Improving Bovine Productivity in Central Africa: The case of Goudali Zebu Cattle under Ranching Conditions in Western Highland Sudan-Savannah of Cameroon

The Central Africa bloc of nations’ cattle industry needs to be developed. One essential input ingredient identified by stakeholders is the need for a constant supply of seedstock cattle of good quantity and quality and sustainable nutrition. Given the current orientation towards a boost in production that can meet up local demands as well as generate beef export among member states; the need for adaptable breeds with much more specific information on beef products derived from the different systems of husbandry is emerging. Prevailing cattle production systems are muzzled by scarcity of affordable protein feeds. In this study we explored the suitability of use of low-toxic Jatropha curcas as a novel ruminant protein feed integrator and assessed the beef production performance of autochthonous Zebu Goudali beef-type cattle crossbred with the Italian Simmental and attempted an evaluation of the two cattle genotypes for prevalence and dermatophillosis- resistance allele markers under low input system of the Western highlands plateau Savannah of Cameroon; a cattle hotspot in the Central Africa. There is a copious amount of information on the suitable level of introgression of exotic inheritance on indigenous cattle in low input production systems as a strategy to improve on their productivity. These studies indicate that; milk production, reproduction, growth performance and milk composition traits were all in favour of the 50% exotic cross. On behalf of FAO, Cunningham and Syrstad (1987) made an extensive analysis of results from crossbreeding in the tropics. Their clear conclusion was that consistent improvements in most performance traits were achieved in ‘upgrading’ cattle to as much as 50% with temperate breeds even though a smaller amount of study showed levels of introgression greater than 50% to be more important. A study in Brazil, Madalena et al. (1990), supports these findings in general, but found the 62.5% levelto be optimal. Results may, however, vary according to environmental conditions and traits studied. More recent studies involving meta-analysis of increasingly large numbers of results from the literature (McDowell et al. 1996; Syrstad, 1996; and Rege, 1998) as well as analysis of individual long-term studies in Asia (Jadhav et al., 199l), Africa (Rege et al., 1994; Thorpe et al., 1993) and Latin America (Madalena et al., 1990) have confirmed the previous results. A general conclusion is, though, that crossbreeding to produce animals with up to 50% of the genes from temperate breeds can be recommended where crossbreeding is an option for genetic improvement. Crosses with less than 50% B. taurus genes have been found to be poor dairy animals (Syrstad, 1992).   Our investigation indicated that feeding Jatropha curcas cake up to levels of 4 mg of phorbol ester/day do not pose any evidence of pathology to small ruminants. Inclusions beyong 6 mg/day in the diet can pose deleterious health effects to the animals. Thus validating the potential role of Jatropha curcas protein integrator as an alternative and affordable protein source for ruminant nutrition. On the crossbreeding component of our studies rather than looking at the impact of level of introgression of the Italian Simmental blood on autochthonous Goudali Zebu cattle; we devoted the major part of it to assessing under the Western Highland Plateau Savannah explored genetic markers of adaptability of autochthonous cattle breed and their 50% bloodline crossbred with the Italian Simmental to Dermatophilus congolensis, and the production performance values of their carcass and meat characteristics; in a context where these information are scanty. We observed that thoroughbred Goudali (G) young bulls show much lower in vivo and at slaughter performance than their crosses with Italian Simmental breed (SG) and that clinical dermatophilosis is common among G and SG cattle in the western highland plateau savannah of Central Africa and resistance cannot be predicted solely on the variability of BoLA-DRB3 gene. In addition, the results highlight the potential of optimising heterosis and maternal effects by improving bull’s transfer and pre-slaughter conditions. The study, within a broader whole supply value chain approach, validates the relationship between low-toxic Jatropha curcas cake, environmental adaptability; with respect to endemic dermatophilosis and livestock productivity improvement. This, considering the lowering effect on sector environmental footprints, increasing its feedstock flexibility and security while improving the social acceptance of both Jatropha curcas cultivation and intensive animal breeding as well as invoking the need for an increase in the level of animal productivity and welfare along the beef production value chain in Central Africa