Sixty-two multiparous Large White sows were used to determine the effect of dietary fiber level on lactation performance according to season under conditions of a humid tropical climate. This experiment was conducted in Guadeloupe (West French Indies, lat 16 degrees N, long 61 degrees W) between October 1999 and January 2001. Two seasons were distinguished a posteriori from climatic measurement...

Ixodes (Afrixodes) matopi occurs in association with the klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus) in rocky areas in Zimbabwe. The adult ticks are specific parasites of this antelope and the immature stages feed on klipspringers, hydraxes (Procavia capensis and Heterohyrax brucei) and red rock hares (Pronolagus crassicaudatus). Adults are active only in the wet season and prior to feeding are found ...

Foraging networks are a key element for ant colonies because they facilitate the flow of resources from the environment to the nest and they allow the sharing of information among individuals. Here we report the results of an 8-month survey, extending from November 2009 to June 2010, of the foraging networks of four mature colonies of Atta bisphaerica, a species of grass-cutting ant which is co...

In order to clarify the comfort temperature and to investigate the behavioral adaptation in Japanese houses, we have conducted a thermal comfort survey and occupant behavior survey in 30 living rooms during the hot and humid season in the Kanto region of Japan. We collected 3991 votes from 52 subjects. The comfort temperature was predicted by Griffiths’ method. They are analyzed according to hu...

As commonly defined, the tropics comprise that region of the earth lying between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, constituting 38% of the larid surface (5 x 109 ha). The tropics may also be defined as those areas with mean temperatures greater than 18'C in all mor.ths of th. year. A third definition of the tropics specifies those areas with soils in which the tempera­ ture at a depth of 50 ...

AIM This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of hot dry, hot humid and comfortable season on physiological, hematological, biochemical, and oxidative stress parameters in Surti buffaloes. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ten lactating Surti buffaloes of similar physiological status were selected. Based on the temperature-humidity index (THI), their natural exposure to the environment was categori...

Fire seasonality, an important characteristic of fire regimes, commonly is delineated using seasons based on single weather variables (rainfall or temperature). We used nonparametric cluster analyses of a 17-year (1993-2009) data set of weather variables that influence likelihoods and spread of fires (relative humidity, air temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, soil moisture) to explore sea...

Indonesia has a total population of around 206 million with 4.5 million households keeping livestock. About half of the cattle farmers are small farmers. The Indonesian archipelago is a land area of 1.8 million km consisting of over 13,000 islands stretching from the Western tip of Sumatra to the Eastern border of Papua. The largest island, Kalimantan (Borneo), covers 28% of the total land area...