Basrah Journal of Agricultural Sciences

The dust mite Oligonychus afrasiaticus (McGregor 1939) (Acari: Tetranychidae) poses a significant threat to date palm Phoenix dactylifera L. productivity in Iraq. To address this issue, a field study was conducted in a private date palm orchard in Al-Zubair district, Basrah province, Iraq, to assess the efficacy of some treatments in controlling the dust mite population on date palm fruits. The treatments included lemongrass extract, nanosulfur, a combination of lemongrass extract and nanosulfur, liquid sulfur, and a distilled water as control treatment. Treatments were applied by spraying on leaves and fruits at three dates: five weeks, eight weeks, and eleven weeks after pollination. Dust mite mortality rates were measured at intervals of 1, 3, 5, and 7 days after treatment application. Results revealed that the second date, eight weeks after pollination, exhibited the highest mortality rate of 76.77%, significantly outperforming other dates. Among the treatments, liquid sulfur showed the highest efficiency, with an 87.83% mortality rate, followed closely by the combination of lemongrass extract and nanosulfur (84.14%). Nanosulfur alone recorded a mortality rate of 79.26%, while lemongrass extract alone showed a mortality rate of 49.15%. The mortality rate increased over time, reaching 80.79% after 7 days and 65.76% after 1 day. In conclusion, liquid sulfur emerged as the most effective treatment for controlling the dust mite population on date palm fruits. The second date, eight weeks after pollination, was the optimal time for treatment application. These findings offer valuable insights into sustainable and environmentally friendly pest control strategies for date palm cultivation in Iraq.

This study investigated the impact of freeze-dried coacervates at various concentrations (0.5, 1, and 1.5%) on physicochemical and microbiological properties of orange juice. Either 60% ethanol freeze-dried coacervates (EFC) or absolute ethanol freeze-dried coacervates (AFC) were used. The addition of EFC or AFC to orange juice did not significantly (p<0.05) affect pH, viscosity, or electric conductivity, as pH was unchanged for a 0.5% concentration and slightly increased from 3.99 to 4.01 at 1% and 1.5% concentrations. After adding AFC and EFC, viscosity were 52, 53, and 53 mPas at 0.5, 1, and 1.5% concentrations, respectively. Electric conductivity increased from 0.278 s.m-1 (control) to 0.334, 0.347, and 0.375 s.m-1 at 0.5, 1, and 1.5% concentrations after adding EFC, while were 0.325, 0.335, and 0.373 s.m-1 at the same concentration after adding AFC, respectively. However, after adding EFC, total phenolic content increased to 77.25, 115.96, and 154.95 mg.100mL-1, total flavonoid content (TFC)increased to 34.76, 52.18, and 69.73 mg.100mL-1, and antioxidant activity (AA) enhanced to 70.36, 74.36, and 79.58% at concentrations 0.5, 1, and 1.5%, respectively. Also, after adding AFC, total phenolic content increased to 79.26, 117.78, and 156.25 mg.100mL-1, TFC increased to 35.67, 53.00, and 70.31 mg.100mL-1, and AA enhanced to 71.65, 75.84, and 81.21% at concentrations 0.5, 1, and 1.5%, respectively. At concentrations 0.5, 1, and 1.5%, EFC decreased total plate count (TPC) to 2.12, 2.02, and 1.78 log cfu.mL-1, respectively and mold and yeast counts decreased to 1.5, 1.35, and 1.1 log cfu.mL-1, respectively. Also, adding AFC caused TPC to decrease to 2.18, 2.04, and 1.84 log cfu.mL-1, respectively and mold and yeast count decreased to 1.53, 1.33, and 1.12 log cfu.mL-1, respectively. Overall, the results indicate that adding EFC or AFC to fresh orange juice can enhance its nutritional and microbiological qualities without degrading its sensory qualities.

This study aimed to explore the genetic diversity and molecular relationships of different genotypes of locally cultivated Bengkulu Ambon bananas. The investigation involved the utilization of chloroplast SSR markers and PCR techniques with 12 primers to examine 29 samples of Ambon bananas. The findings revealed monomorphic (uniform pattern) and polymorphic (varying patterns) DNA bands within the samples. In almost all samples, the monomorphic band pattern was found to be dominant at around 450 base pairs. Meanwhile, in 500 base pairs (primer 4), two different monomorphs were found.Additionally, primers 8 and 11 demonstrated multiple fragment band patterns, indicating the presence of polymorphism among the samples. The results of the dendogram analysis show that the level of similarity of all samples is relatively high. However, there are groups that represent genetic diversity. At a similarity level of 0.82 there are three clusters, four clusters at 0.85, seven clusters at 0.9 and so on. Of the 29 accessions studied, it is known that there are 11 samples that are completely genetically similar. This study provides valuable insights into the genetic diversity and relationships among locally cultivated Bengkulu Ambon bananas. The findings contribute to the existing knowledge regarding the molecular characteristics of these bananas and hold significance for conservation and breeding initiatives.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the growth and survival rates of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) larvae fed different diets levels in laboratory Two-day-old larvae were transferred from the University of Basrah Marine Science Center hatchery to the Abi Al-Khaseeb district's experiment laboratory. The larvae were distributed into four treatments 450 larvae each treatment (150 larvae per replicate and three replicates per treatment) at a stock density of 3.33 larvae /L. The treatments were as follows: T1 was given boiling egg yolks; T2 was given a processed diet with 45% protein; T3 was given Redi-Lac milk powder; and T4 was given ground Artemia eggs. The experiment ran for 20 days, beginning on April 17, 2022.The results showed that larvae fed on diet containing ground Artemia eggs (T4) produced the highest final weight (39.667mg), followed by a diet containing 45% protein processed diet (T2), , Redi-Lac milk powder food (T3), and boiled egg yolks food (T1) produced the lowest final weight ( 27.333 and 24.667 mg, respectively) Statistical analysis revealed a significant difference (P≤0.05) in the final weight, weight gain, daily growth rate, relative growth rate and specific growth rate between T4 and T1, but not between T4 and T2 and between T4 and T3. The survival rate showed a significant difference (P≤0.05) between T4 (0.71%) and other treatments. Our results suggest that ground Artemia eggs is the most suitable and optimal meal for common carp fish larvae.

The study area was classified into three categories (vegetation cover, water, and others)using four satellite images of the Landsat 8 satellite captured during March for the period 2019-2022 into. The results showed that there is a change in the climatic conditions (temperature and rainfall) for the years of the study. The average temperature increased from 12.29°C to 25.967°C from the year 2019 to 2022. The annual amount of precipitation was decreased from 469.43 mm for the year 2019 to 105.49 mm for the year 2022.this negatively changed affected the water and agricultural resources, as the amount of water storage for Lake Hamrin and Lake Al-Wand together reached to 2,314,584,000 m3 and 40,404,000 m3 for the years 2019 and 2022, respectively. This led to decrease in the vegetation area from 1587.29 km2 to 356.17 for the year 2019 km2 and 2022, respectively.

This study focuses on designing a conservation indigenous Awassi sheep breeding program based on the analysis of genetic variation using the simple sequence repeat markers (SSR). The allele frequency distribution of six SSR markers distributed on three different chromosomes was used to determine the genetic variation among 50 Awassi sheep (15 from the north, 20 from the middle, and 15 from the south of Babylon city) that were collected from the private herds. The results showed that the RM32 marker exhibited high frequency and the most genotypes existed compared to other markers. The mean number of alleles (NA), the effective number of alleles (NE), the Shannon index (I), and the polymorphism information content (PIC) values per loci were 2.66 ± 0.81, 2.05 ± 0.87, 0.73 ± 0.42, and 0.37± 0.26 respectively. Also, the average observed (Obs_Hom), expected (Exp_Hom) homozygosity, observed (Obs_Het), expected (Exp_Het) heterozygosity, Nei’s expected heterozygosity, and inbreeding coefficient (FIS) were 0.77± 0.18, 0.56 ±0.25, 0.23 ± 0.18, 0.44 ±0.25, 0.43± 0.24, and 0.41± 0.12, respectively. The results of the Bayesian analysis revealed that all populations were homogenous there was a clear overlap between the individuals of the three distinct clusters were formed. On this basis, we conclude that the indigenous Awassi sheep in Babylon city have reasonable genetic variation.