DEBBIE HARRY USED SHEEP EMBRYOINJECTION TO MAINTAIN YOUTHFUL LOOK

Singer Debbie Harry used HGH (human growth hormone) and injections of cells taken from the embryo of black sheep. The 62 years old recently said she has had plastic surgery and will definitely so do again to help maintain her looks. The still young looking Harry said she started taking the injections about thirty years ago. The embryonic treatment is known as “ fresh cell replacement”. She said that “There were 11 injection in all and she felt marvelous,” according to a report in the Daily Mail. Harry still uses HGH, but  according to her she does so only when under stress. Harry is the lead singer of  the band, Blondie. Written by the Carefair.com

Editorial team  Contributed by: Dr. S.M.K.Naqvi

KENDRAPADA SHEEP OF COASTAL ORISSA NEED TO BE CONSERVED

The Kendrapada sheep is identified as another prolific sheep of India after Garole of West Bengal. Kendrapada is distributed in Bhadrak, Konark and Puri district of coastal area of Orissa. A survey was made to study the prolificacy of Kendrapada sheep of Orissa around Kendrapada district and Nimapara (Konark) during April 2007. The survey revealed Kendrapada as a prolific and excellent medium stature meat type sheep. In the flocks surveyed more than 75 % ewes produced multiple births and the adult body weight of sheep was about 23 kg. The animals were managed on grazing only with zero input.

The mortality was about 50 % in lambs and 20 % in adults and was higher in triplet compared to twins. The Kendrapada sheep produced about 60 % twins, however in the first parity more than 85 % females gave single birth and after that gave multiple births in successive parities. They also produced about 300 ml of milk.  The 6 Month weight was about 7-8 kg in surveyed area. The both sexes were polled, however, in some males button like horn were noticed. This sheep has not been well documented. Hence, detail study of this valuable germplasm is required before its extinction and use for improving prolificacy of other mutton producing sheep breeds.

Contributed by: Drs. A. K. Mishra, Satish Kumar, A. L. Arora and S. A. Karim

EFFECT OF SIMULATED BODY CONDITION ON FETAL SAC VOLUME OF EWES

Body condition scoring is a simple, noninvasive, time saving and beneficial technique to rank ewes according to their body reserve by sight and touch. Thirty healthy Malpura ewes were utilized for the study. Ewes were classified in Group-I (G1) 2.5 BCS, Group-II (G2) 3.0-3.5BCS and Group-III (G3) 4.0 BCS by different feeding schedule.

All the ewes were mated naturally by a ram of proven vigour and fertility. On day 50 of gestation the fetal volume of all the ewes was observed with the help of ultrasonography. The fetal volume of ewes with 2.5 BCS (167.5 C3) was significantly lower P<0.05 as compared to 3.0-3.5 BCS (193.2 C3) and 4.0 BCS (214.2 C3), respectively.

Contributed by: Drs. V.P.Maurya, S.M.K. Naqvi, V.Sejian, D.Kumar and Anil Joshi

SHEEP GENETIC MAP NEARS COMPLETION

Within two years sheep breeders will be sending off blood samples to test for key genetic markers contained within individual animals. The ability to cull at weaning, stud lambs which carry genes for poor worm resistance, staple strength, fertility or dark fibers will soon be a reality, according to meat and livestock sheep genomics director Rob Forage. This is possible because genetic makeup of sheep is now largely known, although exact genetic code or DNA marker that ode for very  particular traits are still being explored. Dr Forage said that “ we are currently art of an international effort to find about 50,000 DNA sheep markers that will lead to high performance sheep breeding in the not too distant future.” Knowing how these genes interact is another challenge, which is currently taking place at the Faulkiner Research Station near Deniliquin NSW. About 100 traits have been measured on over 5,000 animals. This information will be matched with the 50,000 sheep DNA markers in order to associate traits with markers. From this the researchers will be developing a diagnostics tool for producers to use and this is where the  blood test will  come in. “It will be a massive number crunching exercise to put this together but it will lead to significant genetic gain for the sheep industry. It is very exciting time ,” Dr Forage added.

Contributed by: Dr. S.M.K. Naqvi

MELATONIN AND ITS IMMUNOPOTENTIATION PROPERTY IN GOATS UNDER THERMAL STRESS

Six female goats were subjected for the experiment. The study was conducted for 17 days. The animals were kept in psychrometric chamber for 4 hours per day on all experimental days. Blood samples were collected on each day after melatonin treatment in these animals to study the immuno-potentiation properties of melatonin in terms of non-specific immune response. Neutrophils were isolated from the blood samples and subjected for phagocytosis assay. DH5á strain of Escherichia coli was used for estimation of phagocytic index. Bacteria were labeled with FITC by incubating the organisms with FITC solution for 20 minutes at room  temperature. The concentration of cell and bacteria were adjusted according to nephlometric method. Both neutrophils and bacteria were incubated for 30 minutes at room temperature and subjected for hagocytosis assay.  Phagocytosis index was measured using fluoroscence activated cell sorter (FACS). Melatonin could highly significantly (P= 0.01)  modify the phagocytic percentage of peripheral neutrophils when compared to the control animals. The results obtained established the immunopotentiation property of melatonin.

Contributed by: Dr. V.Sejian

GLUCOSINOLATES BIO-CONVERSION INTO HEALTH PROMOTING BIOACTIVE MOLECULES

Glucosinolates are a large group of sulphurcontaining secondary plant metabolites that occur in all Brassica originated feeds and fodders. A wide variety of glucosinolates exists owing to modification of the side-chain structure and to date more than 120 different glucosinolates have been identified. Glucosinolate content and composition varies by the plant species, agronomic and climatic conditions. Glucosinolate content of temperate mustard (Brassica juncea) is quite high but mainly of sinigrin (90%) and glucotropeolin (10%). The glucosinolate content was 169μmol/ g seed dry matter. Microbial bioconversion of glucosinolate into bio-active health promoting isothiocynates depends on the bacterial strains predominate in gastrointestinal tract. Accordingly bioconversion rate varies from 20 to 95 % due to large variation individual intestinal flora. Therefore, different bacterial strains have varying capability to produce myrosinase activity for glucosinolate bioconversion. Integration of glucosinolate bioconversion data with predominate intestinal bacterial groups with individuals flora revealed that Bacteroids and Bifidobacterium groups possesses higher ability to produce microbial myrosinase, thereby higher glucosinolate bioconversion efficiency. Increased population of Clostridiun leptum group suppresses the glucosinolates bioconversion efficiency of Bacteroids and Bifidobacterium groups. Whereas, Clostridium coccoides, Atopobium, Lactobacillus and Enterobacteria groups influence myrosinase activity of intestinal flora. The glucosinolate bioconversion complete swith in 36 hr of incubation by microbial myrosinase. When plant myrosinase is active the pH of the culture medium is influenced and declined toward acidic which favored nitrile production. Higher gas production under plant myrosinase inactivated amples indicated that plant myrosinase not only affects glucosinolates bioconversion but also alters entire microbial fermentation.

Contributed by: Dr. M. K. Tripathi

NATIONAL SEMINAR ON SMALL RUMINANT REPRODUCTION SPONSORED BY ISSGPU

The Indian Society for Sheep and Goat Production and Utilization (ISSGPU) organized a National Seminar on “Innovations and Recent Advances in Reproduction for Augmenting Small Ruminant Production” at Avikanagar from 28- 30thDecember, 2006 in collaboration with Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar and Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom. The sponsors of the seminar were Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Central Wool Development Board and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. The following recommendations emerged after the scientific deliberations that took place during the seminar in the Interactive and echnical sessions.

• There is a need to develop an effective delivery mechanism for propagating artificial insemination programmes in small ruminants at the farmer’s door with a network of good inseminators and quality semen. The mechanism must be feasible and cost-effective for adoption in field by farmers.

• The research by using high prolificacy of Garole sheep in developing new strains by FecB gene introgression in non-prolific native sheep needs further investigation with regards to its mothering ability, decreasing mortality and increasing the weaned lamb crop for enhancing market oriented lamb production in the country.

• Nuclear technologies have tremendous potential for augmenting small ruminant production through reproduction. Intensive research should be carried out for control of ovulation, early embryonic development, embryo cloning, and production of transgenic animals to develop feasible assisted reproductive technologies for small ruminants. Stem cell research in small ruminants is still at the nascent stage. Intensive research should be carried out to utilize stem cell from embryos of elite animals for replacing low producing animals in the shortest   possible time.

• Nutritional deficiency as well as imbalances in nutrients content affect reproductive processes especially incidence of estrus, oocyte and permatozoal development, ovulation  and conception. There is a need to intensify research to identify specific nutritional  factor(s) causing such effect and to take corrective measures.

• Flushing after scarcity period improves the ovulation rate and reproductive efficiency. In depth studies on alteration in hormonal profile before and after flushing needs to be studied n detail for mimicking such effect in small ruminants.

• Malnutrition and under nutrition also affect the circulating hormone level like GnRH and LH etc, which ultimately influence the ovarian development affecting the reproduction of animals. This has to be further validated by conducting trials and assess these hormone levels in animals in the farmers’ flocks.

• Certain Minerals like Cu, Zn, Co and Mn and Vitamins like Vitamin A and E play very important role in reproduction and production of animals. There is an urgent need to study the effect of supplementation of these minerals wherever deficiency is encountered to overcome the problem of reproduction on regional basis. Certain compounds such as leptin grelin, insulin tc. identified to  be influencing reproductive processes need to be further investigated to delineate their role.

• Goats are browsers and their 80% of their diet is constituted by twigs and leaves, in arid and semi arid region. Most of the plant species are containing anti-nutritional factors like tannin, saponin and other polyphenolic compounds. These anti nutritional factors not only hamper the digestibility and absorption of nutrients but also affect the thyroid function,  which create problem in energy utilization. Hence there is need to further study this aspect and identify the mechanisms that directly and indirectly affects the reproductive processes of small ruminants.

• In vitro foetus development can serve as an excellent model in research for studying organogenesis, foetal differentiation diagnose all foetal and uterine abnormalities in small ruminants.

• International norms for phytosanitary measures and accreditation of gamete research laboratories must be developed at the national level for small ruminants for stringent regulation of exchange of superior germplasm and control of disease transmission through semen and embryos.

• Awareness programmes on use of ultra-sonography in sheep and goats be popularized firstly by training field veterinarians and secondly through KVK’s. Small Ruminant Obstetrics and Gynaecology should be a separate one credit course for teaching in B.V.Sc & A.H and a detailed course at UG &PG level be introduced on ultra-sonography especially in diagnosing pregnancy, abnormalities and disorders in small ruminants.

• There should be participatory research approach of scientists  with farmers in afforestation, grazing and community land  development for sustainable small ruminant  production. The approachable State Agricultural Universities and ICAR research institutes should provide all research information and essential inputs to the farmers for augmenting small ruminant production through reproduction.

NATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMME ON COMMERCIAL GOAT FARMING (HINDI)

The 30th National Training Program on Commercial Goat Farming was organized at CIRG Makhdoom from January 15 to 24, 2007. A total of 16 goat farmers and entrepreneurs from 5 different states participated in this training program. Dr. B. Rai, Sr. Scientist coordinated the training program. The 31st National Training Program on Commercial Goat Farming was organized at CIRG Makhdoom from May 21 to 30, 2007. A total of 35 goat farmers and entrepreneurs from 7 different states participated in this training program. Dr. R.L. Sagar, Principal Scientist and Incharge EESE Section coordinated the training program. Two training programs of five days each were organized on January 4 to 8, 2007 and March 12 to 16, 2007 for the farmers from Auriaya, U.P. (22 farmers) and Dehradoon, Uttarakhand (20 farmers), respectively. Dr. B. Rai, Sr. Scientist coordinated the training program.

TRAINING- CUM-AWARENESS PROGRAMME ON SCIENTIFIC GOAT REARING IN BIHAR

The Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom organized a four-day Training-Cum- Awareness Camp on Scientific Goat Rearing at Fenhara Block of East Champran (Motihari) district in Bihar from April 19 to 22, 2007 in collaboration with Rajendra Agriculture University, Pusa (Bihar). A Team of nine Scientists, four Technical Officers and four Supporting Staff of the Institute participated in organizing the programme. The Hon’ble Minister of State for Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies Dr. Akhilesh Prasad Singh as the Chief Guest inaugurated the Programme. Shri Shivji Rai, MLA Madhuban and Dr. A.P. Mishra, Vice-Chancellor, Rajendra Agriculture University, Pusa (Bihar) were present as the Guests of Honour. Dr. N.P. Singh, Director, CIRG, Makhdoom presided over the Inaugural function. Over 1500 farmers and goat keepers of the area attended the Programme.

The Hon’ble Minister in his inaugural address highlighted the importance of goats in the livelihood security of the small and marginal farmers and the landless labourers of the region and appealed the gathering to take full advantage of the Training and Awareness Camp organized by a Premier Institution of India on Goat Research. While expressing his happiness he appreciated and thanked the ICAR in general and the CIRG scientists in particular for organizing the Programme at the doorsteps of the farmers in a very interior remote village of the East Champaran district where goat rearing is an important activity of the rural poor. The local MLA was also very appreciative of the initiative taken by the CIRG in sensitizing the rural poor of the area for scientific goat rearing. The Hon’ble Minister also released 8 Bulletins in Hindi on the occasion.

The Exhibition Stalls of the CIRG, Makhdoom, RAU, Pusa, KVK, Piprakothi and the Area Lead Banks were also put up to exhibit the improved goat production technologies. The CIRG exhibited different breeds of goats available in the country and the improved technologies on scientific breeding, feeding, housing, health coverage and management of goats developed by the Institute. The Director and the Scientists also toured extensively in the area and studied the livestock production in general and goat rearing in particular. There exists a great potential for development and improvement of goat rearing in the region. The Hon’ble Minister also inaugurated the Training Programme on Scientific Goat Rearing started on the same day. A total of 162 farmers from the villages adjoining Fenhara benefited from the training programme. Goat Health Camps were also organized on all the four days and the animals suffering from different ailments brought to the Camp by the farmers were provided required treatment. The response of the villagers in the awareness camp, training programme, health camp and the Farmers- Scientists interaction meetings was overwhelming. The trainee goat farmers were also awarded Certificates for their attending and under going the training programme by the Programme Coordinator Dr. V.S. Vihan Head, Division of Goat Health and the local Coordinator Shri Akil ul Rehman.

SUCCESS STORY OF A COMMERCIAL GOAT FARMER

Initially the farm was established with 68 Barbari does and 2 bucks and later on after 6 months 33 does and 1 buck more were added to the flock. The technical know-how on scientific goat rearing was provided by the CIRG, Makhdoom. The objective of this goat-rearing Project was to produce and market pure breed ‘Barbari’ animals. The initial investment made on purchasing of the breeding stock and construction of sheds and equipments was Rs. 1.62 lakhs and another Rs. 10,000 was used as working capital. The goats on this farm have been maintained under semi-intensive system of management by the two unemployed youths of the family.

Besides grazing, the animals were provided supplementary concentrate feeding, mineral mixture, fodder, tree leaves lopping and guar straw. Total expenditure incurred on supplementary feeding of goats in a year worked out to Rs. 10700. The prophylaxis schedule included vaccinations against Enterotoxaemia, FMD and PPR diseases and twice medication against internal and external parasites. The expenditure on prophylaxis and treatment for whole of the flock was Rs. 3,500. Thus the total recurring expenditure other than family labour for a flock of 104 goats was Rs. 14,200 during one year.

During the last one-year 73 kids were born from 68 does. The present strength of the flock after sale of 50 grown up and adults is 105 goats. The returns from the sale of goats in one year were estimated to be Rs. 75,000. Moreover, the goat manure valuing Rs. 4000 was produced and used in the agricultural farm of the owner. Thus the annual net returns to the family from goat rearing worked out to Rs. 64,800. It is interesting to note that this farmer sold his almost all the surplus animals (pure Barbari goats) for breeding purpose to the other goat farmers at the rate of Rs. 100 per kg live body weight.

Concurrently the other traditional farmers of this area maintaining non- escript goats could fetch a market price of Rs. 60-65 per kg of live body weight for their goats soldmostly for meatpurpose. Hence rearing of pure breed goats (Barbari or any other breed) always attracted incentive through better market prices. Learning from his own experiences and Transfer of Technology Programme of CIRG, Makhdoom the farmer is now able to manage his farm better as reflected by no mortality in his flock over the last 6 months.

Further he purchased superior bucks and does from CIRG for breed improvement and has established credibility of producing good quality pure breed Barbari goats. Farmer is beingconsidered as a successful goat farmer in the adjoining area.

Contributed by: Drs. Shalander Kumar, A.K.Goel and N.P. Singh