<div>Background: Producing Thai native chickens through feed commercial is costly. To reduce the cost, native chicken could be fed with local plants or agricultural waste.&nbsp;Hyrrilla verticillate, a dominate macrophyte in Songkhla Lagoon, contain high crude protein and nitrogen free extract. Therefore, this research studied the use of Hydrilla verticillate in Thai native chicken diet on production performance, carcass characteristics and production cost. 
 
Methods: The experiment was executed in a completely randomized design (CRD) with 180 one-day-old commercial Thai native chicks. Four dietary treatments supplemented with 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% Hydrilla verticillata were formulated for three different phases of the experimental chickens: starter (1-4 weeks), grower (5-8 weeks) and finisher (9-12 weeks). Two chickens from each replicate were chosen for the carcass characteristics study. 
 
Result: During the starter phase, there was no notable effect shown among the chickens fed with the diet containing Hydrilla verticillata in terms of feed intake (FI) and body weight gain (BWG) (P&gt;0.05). The control chickens had best feed conversion ratio (FCR) (P&lt;0.05), while the grower and the finisher periods, provided with different levels of Hydrilla verticillata, revealed no apparent differences (P&gt;0.05) concerning FI, BWG and FCR. Considering carcass characteristics, there were significant differences in live weight (LW) (P&lt;0.05). But, no significant differences between treatments for hot carcass percentage, pectoralis majors, pectoralis minorstrip, thighs, wings, drumsticks and total edible carcass (P&gt;0.05). There were also statistical divergences regarding gizzard weight (GW) (P&lt;0.05).</div>

​Effect of Hydrilla verticillata in Feed on Production Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Thai Native Chickens

<div>Background: Pokkali is a versatile rice- fish system of cultivation, producing naturally organic rice along the waterlogged coastal regions of Kerala. The weed flora of Pokkali rice fields is different from other rice ecosystems. Diverse weed flora appears in low saline phase, when rice is cultivated, but they dry up and decompose in high saline phase. With time, significant deviations have been reported in various climatic parameters and as a result, the weed spectrum has also undergone changes.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: Two level stratified surveys and anotomical studies were conducted during Kharif 2017 and 2018 to study the weed flora in five major Pokkali growing blocks of Kerala. Two panchayaths (political village units) from each block and two padasekharams (group farming units) in each panchayath were selected for surveying. To understand the adaptive mechanism of weeds in saline soil condition, anatomical studies were performed on individual weed species. 
 
Result: Cyperaceae family dominated in the ecosystem with more number of species. Diplachne fusca and Eleocharis dulcis were the major weeds. Echinochloa crus-galli, a dominant weed reported in earlier weed survey was found confined to very few locations and the frequency got reduced from 80% to 12.5%. In addition, Sphenoclea zeylanica was observed as an emerging weed with notable morphological adaptations. Floating ferns like Najas graminea and Hydrilla verticillata caused problems to aeration in the water in fields.</div>

Weed Dynamics in Acid Saline Pokkali Ecosystem of Kerala

Background: With remarkable growth in aquaculture, the need for system diversification and species diversification has been demanded by the producers to gain fruitful output in terms of profit. Striped murrel, Channa striata has been identified as a suitable species for modern aquaculture systems in terms of species diversification due to their fast growth rate, air-breathing nature, higher market price and consumer acceptance. The major bottlenecks in seed production of murrel are captive maturation and short spawning window. To overcome these problems, an attempt was made to achieve early gonadal maturity of striped murrel in captive conditions by intervening in the brooder rearing habitat.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: In this regard, four habitats were tested in duplicates, namely T1 - Tank with clean reservoir water without macrophytes and soil base, T2 - Tanks provided with floating (Water hyacinth, Eichhornia sp) and submerged (Waterthyme, Hydrilla sp) aquatic macrophytes without any soil base, T3- Tanks provided with only soil base (15-20 cm) without any macrophytes and T4 - Tanks provided with both soil base and macrophytes.&nbsp; 
 
Result: At the end of the three-months rearing phase, the fishes provided with macrophytes and soil base (T4) resulted in early maturation characterized by an egg size of around 1.29&plusmn;0.21 mm and the majority of late granular stage oocytes and spermatozoa in ovary and testes, respectively. The results concluded that providing a bottom soil base of 15-20 cm and covering the 20-30% water spread area using aquatic macrophytes in the brood rearing tank helped in the gonadal maturation of striped murrel during pre-monsoon in captive conditions.&nbsp;

​Effect of Hydrilla verticillata in Feed on Production Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Thai Native Chickens

Weed Dynamics in Acid Saline Pokkali Ecosystem of Kerala

The Effect of Habitat Manipulation on Early Gonad Maturation of Channa striata in Captive Condition

Effect of Hydrilla verticillata in Feed on Production Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Thai Native Chickens