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The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown for a long period have created a significant adverse impact on different sectors, including that of the agriculture and other allied sub-sectors in India and several other countries. The present review aimed to depict the impact of this pandemic and the lockdown on the livestock and poultry sectors in the country, which has been one of the fastest-growing sectors in recent years. Inadequacy of country-wide information has been a major bottleneck for having a thorough understanding of the impact of the prolonged lockdown on different sub-sectors of livestock and poultry. In the present case, an in-depth analysis of the subject has been made through the collation of available published materials and information collected through public contacts. The pandemic and the associated lockdown has not only caused enormous distress to the millions of poor and marginal farmers for saving their crops and/or livestock and thereby assuring their livelihoods but also impacted the overall poultry, dairy, and other livestock production systems and associated value chains, nutrition and health care, and labor availability. The paper highlights various dimensions of the impacts, namely, reduction in demand of different commodities, wastage of the produce due to the closure of transport and market chains, distress sale of the produce, and labor shortage and revival strategies taken by the government and associated enterprises. The present impact study although gives a picture about the overall present scenario, a systematic study through the collection of primary data from all over the country is suggested, which will provide a holistic view of the impact on each of the sub-sectors and the associated value chains.

Transboundary animal diseases (TADs) pose a serious threat to the sustainability and economic viability of the existing animal agriculture ecosystem in south Asia. The rapid spread of African swine fever and lumpy skin diseases in south Asia must be considered a wake-up call to prevent the entry, spread, and establishment of new exotic TADs, as south Asia has the highest density of livestock populations, and it will have a huge socioeconomic impact. Regional cooperation for the prevention and control of TADs is necessary, but rational decisions should be made to initiate even sub-regional cooperation in the present geopolitical situation. Cross-border collaboration for surveillance, early warnings, and animal movement control should be encouraged on a bilateral or multilateral basis as many countries share a porous border. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), peste des petits ruminants (PPR), and avian influenza (AI) have been identified as regional priority TADs, and many regional and country initiatives have been undertaken in the last two decades that need to be translated into action. The incursion of exotic TADs into south Asia has compelled us to rethink overall policies and strategies for prevention and control of TADs. This paper took into consideration six emerging and endemic TADs of viral origin to suggest a future course of action.

Despite the substantial contribution donkeys make to the livelihood of the world’s poorest populations, the existence of donkeys has received little notice worldwide. This article reviews the value of donkeys in a variety of sectors, including agriculture, construction industry, and mining, as well as their role in empowering women and achieving sustainable development goals. However, donkeys and mules are not given enough credit or attention in terms of developing strategies regarding their role in reducing poverty. There is a dearth of information and statistics on their impact across industries, the factors contributing to the donkey population dropping, the socioeconomic status of the dependent communities, and related animal and human welfare issues.

A study was undertaken to compare the rumen microbial community composition, methane yield, rumen fermentation, and CAZyme profiles between cattle and buffaloes. The primary aim of this study was to ascertain the impact of the host species on the above when diet and environmental factors are fixed. A total of 43 phyla, 200 orders, 458 families, and 1722 microbial genera were identified in the study. Bacteroidetes was the most prominent bacterial phylum and constituted >1/3rd of the ruminal microbiota; however, their abundances were comparable between cattle and buffaloes. Firmicutes were the second most abundant bacteria, found to be negatively correlated with the Bacteroidetes. The abundances of Firmicutes as well as the F/B ratio were not different between the two host species. In this study, archaea affiliated with the nine phyla were identified, with Euryarchaeota being the most prominent. Like bacterial phyla, the abundances of Euryarchaeota methanogens were also similar between the cattle and buffaloes. At the order level, Methanobacteriales dominated the archaea. Methanogens from the Methanosarcinales, Methanococcales, Methanomicrobiales, and Methanomassiliicoccales groups were also identified, but at a lower frequency. Methanobrevibacter was the most prevalent genus of methanogens, accounting for approximately three percent of the rumen metagenome. However, their distribution was not different between the two host species. CAZymes affiliated with five classes, namely CBM, CE, GH, GT, and PL, were identified in the metagenome, where the GH class was the most abundant and constituted ~70% of the total CAZymes. The protozoal numbers, including Entodiniomorphs and Holotrichs, were also comparable between the cattle and buffaloes. Results from the study did not reveal any significant difference in feed intake, nutrient digestibility, and rumen fermentation between cattle and buffaloes fed on the same diet. As methane yield due to the similar diet composition, feed ingredients, rumen fermentation, and microbiota composition did not vary, these results indicate that the microbiota community structure and methane emissions are under the direct influence of the diet and environment, and the host species may play only a minor role until the productivity does not vary. More studies are warranted to investigate the effect of different diets and environments on microbiota composition and methane yield. Further, the impact of variable productivity on both the cattle and buffaloes when the diet and environmental factors are fixed needs to be ascertained.

Bovine milk and milk products may contain pathogens, antimicrobial resistant bacteria, and antibiotic residues that could harm consumers. We analyzed 282 gram-positive isolates from milk samples from dairy farmers and vendors in Haryana and Assam, India, to assess the prevalence of methicillin-resistant staphylococci using microbiological tests, antibiotic susceptibility testing, and genotyping by PCR. The prevalence of genotypic methicillin resistance in isolates from raw milk samples was 5% [95% confidence interval, CI (3–8)], with 7% [CI (3–10)] in Haryana, in contrast to 2% [CI (0.2–6)] in Assam. The prevalence was the same in isolates from milk samples collected from farmers [5% (n = 6), CI (2–11)] and vendors [5% (n = 7), CI (2–10)]. Methicillin resistance was also observed in 15% of the isolates from pasteurized milk [(n = 3), CI (3–38)]. Two staphylococci harboring a novel mecC gene were identified for the first time in Indian dairy products. The only SCCmec type identified was Type V. The staphylococci with the mecA (n = 11) gene in raw milk were commonly resistant to oxacillin [92%, CI (59–100)] and cefoxitin [74%, CI (39–94)], while the isolates with mecC (n = 2) were resistant to oxacillin (100%) only. All the staphylococci with the mecA (n = 3) gene in pasteurized milk were resistant to both oxacillin and cefoxitin. Our results provided evidence that methicillin-resistant staphylococci occur in dairy products in India with potential public health implications. The state with more intensive dairy systems (Haryana) had higher levels of methicillin-resistant bacteria in milk.

•Study compared three reduced doses with standard dose of B. abortus S19 vaccine.•Five each female buffalo calves vaccinated with four graded doses of S19 vaccine.•Dose dependent magnitude of immune responses and persistence of antibody observed.•Immune responses in 1/10th reduced dose was comparable to standard dose in buffaloes. Brucella abortus S19 is the most widely used vaccine for the prevention of bovine brucellosis which remains the reference vaccine to which many other vaccine/s are compared. Considering the larger vaccination coverage by reduced dose of vaccine, the study aimed to compare reduced graded doses (1/10th, 1/20th and 1/100th) with standard dose of S19 vaccine (40 × 109CFU /dose) to determine the effective immunizing dose in water buffaloes. A total of 25 female buffalo calves (Bubalus bubalis) in the age group of 4–5 months were equally grouped into five animals each in four test and one control groups and given with specified vaccine dose. The blood samples were collected on post vaccination days 14, 28, 45, 60, 90 and 120 for assessing innate (TNF-α and IL-12), humoral (IgG antibodies against Brucella LPS) and cell mediated immune responses (IFN-γ, CD4 + and CD8 + counts). The full dose, 1/10th and 1/20th reduced doses of S19 vaccine was capable of eliciting pathogen-specific antibody response, vaccine induced secretion of IL-12, TNF-α and IFN-γ with CD4 + and CD8 + effector T cell responses. Persistence of antibody and magnitude of immune responses were found dose dependent. Comparable immune responses were noticed with 1/10th reduced dose similar to standard dose. With this observation, decline of antibody titre will reduce the number of false positives and reduced dose of vaccine will facilitate larger vaccination coverage in the country.

Culicoides are important vectors for livestock and human pathogens. Wild animals act as reservoirs for important orbiviruses such as bluetongue and African horse sickness viruses. There are only limited studies on the distribution of Culicoides species in forest habitats. In this study, we collected Culicoides from different wildlife sanctuaries and national parks of Karnataka. We collected and morphologically identified 8597 Culicoides. We found 18 species of Culicoides in different sites, with C. oxystoma and C. imicola being the predominant species across the sites. The sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis of the Cox1 gene of Cuilicoides species revealed a huge level of sequence similarity and their wide distribution around the world. Most of the isolates from our study were closely related to Chinese isolates. The abundance of the species was analyzed using the Bayesian ordination method. We used a hierarchical joint distribution negative binomial regression model to detect the correlation between species owing to environmental covariates and residual correlation. The presence of potential vectors for important livestock pathogens in wild habitats in our study warrants further research on the detection of pathogens in Culicoides collected from forest habitats and adopt surveillance in wild animal habitats to prevent disease spread from wild animals to livestock and vice versa.

Streptococci are one among the major mastitis pathogens which have a considerable impact on cow health, milk quality, and productivity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the occurrence and virulence characteristics of streptococci from bovine milk and to assess the molecular epidemiology and population structure of the Indian isolates using multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Out of a total of 209 bovine composite milk samples screened from four herds (A–D), 30 Streptococcus spp. were isolated from 29 milk samples. Among the 30 isolates, species-specific PCR and partial 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis identified 17 Streptococcus agalactiae arising from herd A and 13 Streptococcus uberis comprising of 5, 7, and 1 isolates from herds B, C, and D respectively. PCR based screening for virulence genes revealed the presence of the cfb and the pav A genes in 17 and 1 S. agalactiae isolates, respectively. Similarly, in S. uberis isolates, cfu gene was present in six isolates from herd C, the pau A/ skc gene in all the isolates from herds B, C, and D, whereas the sua gene was present in four isolates from herd B and the only isolate from herd D. On MLST analysis, all the S. agalactiae isolates were found to be of a novel sequence type (ST), ST-483, reported for the first time and is a single locus variant of the predicted subgroup founder ST-310, while the S. uberis isolates were found to be of three novel sequence types, namely ST-439, ST-474, and ST-475, all reported for the first time. ST-474 was a double locus variant of three different STs of global clonal complex ST-143 considered to be associated with clinical and subclinical mastitis, but ST-439 and ST-475 were singletons. Unique sequence types identified for both S. agalactiae and S. uberis were found to be herd specific. On PFGE analysis, identical or closely related restriction patterns for S. agalactiae ST-483 and S. uberis ST-439 in herds A and B respectively, but an unrelated restriction pattern for S. uberis ST-474 and ST-475 isolates from herds D and C respectively, were obtained. This signifies that the isolates of particular ST may exhibit related PFGE patterns suggesting detection of a faster molecular clock by PFGE than MLST. Since all the isolates of both the species belonged to novel sequence types, their epidemiological significance in global context could not be ascertained, however, evidence suggests that they have uniquely evolved in Indian conditions. Further research would be useful for understanding the role of these pathogens in bovine sub-clinical mastitis and implementing effective control strategies in India.

The effects of a number of naturally occurring anutrients on various hepatic drug-metabolizing enzyme activities have been studied in rats. These enzyme activities include aromatic hydroxylation (biphenyl-4- and -2-hydroxylases), reduction (p-nitrobenzoic acid reductase), conjugation (4-methylumbelliferone glucuronyl transferase), cytochrome P-450 and cytochrome b[5]. The groups of anutrients studied were terpenoids, alkaloids, flavonoids, esters, ethers, and methylenedioxyaryl compounds. Some of these compounds have shown no immediate effect on the drug-metabolizing enzymes, others have shown a modest induction of some of the above enzymes to the order of 10-15%, a few compounds have shown inhibition. One of the terpenoids, β-ionone, and two of the methylenedioxyphenyl compounds, safrole and iso-safrole, have exhibited marked induction of all the parameters studied. These three compounds have also been found to decrease the liver glycogen content and to enhance the glucuronic acid pathway of carbohydrate metabolism manifested by an increased excretion of ascorbic acid in the urine. Differences in the enzyme inductive effects of β-ionone, safrole and iso-safrole dependent on species, age and sex, have also been studied. The enzyme inductive effects of these three compounds have been compared qualitatively and quantitatively to those of phenobarbitone and 3-methylcholanthrene, potent representatives of the two known groups of inducers. The mechanisms of induction of the hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes by these naturally occurring anutrients have been studied, and in this connection the inhibitors of protein synthesis, actinomycin D (m-RNA synthesis) and thioacetamide (m-RNA release), and of haeme synthesis, 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole, have been used. Other studies have been made, using [3]H-leucine on the rates of synthesis and turnover of proteins in the microsomal and other sub-cellular fractions of the liver. From these experiments it has been shown that β-ionone, like phenobarbitone, results in a type of enzyme induction which is very largely dependent on the DNA-directed synthesis of new enzyme proteins. Safrole and iso-safrole, on the other hand, are like 3-methylcholanthrene, and result in a type of enzyme induction which is in part dependent on the synthesis of new enzyme proteins and partly results from changes in the conformation of the enzyme or from alterations of its membrane environment. Pretreatment with safrole or iso-safrole has been shown to result in the appearance of a new hepatic microsomal haemoprotein which is normally not detectable in tissue homogenates of untreated animals.