Performance of Public-Private-Partnership Model of Veterinary Services in West Bengal

ABSTRAC

Climate change awareness among the livestock rearers of east coast of India

The phenomenon of global climate change is directly affecting the livestock production system world overall. Therefore, understanding the changing climatic scenario by the millions of resource poor livestock rearers across the east coast of India found to be imperative to get information for strategic planning to improve the livelihoods of rural people. But, systematic methodology to assess climatic change awareness among the livestock rearers is currently not available. Therefore, a psychometric scale entitled “Climate Change Awareness Scale” was developed and applied among the randomly selected 480 livestock rearers of eastern coastal region of India. Results reflected majority of the population exhibit their strong level of awareness towards changing climatic scenario in general and particularly towards broad spectrum of climate change like causes, features, effects and impacts. It was also found that 37.188% of livestock rearers of coastal region were having higher level of awareness followed by 31.973% and 30.839% were having lower and medium level of awareness. Comparisons of state of awareness with the factual climatic data validated farmers’ claim and established the authenticity of the psychometric tool. Hence, this study will provide a significant tool for researchers and policy makers to assess state of climate change awareness among the end users and to develop appropriate adaptation strategies to minimize the risk of livestock sector to climate change

Data Resource Profile: Understanding the patterns and determinants of health in South Asians-the South Asia Biobank.

Funder: Singapore Ministry of Health's National Medical Research CouncilFunder: National Institute for Health ResearchFunder: Wellcome Trust or the Department of HealthFunder: NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Cambridge: Nutrition, Diet, and Lifestyle Research Theme; Grant(s): IS-BRC-1215-2001

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Prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia in an apparently healthy Indian population - a cross-sectional retrospective study

Objectives: An understanding of bone mineral density (BMD) pattern in a population is crucial for prevention and diagnosis of osteoporosis and management of its complications in later life. This study aimed to screen the bone health status and factors associated with osteoporosis in an apparently healthy Indian population. Methods: A retrospective review of medical records was done in a tertiary-care hospital for the subjects who had undergone preventive health-check-ups that included BMD measurements at femur-neck, total-femur, and lumbar-spine. Results: We evaluated 524 subjects (age, 50.0 ± 12.4 years) including 41.2% female and 58.8% male subjects. Osteoporosis was present in 6.9% subjects (female, 11.1%; male, 4.2%) and osteopenia in 34% subjects (female, 40.3%; male, 29.9%). Absolute BMD was higher in male subjects (P  0.05) at any site. Conclusions: Further data on absolute BMD, T scores, and prevalence rates of osteoporosis/osteopenia on multiple bone sites have been presented in this article. Keywords: Osteoporosis, Bone mineral density, Prevalence, T-scores, Osteopeni

Case studies on attributes of few dairy based innovations developed at the grassroots across India

564-573The study was conducted to explore the specific attributes of few selected dairy based innovations developed at grassroots across India. For this particular study, the ‘case study’ method was adopted. A total of nine dairy based innovations developed at grassroots, across different parts of India were selected, purposively. The uniqueness of these innovations lie in the fact that they are based on the particular culture from which they emanate and are based on the local wisdom. This study revealed that all dairy based innovations developed by farmers were having greater utility than other available options; because these innovations were developed, keeping in view the needs of farmers. Further, these were also found to be and found sustainable, because these innovations were developed, using local materials and wisdom. The costs of all nine innovations were found to be less than other available technologies in the market. Majority of selected innovations were found to be profitable except that of “Mixed Forestry”, wherein farmers get profit after long time and after involving hard work and investments. All selected innovations were found to be compatible to needs of the local farmers. Six out of nine innovations as developed by the respondents were not commercialized, because of the inability of farmers in converting the innovations into marketable products, coupled with less demonstrability of these innovations

Combination of finasteride and flutamide as potency-sparing hormone ablation therapy in management of advanced carcinoma of prostate

Complete androgen blockade by LHRH agonist /Orchiectomy plus antiandrogen results in androgen deficiency amongst males (ADAM). We treated advanced cancer prostate with finasteride and flutamide with an aim of potency sparing in relatively younger males with the disease. 45 sexually active males between the age of 48 to 65 having advanced cancer of prostate were treated, for 1 year with Flutamide (750mg) and Finasteride (5mg) daily and followed up for 18 months. Results showed 89% having low PSA and 80% maintained their sexual potency. Side effects were mild: 20% of patients developing diarrhoea, gynaecomastia and hot flushes with good drug compliance. This combination is ideal as potency sparing androgen ablation therapy for advanced cancer of prostate among young & sexually active males

The Implication of Time-in-Range for the Management of Diabetes in India: A Narrative Review

Introduction: In recent times, traditional self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) using fingerstick capillary samples is moving to continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) due to inherent limitations of the traditional methods. CGM displays current glucose level, trends, rate of change, time-in-range (TIR), and glucose variability (GV) over a period of several days. It detects episodes of hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia, which allows immediate response to prevent these episodes. It also allows physicians to provide a personalized glycemic response to the patients. Materials and methods: Though CGM systems have been available for more than 20 years, their use is quite low. It is challenging for clinicians to invest time in learning and understanding the diverse reports of the various CGM devices. Moreover, there is a lack of consensus on the frequency of TIR measurement. Hence. a review of the literature was performed and existing guidelinesfrom India and abroad were reviewed for a need for CGM and its frequency of measurements in DM patients. Results: TIR is inversely correlated to the risk of microvascular and macrovascular complications. CGM is recommended by expert clinician consensus and national and international medical organizations. For the patients use of CGMs involves cost. Besides, there is the discomfort and inconvenience of wearing the device. Hence, defining the implications of using CGM in practice is important. According to the 2020 recommendations by the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI) — Endocrine Society of India (ESI) and the 2019 recommendations by an expert group of endocrinologists and diabetologists, in the Indian context, CGM could be suggested for patients with Type 2 Diabetes who encounter severe hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia, repeated hypoglycemia, asymptomatic hypoglycemia, nocturnal hypoglycemia,refractory hyperglycemia, or large blood glucose excursions. Conclusions: The role of CGM to achieve better glycemiccontrol and prevention of complications in T1D and T2D is well established. Significant education and awareness on CGM needs to be provided to physicians as well as patients with high GV and those on insulin therapy

Gene Screening and Association of Variants With Gestational Diabetes in North Indian Population

Background: GCK gene variants have been reported to be associated with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in the Caucasian population. There are no reports exploring this association in the Indian population. Methods: This cross-sectional study included subjects from Max Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi, India, over a span of 6 months. Females diagnosed with GDM as per the International Association of the Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) criteria were enrolled. Direct gene sequencing was performed to screen all 10 exons and promoter region of GCK gene. Results: Out of the total 1000 females screened, 154 subjects had any degree of hyperglycemia. GCK gene screening was done and we observed 11 variants in 80.4% (41/51) of the GDM subset and 89.6% (43/48) of the controls. Allele frequencies of observed variants were not different between the control subjects (12.5%) and those diagnosed with GDM (8.4%). Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report from north India exploring association of GCK variants with GDM and we do not observe any association of GCK variants with GDM in our study population. CTRI Registration No : CTRI/2017/07/00896

Adapting to climate change: Traditional coping mechanism followed by the <i>Brokpa </i>pastoral nomads of Arunachal Pradesh, India

752-761Transhumance system of livelihood of the Brokpa pastoral nomads inhabiting in the yak tracts of Arunachal Pradesh with special emphasis on climate change adaptation was assessed in the present study. A representative sample of the 240 Brokpa pastoral nomads from all the yak rearing tracts of Arunachal Pradesh was selected randomly. The Brokpa pastoral nomads mainly depend upon livestock, like yak, yak-cattle hybrid etc, rearing for their livelihood. They perceived that season cycle has been changed in lower and mid altitude. They also perceived that onset of summer is getting started 1-2 month(s) earlier than before and also extended by 2-3 months. Therefore, Brokpa pastoral nomads of Arunachal Pradesh have expanded their migration duration by 2-3 months in searching of congenial environment for their livestock specially yak and yak-cattle hybrid. They adopted 10 coping mechanisms to cope up with negative impact of climate change. Among the coping mechanisms, ‘duration of migration has expanded by 2-3 months’ and ‘change in pasture utilization practice’ were found to be mostly adopted