The storage of spermatozoa and keeping alive for years in the spermatheca by the honey bee queen is a phenomenon allowing her to fertilize eggs throughout her life. In this study, the queens that were 2-week, 1-year, and 2-year-old were analyzed to determine the viability of spermatozoa in their spermathecae. The sister queens reared by the grafting method were instrumentally inseminated with 8 μl fresh semen when they became 6 days old. One week after instrumental insemination, one batch of queens (2-week-old) was dissected for spermatozoa viability test. Another set of queens was introduced into production colonies in Langstroth hives after the onset of oviposition in the mating nuclei. The queens were maintained in production colonies for one year and two years until the dissection process for spermatozoa viability test. The viability of spermatozoa was measured by the dual staining method. We determined that the mean viability of spermatozoa in 2-week, 1-year and 2-year-old queens were 97.3%, 91.1% and 88.1%, respectively. The viability of spermatozoa in queens decreased with age, and the differences between the viability means were significant. However, we did not detect a steep decline in the viability of spermatozoa in queens (6% in one year and 9% in two years) in a wide range of timescale in contrast to previous reports. Furthermore, we found high viability of spermatozoa in the spermathecae of queens at the start of their lives and one- and two-years of age.

Mycotoxin is a worldwide problem threatening animal health and performance as well as public health. The objective of this experiment was to test the effect of ammonization on elimination of common mycotoxins in laying hen compound feed (CF) and dairy cattle total mixed ration (TMR). The CF for laying hens and TMR for dairy cows were contaminated with commonly occurring mycotoxins [aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), ochratoxin A (OTA), and zearalenone (ZEA)] at 25 times of their accepted legal limits (20 ppb, 200 ppb and 500 ppb, respectively). They were then subjected to ammonization with ammonium bicarbonate (NH4HCO3) at 50C for 24 hours under the atmospheric pressure. Mycotoxin levels were analyzed using the LC-MS/MS technique. The elimination levels in CF and TMR were 53% and 54% for AFB1; 31% and 31% for OTA and 22% and 22% for ZEA, respectively. In conclusion, ammonization was effective in destroying common mycotoxin, at an order of AFB1 > OTA > ZEA.

In this study, it was aimed to reveal some carcass quality characteristics of 60 head Anatolian water buffalo slaughtered in a private slaughterhouse in Samsun. Between February and May 202, information about the animals and their fattening status were obtained from the owners of the animals that came for slaughter on the days when the slaughter was intense. Hot carcass weight, marbling score, back fat thickness, Longissimus dorsi muscle depth and width, muscle pH, muscle and fat color were determined in slaughtered animals. Scales developed for this purpose were used for marbling score and color of muscle and fat, and pH was determined using a pH meter for meat. In the study, it was determined that the age of the slaughtered animals did not affect the carcass quality characteristics, while the fattening period was found to be effective on the carcass weight (P

İklim değişikliğinin toprak erozyonu da dâhil olmak üzere daha şiddetli çevresel problemlere yol açması beklenmektedir. Bu araştırmada Yeşilırmak Havzasın da toprak erozyonu yoluyla meydana gelen sediment verimi ve sediment tutma kapasitesi üzerine iklim değişikliğinin etkilerinin InVEST sediment iletim modeli ile incelenmesine yöneliktir. Araştırmada İklim değişikliğinin toprak erozyonu üzerine etkilerinin incelenmesi için GFDL-CM3 (Jeofiziksel Akışkanlar Dinamiği Laboratuvarı İklim Modeli Sürüm III) genel dolaşım modelinin RCP4.5 ve RCP8.5 senaryoları kullanılmıştır. 2070’ li yıllara kadar Yeşilırmak Havzasında referans döneme göre sediment veriminde ve sediment tutunma oranlarında sırasıyla %9,48 ve %12,47 düzeyine varan azalışlar öngörülmüştür. Toprak erozyonu oranlarındaki azalmanın temel sebebi yağış miktarlarındaki düşüşlerden kaynaklanan yağış erozovitesindeki azalmadan kaynaklanmaktadır ve bu azalmanın etkisi sulak alan sistemlerine ve tarım arazilerine olumlu şekilde yansıması öngörülmüştür. Ayrıca, bu araştırma gelecekteki iklim değişikliğinin toprak erozyonuna olası etkilerinin mekânsal ve zamansal olarak tahmin edilmesinde InVEST model yaklaşımının avantajlarına işaret etmektedir.

Impact of Covid-19 pandemic introduced with itself some socio-economic transformation as well as a myriad of problems. Closure of borders, alongside a fall in trade and human mobility brought forward concerns related to the self-sufficiency of nations. Throughout the pandemic outbreak, there was an emerging need for the countries to harness their own manufacturing resources and capacity efficiently to answer soaring demands of domestic market. At this point, visibility of agricultural sector has become foregrounded because of its inherent role in food and nutrition. Particularly speaking; producers who supplied need for seasonal labor from other countries were forced to take instantaneous measures and implement political changes. In Türkiye, since demand for seasonal labor could be met through domestic resources, it was feasible to prevent any failures during manufacturing process. Nevertheless, there were common concerns arising among the public on the measures to take for the work and life conditions of seasonal agricultural workers and required policies to implement. Within the context of this study, research on the discussions, practices, and measures to follow for agricultural sector during Covid-19 pandemic period has been conducted. Analyses have been drawn on the regulation in Türkiye and relevant policies have been suggested.

This study was carried out over the experimental fields of Ankara University, Faculty of Agriculture Gümüşdere Campus. Experiments were conducted with 3 different irrigation water salinity levels (S1=0.25 dS/m – control/tap water, S2=1.5 dS/m, S3=3.0 dS/m) and 4 different leaching ratios (LF1=10%, LF2 =20%, LF3 = 35%, LF4=50%) in randomized plots factorial experimental design with 3 replications. Totally, 36 (3×4×3) lysimeters were used in present experiments. Plant height, fresh and dry herbage yield and total ash content of alfalfa plants were analyzed. With increasing salinity levels, plant height, fresh and dry herbage yields decreased and total ash contents increased. Positive effects of leaching applications were observed, but this effect was not found to be significant. The main reason for this situation may be the necessity of a good drainage system for a good leaching application.

The study aimed was to determine the best nonlinear function describing the growth stages of the Japanese quail breed. To this aim, growth functions such as exponential, logistic, von Bertalanffy, Brody, and Gompertz were used as nonlinear functions is used in the description of the body weight-age relationship of male and female Japanese quails. The Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) data mining algorithm was applied to the individual growth parameters obtained from the determined as the best fit model, and the relationship between sex and growth parameters with it has been revealed. The study dataset was 1267 body weight-age records collected from the hatching to the 6th week of age of 181 Japanese quails consisting of 90 females and 91 males. Each model was applied separately for both males and females. Model fit criteria such as coefficient of determination (R2), adjusted coefficient of determination (R2adj), Akaike's information criterion (AIC), and Bayes information criterion (BIC) were used to evaluate the performances of the growth functions used individually. All the statistical analyses were made by the R package program. The growth curve models were ranked in the form of Logistic > Gompertz > von Bertalanffy > Brody > Exponential according to the goodness of fit criteria. The most suitable model among the non-linear models in terms of performance was logistic. When the relationship between the growth curve parameters and body weight of the logistic model was explained with the MARS algorithm, the goodness of fit criteria showed that the obtained MARS model showed reliable performance. In addition, Pearson’s correlation coefficient between real and estimated body weight was found quite strong for the MARS algorithm (r=0.935). The results showed that the MARS algorithm can be presented as a good reference for breeders to establish breed standards and selection strategies for Japanese quails in growth parameters for breeding purposes.

This study aims to determine the characteristics of young farmers and their businesses that benefit from and cannot benefit from young farmer support in the Mediterranean Region and determine the factors that affect the benefit of young farmer project support. In 2016, a survey was conducted with all 160 producers who benefited from young farmer support, and a survey was conducted with 56 producers who applied for young farmer project support but could not benefit from it to make comparisons between groups. The tendency of farmers to benefit from the young farmer support project was determined using artificial neural networks and logistic regression analysis. It was determined that the majority of the producers who received support only made animal production and mixed production (livetock production and vegetable production), while the majority of the producers who did not receive support made only plant production. With both analysis methods, it was determined that the most critical variables that affect the benefit of young farmer project support are the type of activity, the share of non-agricultural income in total income, the number of farmers in the family, the education period, the status of having non-agricultural income and family size. The total correct classification rate was found to be 87.04% in the logistic regression analysis and 91.20% in the artificial neural network analysis, and it was seen that the classification percentages obtained by both methods were quite close to each other.

This study focused on the determination of secondary metabolites to an evaluation of the biological activity of Elaeocarpus variabilis Zmarzty fruit extract, an endemic medicinal plant. Their total Phenolic, tannin, flavonoids, alkaloids and saponins contents were quantified and their antioxidant activity, determined by DPPH, total antioxidant, ABTS, FRAP and Fe2+ chelating activity. The ethyl acetate extract exhibited the highest radical scavenging activity. The most relevant contents in total phenolics (Gallic Acid Equivalent mg/g), tannin (Gallic Acid Equivalent mg/g), total flavonoids (Rutin equivalent mg/g), total alkaloids (Quinine equivalent mg/g), and total saponin (Diosgenin equivalent mg/g) were observed. Significant correlations were established between antioxidant activity and secondary metabolites. Though the in vitro anti-diabetic activity was carried out using -amylase and -glucosidase inhibition, this indicates that the absorption and digestion of carbohydrates would probably reduce the blood glucose levels and hence help the management of type-2 diabetes. The ethyl acetate extract exhibited the potential of anticancer activity on human HT-29 colon cancer cell line IC50 values (30.0 ± 1.0) the valuable activity that compared to doxorubicin (17.0 ± 0.5). While this is the first study concerning extract from E. variabilis, our findings highlighted the richness’ in flavonoids of those extracts and their amazing potential as a source of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and anticancer agents.