IntroductionThe Gaddi dog, sometimes called the Himalayan sheepdog, is a livestock guardian breed from the Himalayas. This breed has been associated with migratory pastoral systems for centuries and is known for its endurance and adaptation to harsh environmental conditions. However, the breed is currently facing genetic dilution due to the lack of dedicated breeding programs.MethodsIn this study, whole-genome resequencing of the Indian Himalayan shepherd dog (Gaddi dog) was performed using Illumina paired-end sequencing technology. Whole-genome resequencing was conducted at a mean sequencing depth of approximately 40× per individual. Sequence reads were aligned to the reference genome, and variant detection and functional annotation were performed using the Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK) pipeline.ResultsWhole-genome resequencing of two dogs generated 10,914,188 SNPs. Functional analysis highlighted genetic pathways related to metabolism, muscle contraction, and platelet activation, which are important for survival in extreme environments. Functional annotation of high-impact variants identified genes such as TTN, SALL4, and SLC30A6, which are associated with muscle contraction, signal transduction, and metabolic processes.DiscussionThe findings provide preliminary genomic insights into genetic variants potentially associated with endurance and environmental resilience in the Gaddi dog. These results may support conservation efforts, breed improvement programs, and future research on environmental adaptation and performance in working dog breeds.

Background:The rising cost of conventional feed ingredients and environmental concerns related to agro-waste disposal have created a need for sustainable feed alternatives. Vegetable waste provides valuable nutrients but contains anti-nutritional factors that may limit utilization. Strategic supplementation with small quantities of phytogenic additives such as cinnamon extract and turmeric powder may enhance nutrient utilization and overall performance. Aim:This study evaluated the effects of partial substitution of conventional feed ingredients with vegetable waste, supplemented with low levels of cinnamon extract and turmeric powder, on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, carcass traits, and economic efficiency in broilers. Methodology:A total of 150 day-old Vencobb-400 broiler chicks were randomly allocated to three dietary treatments for 42 days: T0 (control, basal diet), T1 (15% vegetable waste-4% Urtica dioica, 3% cauliflower, 3% pea, and 5% radish leaves-with 0.1% cinnamon extract and 0.3% turmeric powder), and T2 (same as T1 with approximately 10% reduced metabolizable energy). Results:T1 demonstrated a significantly greater weight gain (P < 0.0001), showing a 16.96% increase over T0 and an improved feed conversion ratio of 1.72 over 2.05. Crude protein digestibility increased from 84.3% in T0 to 89.7% in T1. T1 also achieved the highest carcass yield, gross profit (40.0%) and European Efficiency Factor (321.96). No adverse effects were observed on liver enzyme levels. Conclusion:Incorporating 15% vegetable waste, supported by minimal phytogenic supplementation, significantly improves broiler performance and profitability. Future research should explore optimization of waste composition and dietary energy levels for commercial application.

The Gaddi dog, traditionally employed as a Livestock Guard Dog by Gaddi nomads in Himachal Pradesh, India, plays a vital role in safeguarding livestock during seasonal migration. Managing approximately 70% of the state's sheep and goat population, the Gaddis face significant wildlife threats, including bears (Ursidae), snow leopards (Panthera uncia), and wolves (Canis lupus), resulting in considerable livestock losses. This study based on, data collected from 21 flocks (average sizes: 115 +/- 91.90; range: 40-300 sheep and 95 +/- 51.48: 20-200 goats) using structured questionnaires, assesses the behavioral traits and effectiveness of Gaddi dogs compared to non-Gaddi breeds. Analytical methods included frequency count, percentages, Likert scale, Garrett's ranking, and MannWhitney U test to evaluate and compare the performance of both dog types. Findings revealed that approximately one-third of shepherds reported an increase in wildlife attacks over the past decade, with average losses of 7.31 +/- 5.53 (range: 2-26) due to predation and 4.74 +/- 6.40 (range: 1-30) for non-predation. Gaddi dogs demonstrated superior effectiveness in reducing livestock losses, with 23.81% of respondents reporting no losses when employing Gaddi dogs. Statistical analyses indicated Gaddi dogs outperformed non-Gaddi dogs in key behavioral attributes, including attentiveness, trustworthiness, protectiveness, and longevity, with notable differences in mean scores (p<0.05). Despite their effectiveness in reducing predation and livestock rustling, certain challenges persist, incuding high rearing costs and undesirable behaviors such as chasing vehicles and wildlife. Nevertheless, Gaddi dogs emerged as the most effective non-lethal strategy for livestock protection, contributing to reduced human-wildlife conflict and supporting conservation efforts.

The present study was conducted to analyse the effect of feeding diets containing different levels of Developed Supplement Feed (DSF) on egg quality and egg production traits in Low Input Technology (LIT) bird viz. Him-Samridhi (HS) under Confined Scavenging (CS) system of rearing. A total of 72 HS birds (23 weeks of age) were randomly divided into 3 dietary treatments with 24-layer birds in each treatment groups. Dietary treatments were T0 (control) group fed on basal diet only, while the other two groups (T1 & T2) were fed basal diet supplemented with 10 g and 20 g/bird DSF respectively, for a period of 42 weeks. External egg quality parameters, internal egg quality parameters, egg yolk and albumin mineral profile and egg production traits were recorded using standard methods. Results showed that external egg quality traits as well as internal egg quality traits did not differ significantly by DSF supplementation except shape index. Albumen content was found numerically higher (5.1%) in DSF supplemented groups. Egg production trait like hen-day egg production (HDEP) differed significantly (p

The present study evaluated production performance and egg quality traits of native and Kadaknath chicken of Himachal Pradesh under sub-temperate western Himalayan region of India. External egg quality traits like egg weight, egg length, egg width, shell thickness and internal traits like length, height, width of albumen, yolk height, and yolk width were measured. Body weight of native and Kadaknath birds differed significantly at different age of measurements and body weight of native birds was significantly higher than Kadaknath. Age at sexual maturity was found less in native birds in comparison to Kadaknath. HHEP and HDEP was observed higher in native birds than Kadaknath. Mean value estimated for egg weight, egg length, egg width, shape index and shell thickness were 45.33 g, 54.99 mm, 41.27 mm, 75.02% and 0.36 mm, respectively in native eggs while corresponding values were 43.87 g, 53.61 mm, 40.80 mm, 76.20% and 0.34 mm, respectively in Kadaknath eggs. Albumen length, albumen width, yolk height and yolk index is observed significantly higher in native birds than Kadaknath. Appraisal of farm practices through field survey suggests that Kadaknath birds witnessed rising popularity in recent times. However, native birds of the region are better producers in comparison to Kadaknath. This suggests that native birds may be preferred over Kadaknath birds in similar regions where premium pricing of Kadaknath is unavailable. Occasionally peri-urban market offered opportunity of premium pricing based income through sale of Kadaknath birds. Thus, rearing of Kadaknath along with native birds is advised in such regions.

Abstract The study was conducted with the aim to find out the effect of ensiled apple pomace based complete feed on growth response of calves. Ten male cross-bred calves were used for determination of dry matter intake (DMI), gain in weight (GIW) and feed efficiency ratio (FER) of ensiled apple pomace based complete feed. Ensiled mixture of apple pomace (AP) and wheat straw (WS) i.e. (EMAPWS) was mixed with concentrate feed and fed to Group 1 calves. The Group 2 calves were fed with ensiled AP in which fresh WS i.e. (EMAPFWS) and concentrate was mixed just before feeding. Growth parameters such as (GIW (Kg/week/calf and Kg/day/calf), DMI (% body weight/calf) and feed efficiency ratio were worked out up to 8 weeks. The overall average DMI in Group 1 and Group 2, respectively, was 2.791 and 2.507 per cent of body weight. The overall average GIW was 2.019 and 1.825 kg, respectively, in Group 1 and Group 2. The overall average daily gain in weight was 288 and 260 g/calf/day in Group 1 and Group 2, respectively. There was non-significant variation in FER between both the groups. The overall feed efficiency ratio was 0.1475 and 0.1876 in Group 1 and Group 2, respectively. The overall feed efficiency ratio of Group 2 was 27.19 percent higher than Group 1. It meant that higher DMI, GIW and FER could be achieved by ensiling WS and AP together and was more palatable than adding fresh WS in ensiled AP.

The objective of this study was to analyze the diverse morphological attributes of Kotdhar goat native to Shivalik hill region of Himachal Pradesh. A total number of 180 goats, comprising 150 females and 30 males aged between 1 and 3 years, were randomly selected to estimate15 distinct morphological traits and ten body indices. Mean values of 17.66 cm, 11.68 cm, 8.73 cm, 71.94 cm, 69.83 cm, 74.48 cm, 38.10 cm, 73.38 cm, 20.55 cm, 16.48 cm, 14.89 cm, 13.57 cm, 19.20 cm, 7.71 cm and 26.12 kg were estimated for head length, head width, face length, body length, wither height, heart girth, chest depth, rump height, rump length, rump width, haunch width, bicoastal width, shoulder width, cannon bone and body weight respectively. In addition, morphological indices viz. body index, length index, body ratio, thoracic development, pelvic index, longitudinal pelvic index, transverse pelvic index, proportionality index, dactyl thorax index and relative depth of thorax were estimated from morphological traits. Results of morphological indices indicated that Kotdhar goat are medium bodied, longilinear, tall animals and well-suited for meat production. Phenotypic correlation among most of traits was positive and significant. Among all correlations, correlation between head length and head width was found lowest (− 0.270), while the correlation between heart girth and chest depth was observed highest (0.861). Canonical discriminant function analysis showed that there was no considerable level of intermixing for morphological traits in Kotdhar goat. Employing principal component analysis with varimax rotation, three principal components were observed, accounting for 68.47

The aim of the study was to examine the effects of repeated administrations of antioxidant multiminerals and vitamins in transition buffaloes on udder defense mechanism, antioxidant activity and occurrence of intramammary infection (IMI) in early lactation period. Forty clinically healthy pregnant buffaloes were enrolled 45 days before expected date of calving and randomly allocated into five different supplementation groups (n = 8): only basal ration (control), vitamin E and selenium (VES), multiminerals (MM), ascorbic acid (AA) and chromium (Cr) picolinate in basal diet. The udder defense mechanism was monitored by measuring phagocytic activity (PA), myeloperoxidase (MPO) and nitric oxide (NO) productions in milk leukocytes, antioxidant activity was evaluated by measuring total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in plasma and occurrence of IMI was assessed by milk cytology, bacterial count in milk and visible clinical signs of udder until day 28 post-calving. The results showed that the VES and MM supplementations exhibited significantly higher PA, MPO and NO productions of milk leukocytes till first week of lactation whereas, elevated mean TAC in plasma was maintained from day -7 to 1 of calving in MM supplementation group as compared to control group. Statistically, no significant difference in occurrences of subclinical or clinical IMI was noted across the groups until four weeks of lactation. Taken together, it is concluded that repeated administrations of VES and MM to transition buffaloes could be an effective strategy to maintain good udder health by augmenting milk leukocyte functions and antioxidant status and preventing incidence of IMI in early lactation.

Escherichia coli is one of the most important pathogens in poultry farms around the world, causing colibacillosis and early chick mortality.Outbreaks cause heavy economic losses as primary pathogen and comoribund with other diseases.The report presents an outbreak of colibacillosis with mortality of 12.50% in one-week old Karaknath chicks at an organized poultry farm in Meerut.The cases were diagnosed on the basis of history, clinical findings, postmortem investigation and laboratory examination.The ailing chicks were weak and dejected, with stunted growth, respiratory discomfort and vent pasting.Postmortem examination revealed polyserositis with fibrinous hepatitis, pericarditis, peritonitis, air sacculitis and omphalitis.The E. coli isolates were obtained from the infected tissues of dead chicks and cloacal swabs of sick birds using bacteriological and biochemical techniques.The isolates were resistant to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, ampicillin, cefuroxime, tetracycline, norfloxacin and enrofloxacin, but showed sensitivity to ampicillin/sulbactum, amikacin and gentamicin.The apparently healthy and ailing chicks of the farm were treated with gentamicin @ 5-10 mg/kg body weight orally for 5 days.Multivitamin @ 5 g/L was given in drinking water for 3 days to improve the immunity.Treatment resulted in clinical recovery of the chicks and checked further mortality at the farm. HIGHLIGHTSm Outbreak of Colibacillosis in one week old Karaknath chicks.m Carcass of chicks revealed polyserositis with marked omphalitis.m Gentamicin was antibiotic of choice for treating ailing chicks resulting in recovery.

The pea leafminer, Chromatomyia horticola (Goureau) (Diptera: Agromyzidae) is a polyphagous and serious pest of peas. In India, this pest is attacked by many parasitoids and among them Diglyphus horticola Khan (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) is an important one, however, demographics and pest-kill potential of this parasitoid has not been studied so far. This study presents the first report on its demographics and pest-kill potential on C. horticola. The parasitoid showed three modes of host-killing behaviour viz. host-feeding, parasitism and host-stinging. The parasitoid females killed more number of hosts by parasitism than host-feeding or host-stinging. The pre-adult survival, net reproductive rate, intrinsic rate of increase (rm) and finite rate of increase (λ) were higher on the 5-days old host larvae than those reared on the 3-days old larvae. Demographics and pest-kill parameters of D. horticola were also better on 5-days old host larvae than on 3-days old host larvae. Based on the study, D. horticola appeared to be a promising biocontrol agent for the suppression of C. horticola in peas and could be promoted through conservation biological control. Further studies are required to standardize the mass production protocol and release rates to use the parasitoid by augmentation.

The present study assessed the effect of genotype, season and period on fertility and hatchability of chicken eggs during five year period (April 2017 to March 2022). The eggs for hatching were collected from birds belonging to three genotypes viz. Dahlem Red (DR), Native and cross of (Dahlem Red × Native) with Dahlem Red (DND). Average fertility percentage was observed highest in DND followed by native and Dahlem Red. Hatchability percentage on fertile egg set and total egg set was 80.91 & 70.20, 80.83 & 70.29 and 76.78 & 66.52 in native, DND and Dahlem Red respectively. Significant difference in hatchability percentage of Dahlem Red with native and DND was observed. Hatchability percentage was found better in native and DND bird. Season wise, fertility percentage was observed highest in winter (87.40) followed by rainy (86.34) and summer (86.01). Hatchability percentage on fertile egg set and total egg set was observed highest in rainy (81.22 & 70.09) followed by summer (80.60 & 69.36) and winter (77.31 & 67.63). Mean difference in hatchability on fertile egg set in winter was significant from rainy and summer season. Dead embryo percentage was observed significantly higher in winter than summer and rainy season. Hatchability percentage on fertile egg set and total egg set was highest in 2021-22 (83.73 & 76.54) followed by 2017-18 (80.91 & 69.48), 2018-19 (80.58 & 70.19), 2019-20 (76.76 & 66.08) and 2020-21 (76.38 & 65.93). The hatchability operations under sub temperate condition of the region can be carried out efficiently throughout the year without a significant drop in fertility and hatchability. However, greater care and managerial precision are required in winter season during the hatching.

Study of 35 days was conducted to evaluate citric acid (CA) as an additive in poultry broiler feed with lower mineral content of calcium (Ca) and total phosphorus (TP) in commercial broiler poultry birds for its effect on growth, nutrient utilization, carcass characteristics, and economics. Vancobb-400 strain day old broiler chicks were divided into four main treatment groups T0, T1, T2, and T3. Treatment groups were further divided into eight replicates with ten chicks in each. T0 served as control, given standard corn-soy flakes-based ration (Pre-starter %: Crude protein (CP)-23, Ca-1.00, TP-0.70; Starter %: CP-22, Ca-1.10, TP-0.72, and Finisher %: CP-20, Ca-0.99, TP-0.70). Treatment T1 served as positive control with added 0.5% CA (Pre-starter %: CP-23, Ca-1.00, TP-0.70; Starter %: CP-22, Ca-1.10, TP-0.72 and Finisher %: CP-20, Ca-0.99, TP-0.70). Treatment T2 was given feed containing 0.5% CA with low Ca and TP content (Pre-starter %: CP-23, Ca-0.90, TP-0.66; Starter %: CP-22, Ca-0.99, TP-0.71 and Finisher %: CP-20, Ca-0.90, TP-0.69), whereas treatment T3 was given feed containing 0.5% CA with moderately low Ca and TP content (Pre-starter %: CP-23, Ca-0.80, TP-0.65; Starter %: CP-22, Ca-0.88, TP-0.70 and Finisher %: CP-20, Ca-0.79, TP-0.68). Birds offered moderately low Ca and TP with 0.5% CA addition, exhibited higher growth rate (P < 0.05), better nutrient utilization with positive influence on dressing percentage and forequarters weight. Economics of broiler feeding revealed that 0.5% CA supplementation fetched highest gross return above feed cost in broiler birds offered feed with moderately low Ca and TP content whereas lowest profit was recorded in feed with low content of Ca and TP. In conclusion, supplementation of 0.5% CA in feed with low and moderately low Ca and TP content positively influenced overall growth, and carcass characteristics. Economics of broiler feeding with moderately low Ca and TP content revealed highest profit with CA (0.5%) supplementation.

In an expedition to find a solution against seed and soil borne infections, host-specific fungal flora assessment from the rhizosphere of rice, Sorghum, pigeonpea and urdbean was done. The rhizospheric soil of each crop was processed using serial dilution method. In cultivated soil (control), total 11 mycoflora viz. Aspergillus spp, A. terreus, A. niger, A. flavus, Penicillium spp., Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium spp., Curvularia lunata, Rhizopus spp., Neurospara sitophila and Trichoderma spp. were found. However, the specific recruitment of rhizospheric mycoflora by the individual host was recorded which might be because of specific root exudates released by host. Highest mycoflora was associated with Sorghum i.e., 14.85% (20DAS) and 25.74 % (40DAS) followed by rice and pigeonpea. Additionally, a progressive increase in mycoflora with the crop growth stage was also observed. The generated information could be utilized for sustaining agricultural production with the consideration of providing crop specific fungal consortia and healthy pesticide-free food.