Ecological intensification for feeding rohu Labeo rohita (Hamilton, 1822): A review and proposed steps towards an efficient resource fishery

Labeo rohita (rohu) is a commercially popular Indian major carp species in polyculture fish farming system. It feeds mainly on plankton. The adults of rohu have a strong positive selection for phytoplankton, whereas the fingerlings have a strong positive selection for both zooplanktonic and smaller phytoplanktonic sources. Conversely, adults of rohu exhibit a strong negative selection for all zooplanktonic sources and a positive selection for most phytoplanktonic sources. In periphytic environments, the fish grow better feeding on the sub‐periphytic zone in proximity to the substrate. We conclude that rohu is an excellent aquaculture candidate, thanks to its ability to explore natural resources (plankton and periphyton) and transform them to fish biomass in polyculture practice. In contrast to over‐reliance on artificial feed, translation of natural resources for exploration by rohu could be the next step for sustainable carp‐based polyculture practice.     

Bovine brucellosis – a comprehensive review

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease of great animal welfare and economic implications worldwide known since ancient times. The emergence of brucellosis in new areas as well as transmission of brucellosis from wild and domestic animals is of great significance in terms of new epidemiological dimensions. Brucellosis poses a major public health threat by the consumption of non-pasteurized milk and milk products produced by unhygienic dairy farms in endemic areas. Regular and meticulous surveillance is essentially required to determine the true picture of brucellosis especially in areas with continuous high prevalence. Additionally, international migration of humans, animals and trade of animal products has created a challenge for disease spread and diagnosis in non-endemic areas. Isolation and identification remain the gold standard test, which requires expertise. The advancement in diagnostic strategies coupled with screening of newly introduced animals is warranted to control the disease. Of note, the diagnostic value of miRNAs for appropriate detection of B. abortus infection has been shown. The most widely used vaccine strains to protect against Brucella infection and related abortions in cattle are strain 19 and RB51. Moreover, it is very important to note that no vaccine, which is highly protective, safe and effective is available either for bovines or human beings. Research results encourage the use of bacteriophage lysates in treatment of bovine brucellosis. One Health approach can aid in control of this disease, both in animals and man.     

Trophic-level modelling of the coastal waters of the northern Bay of Bengal,West Bengal,India

An ecosystem model was constructed for the northern Bay of Bengal (nBoB) using Ecopath (version 6.4.4). The model covered an area of 18,500 km². There were 32 functional groups in the model including the non-living group, detritus. Trophic levels (TLs) for individual groups ranged from 1.0 to 4.22. Ecotrophic efficiency for most of the small pelagic fishes was found to be greater than 0.7. For hilsa it was 0.853, indicating high exploitation of this fish within the system. The nBoB was estimated to be a low ascendancy area (~?19.2%) with a system overhead of 80.8%, which indicates system stability and a certain maturity. The total system throughput and the total primary production/total respiration estimated for the study area indicate that nBoB is a maturing ecosystem. The mean TL of the catch for the study area was 3.115. The results indicate that the nBoB system is still in a developing stage. The low mean TL of the catch indicates fishing practices targeting fish of lower TLs in the system. In the long run, this may cause fishing down the food web, which will eventually lead to declining catches. These results indicate that present fishing practices are unsustainable for the nBoB ecosystem.     

Improving oil quality by altering levels of fatty acids through marker-assisted selection of <Emphasis Type="Italic">ahfad2</Emphasis> alleles in peanut (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Arachis hypogaea</Emphasis> L.)

Peanut plays a key role to the livelihood of millions in the world especially in Arid and Semi-Arid regions. Peanut with high oleic acid content aids to increase shelf-life of peanut oil as well as food products and extends major health benefits to the consumers. In peanut, ahFAD2 gene controls quantity of two major fatty acids viz, oleic and linoleic acids. These two fatty acids together with palmitic acid constitute 90% fat composition in peanut and regulate the quality of peanut oil. Here, two ahfad2 alleles from SunOleic 95R were introgressed into ICGV 05141 using marker-assisted selection. Marker-assisted breeding effectively increased oleic acid and oleic to linoleic acid ratio in recombinant lines up to 44% and 30%, respectively as compared to ICGV 05141. In addition to improved oil quality, the recombinant lines also had superiority in pod yield together with desired pod/seed attributes. Realizing the health benefits and ever increasing demand in domestic and international market, the high oleic peanut recombinant lines will certainly boost the economical benefits to the Indian farmers in addition to ensuring availability of high oleic peanuts to the traders and industry.     

Advances in therapeutic and managemental approaches of bovine mastitis: a comprehensive review

Mastitis (intramammary inflammation) caused by infectious pathogens is still considered a devastating condition of dairy animals affecting animal welfare as well as economically incurring huge losses to the dairy industry by means of decreased production performance and increased culling rates. Bovine mastitis is the inflammation of the mammary glands/udder of bovines, caused by bacterial pathogens, in most cases. Routine diagnosis is based on clinical and subclinical forms of the disease. This underlines the significance of early and rapid identification/detection of etiological agents at the farm level, for which several diagnostic techniques have been developed. Therapeutic regimens such as antibiotics, immunotherapy, bacteriocins, bacteriophages, antimicrobial peptides, probiotics, stem cell therapy, native secretory factors, nutritional, dry cow and lactation therapy, genetic selection, herbs, and nanoparticle technology-based therapy have been evaluated for their efficacy in the treatment of mastitis. Even though several strategies have been developed over the years for the purpose of managing both clinical and subclinical forms of mastitis, all of them lacked the efficacy to eliminate the associated etiological agent when used as a monotherapy. Further, research has to be directed towards the development of new therapeutic agents/techniques that can both replace conventional techniques and also solve the problem of emerging antibiotic resistance. The objective of the present review is to describe the etiological agents, pathogenesis, and diagnosis in brief along with an extensive discussion on the advances in the treatment and management of mastitis, which would help safeguard the health of dairy animals.     

Interactive effect of biochar size and organic amendments on methane consumption in a tropical vertisol

Biochar (BC) application to agricultural soil has been proposed as an effective countermeasure to mitigate climate change. A laboratory incubation experiment was carried out to gain insight into the effectiveness of BC on methane (CH₄) consumption in a tropical clayey vertisol. Except for the control treatment, BC of two different sizes (<0.25 or 0.25–2.00 mm) was mixed with vermicompost (VC), poultry manure (PM) or farmyard manure (FYM). BC and organic amendment were added to soil at 10% w/w and 80 kg N/ha, respectively. BC increased CH₄ consumption rate, k, in soil, irrespective of organic amendment type. The CH₄ consumption potential of soil was greater with the smaller size BC (<0.25 mm). Of the three organic amendments, VC exhibited the highest k (0.105) followed by FYM (0.093) and PM (0.072). BC (<0.25 mm) + PM was the most effective of the organic amendments in enhancing CH₄ consumption (k = 0.242). The lag phase varied between 7.3 day (control) and 1.0 day (soil + VC). Results revealed that there was a significant (P < 0.0001) effect of organic amendment and BC on CH₄ consumption, CO₂ production and microbial abundance. Cumulative CO₂ production (mg/g soil) varied between 2.15 (control) and 8.77 (soil + PM + BC < 0.25 mm). Pearson's correlation analysis showed significant correlation between CH₄ consumption and methanotrophs abundance (P < 0.001). The study shows that BC enhanced CH₄ consumption potential in agricultural land on a tropical vertisol, particularly using the smaller size (<0.25 mm), and could be an effective strategy to mitigate atmospheric CH₄.     

牧豆树下吸式气化炉性能评价（摘选）

通过调查生物质发电厂得知,牧豆树常被选为下吸式气化炉的燃料。产气的特性由不同的成分、热值、密度和焦油含量所确定。气化炉的性能通过观察参数如燃料消耗量、比燃料消耗量、当量比、比产气率、比气化速率和气化效率来评价。在负荷20 kW条件下,一氧化碳（CO）、氢气（H2）、二氧化碳（CO2）、甲烷（CH4）和氮（N2）体积百分比分别为18.4%、13.8%、11.1%、2.40%和54.2%。随着发动机负荷从5 kW增加到20 kW,气体的热值、密度和焦油含量变化范围分别为4.17～4.85 MJm3,1.16～1.56 kgm3和10.0～10.2 mgm3;燃料消耗速率、比燃料消耗速率、比气化速率、比产气率、当量比和气化效率变化范围为11～28 kgh,1.40～2.20 kg（kW·h）,29.63～75.43 kg（m2·h）,103.7～257.43 m3hm2,0.32～0.47和79.26%～89.90%。      

Nutritional applications and beneficial health applications of green tea and l-theanine in some animal species: A review

Green tea (Camellia sinensis) is a popular herbal plant with abundant health benefits, and thus, it has been used as a potent antioxidant for a long time. Based on the available literature, the diversity and the availability of multifunctional compounds in green tea offer its noteworthy potential against many diseases such as liver and heart diseases, inflammatory conditions and different metabolic syndromes. Owing to its bioactive constituents including caffeine, amino acids, l -theanine, polyphenols/flavonoids and carbohydrates among other potent molecules, green tea has many pharmacological and physiological effects. The effects of green tea include anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic, anti-stress, hypolipidaemic, hypocholesterolaemic, skin/collagen protective, hepatoprotective, anti-diabetic, anti-microbial, anti-infective, anti-parasitic, anti-cancerous, inhibition of tumorigenesis and angiogenesis, anti-mutagenic, and memory and bone health-improving activities. Apart from its utilization in humans, green tea has also played a significant role in livestock production such as in dairy, piggery, goatry and poultry industries. Supplementation of animal feeds with green tea and its products is in line with the modern concepts of organic livestock production. Hence, incorporating green tea or green tea by-products into the diet of poultry and other livestock can enhance the value of the products obtained from these animals. Herein, an effort is made to extend the knowledge on the importance and useful applications of green tea and its important constituents in animal production including poultry. This review will be a guideline for researchers and entrepreneurs who want to explore the utilization of feeds supplemented with green tea and green tea by-products for the enhancement of livestock production.     

Serosurveillance for Japanese encephalitis virus infection among equines in India

The seroprevalence of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) among equines was evaluated from January 2006 to December 2009 in 13 different states of India by hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test and virus neutralization test (VNT). Antibodies against JEV were detected in 327 out of 3,286 (10%) equines with a maximum prevalence reported in the state of Manipur (91.7%) followed by Gujarat (18.5%), Madhya Pradesh (14.4%), and Uttar Pradesh (11.6%). Evidence of JEV infection was observed in equines in Indore (Madhya Pradesh) where a 4-fold or higher rise in antibody titer was observed in 21 out of 34 horses in November 2007 to October 2006. In March 2008, seven of these horses had a subsequent 4-fold rise in JEV antibody titers while this titer decreased in nine animals. JEV-positive horse sera had a JEV/WNV (West Nile virus) ratio over 2.0 according to the HI and/or VNT. These results indicated that JEV is endemic among equines in India.