars on the true density, and porosity of forage pea seeds were not significant. Töre and Özkaynak cultivars constitute the highest statistical group in terms of mass and thousand mass (0.172 g, 0.174 g, 139.34 g, 138.54 g, respectively). The effects of cultivars on L*, a*, b*, chroma, and hue angles of forage pea seeds were significant. Many features of the seeds should be considered in sowing, harvesting, and post-harvest processes and technological applications of forage pea seeds. In light of the data obtained in this study, it can be assumed that the operations to be carried out will contribute to the reduction of harvest losses, and the improvement of storage conditions at the pre-harvest and post-harvest engineering technologies and food production process applications.

Safe meat production is an important aspect to avoid human health hazards. The use of probiotics in poultry is an important tool to produce safe meat among several established biotechnological approaches. In this experiment, we studied the effects of probiotics for producing safe Japanese quail meat. 150 Japanese quail chicks were reared for a period of six weeks using various doses of probiotics (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2g per litre of water). The chicks were randomly distributed into five treatment groups with three replications each. The number of birds in each replication was 10. After rearing six weeks, significantly high body weight was found at probiotic concentrations of 1, 1.5, and 2g per litre of water. The feed intake in various treatments did not differ significantly, but comparatively better feed conversion ratios were observed at probiotic treatments. Water quality was not significantly differed as a result of addition of probiotics to the water. The reason for this better growth performance is probably due to the multiple benefits of probiotics in poultry. Probiotics could have maintained gut health with better nutrient utilization and availability that might have been led to higher body weight gain in the quail. In future experiments, challenging the birds with diseases or comparing probiotics with antibiotic growth promoters is required to ensure the efficiency of probiotics.

The poultry red mite, Dermanyssus gallinae (De Geer, 1778), is widely regarded as the significant ectoparasite of egg-laying hens worldwide. Since many molecular studies on poultry red mites have focused on analyzing COI and ITS1-2 genes, the present study aimed to identify 16S rDNA and the relatively understudied nuclear 18S rDNA genes of Turkish D. gallinae populations. Twenty-eight different D. gallinae populations were collected from henhouses throughout Türkiye, and the target genes were amplified using conventional PCR after morphological analysis. Haplotype analyses of the 16S rDNA sequences revealed 14 different haplotypes, with Turkish D. gallinae grouped into two of these haplotypes. The intra-species genetic variation of the 18S rDNA and 16S rDNA sequences examined in the present study and the available sequences in public GeneBank were determined as 0.17% and 0.53%, respectively. The obtained sequences belonging to D. gallinae from Türkiye were submitted to GenBank for the first time. Given the importance of identifying genetic diversity within and between species across different geographical regions, the obtained data may contribute substantially to the genetic knowledge of the PRMs.

Today, environmental issues are rapidly increasing due to the growing population, rapid and unplanned urbanization, industrialization pressure, and advancing technology. Consequently, there is an accelerated search for solutions to environmental problems. As in the formation of these problems, humans will be a key factor in solving them. Therefore, individuals need to be developed and equipped in terms of environmental awareness, environmental consciousness, and environmental sensitivity. Many studies in the literature advocate the necessity of education to increase environmental awareness; however, first and foremost, individuals’ environmental awareness must be identified and their levels must be revealed. In this study, noise pollution, which has been increasingly impactful in the last 30 years and is ranked as the second-highest burden of disease by the World Health Organization after air pollution, with less awareness compared to other environmental issues, is evaluated. In this context, the research area is selected as the Çukurova District of Adana Province, and the awareness of noise pollution among the residents in the region is assessed through survey forms and SPSS software. Additionally, using the survey results, the proportional values of noise pollution as the most significant environmental issue are evaluated as spatial analysis and mapped.

The aim of this study was to determine the milk quality characteristics of Simmental (SIM) cows of Austrian origin, which have increased the interest of breeders in Türkiye in recent years. For this aim, the milk analysis results of a farm located in Menemen County, İzmir/Türkiye from 2012 to 2021 were used. Milk fat (MF, %), protein (MP, %), lactose (ML, %), total dry matter (TDM, %) contents and somatic cell count (SCC, cell/ml) were determined. In order to determine the current situation, milk samples were taken from the cows (90 heads) in August 2021, and in addition to the above milk components, the solid non-fat (SNF) and freezing point (FP) were determined. The effects of sampling season, calving month, lactation month, sampling season x calving month and sampling season x lactation month interactions were found to be statistically significant for all traits (P<0.05). Parity and calving month effects on Log10SCC were also detected to be statistically significant (P<0.05). The mean MF, MP, ML, TDM, FP and SCC of SIM cattle were 3.71±0.018%, 3.42±0.009%, 4.63±0.009%, 12.49±0.03, -0.535±0.003oC and 5.14±0.01 (138.038 cells/ml), respectively. It was concluded that the milk components of Austrian-origin SIM cattle are not very different from the Holstein-Friesian (HF) breed, however, in the low SCC average for many years, besides the important contribution of the measures taken against mastitis in the farm, the resistance against mastitis may be higher in this genotype. This situation is thought to be the reason why breeders in Türkiye prefer Austrian-origin SIM cattle in addition to high milk yield and carcass weight.

Plant fungal disease pathogens cause significant yield and quality losses in onion growing areas. In addition to yield losses, they cause negative effects that reduce the quality and export potential of the product, resulting in significant economic losses during harvest, post-harvest, processing and marketing stages. In recent years, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has emerged as a rapid, cost-effective, reproducible, and powerful technique for identifying microorganisms, and its impact on microbiological diagnosis has transformed workflow in equipped laboratories. In this study, proteomic analyzes were performed on Alternaria, Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium species isolated from onion growing areas in Hatay, Amasya, and Tokat provinces. After extraction of mycelium from single spore cultures of the isolates with ethanol-formic acid, the spectra of the individual fungal isolates were determined using the Flex control software program. These spectra were compared with Maldi Biotyper Real-Time Classification (RTC) and identification was performed. Of 519 different fungal isolates, 435 representative fungal isolates (83.8%)  were identified by MALDI TOF MS. Eighty-four fungal isolates could not be identified because they were not in a satisfactory range of purity and identification. Of the 435 isolates, 269 (61.8%) were identified as Fusarium spp., 80 isolates (18.4%) were identified as Alternaria spp., 60 isolates (13.8%) as Aspergillus spp., and 26 isolates (6.0%) as Penicillium spp. Among the fungal isolates, 72.5% of the Fusarium isolates, 78.8% of the Alternaria isolates, 90.0% of the Aspergillus isolates and 84.6% of the Penicillium isolates were identified as “highly probable” species with score values between 2.000-3.000 (green color). These species are Alternaria alternata, Alternaria infectoria, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium culmorum, Fusarium moniliforme, Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium proliferatum, Fusarium solani, Fusarium verticillioides, Penicillium commune and Penicillium glabrum. The results clearly demonstrate that MALDI TOF MS biotyping may be used as a highly reliable and economical diagnostic method for routine diagnosis of diseases caused by Alternaria, Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium species.

The oleaster (Elaeagnus angustifolia L.), also known as wild olive, is a small fruit with three parts: the outer peel or exocarp layer, the edible part or mesocarp layer, and the inner seed or endocarp layer. The mesocarp layer is rich in essential vitamins and has great potential for use in various food products. The flour made from the mesocarp layer has a moisture content of 8.99%, an ash content of 2.66%, a fat content of 0.55%, a protein content of 5.99%, a crude fiber content of 3.32%, and a total dietary fiber (TDF) content of 26.36%. The TDF content is divided into insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) and soluble dietary fiber (SDF), which are 21.35% and 5.01%, respectively. The flour has color values of L*: 75.14, a*: 2.86, b*: 23.87, and a water activity value of 0.314. The water solubility, water absorption, and oil absorption are 67.33%, 4.91 g water/g sample, and 2.26 g oil/g sample, respectively. Additionally, the mesocarp layer contains minerals such as Mg, P, K, Ca, Fe, and Na. The mesocarp layer significantly affected the thermomechanical properties of wheat flour. As the substitution level of the mesocarp layer increased from 10 to 30%, the water absorption capacity, dough development time and stability time of the wheat dough significantly decreased. Specifically, the water absorption capacity dropped from 53.5% to 47%, dough development time reduced from 1.10 to 0.75 min, and stability time decreased from 8.90 to 2.25 min. Substituting a mesocarp layer in wheat flour can significantly improve product shelf-life due to slower retrogradation. The mesocarp layer is an functional ingredient in the food industry.

Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum are obligate intracellular protozoan parasites that can affect different warm-blooded species worldwide. In this study, it was aimed to detect T. gondii and N. caninum using PCR method in brain tissues of aborted sheep fetuses. Brain specimens were collected from 50 Morkaraman sheep fetuses that had undergone abortion at various stages of pregnancy, within the lambing seasons of 2023 in Muş. Approximately 1 cm³ of brain tissue from the right cerebral hemisphere was excised and subsequently frozen at -20°C for DNA extraction. DNA extraction and PCR amplification were then performed. As a result of this study, 11 (22%) of 50 brain tissues were positive. All brain samples examined in this study were negative for Neospora caninum. Based on the results of this study, it is possible to say that T. gondii is an important abortion agent in sheep in this region. Although N. caninum was not detected in this study, larger scale studies are recommended. Moreover, this study provides important information to breeders and veterinarians in the field in the evaluation and management of abortion.