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Not AvailableLivestock farming forms an important economic activity throughout the globe. In particular, they play a crucial role in the socio-economic prosperity of the developing and least developed countries by providing major support to rural livelihood. Pig farming is a viable and profitable enterprise that can be easily adopted and adapted by smallholder farming systems. Pigs can be easily integrated into small- and marginal-scale farming systems and can be fed with by-products from crops that cannot be consumed or used more efficiently by small-scale farmers. In the developing nations, the piggery sector directly empowers the rural poor, precisely the women and tribal population. Besides providing nutrition, pig farming acts as insurance to the weaker section of the society against agricultural failures and loss of labour through sale of pig and pig products. Nevertheless, this sector is still in its developing stage in India and agripreneurs have started taking interest in pig rearing. There are many bottlenecks in its advancement to full capacity, which need to be addressed. Scientific interventions and extension activities aimed to mobilize pig resources towards the empowerment of weaker sections of society can lead to their better livelihood and provide nutritional security as well.Not Availabl

Prokaryotic expression of chicken infectious anemia apoptin protein and characterization of its polyclonal antibodies

325-331In the present study recombinant VP3 (rVP3) was expressed in E.coli BL21 (DE3) (pLysS) and its polyclonal antibodies were characterized. SDS–PAGE analysis revealed that the expression of recombinant protein was maximum when induced with 1.5 mM IPTG for 6 h at 37ºC. The 6×His-tagged fusion protein was purified on Ni-NTA and confirmed by Western blot using CAV specific antiserum. Rabbits were immunized with purified rVP3 to raise anti-VP3 polyclonal antibodies. Polyclonal serum was tested for specificity and used for confirming expression of VP3 in HeLa cells transfected with pcDNA.cav.vp3 by indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT), flow cytometry and Western blot. Available purified rVP3 and polyclonal antibodies against VP3 may be useful to understand its functions which may lead to application of VP3 in cancer therapeutics

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Not AvailableFoot-and-mouth disease virus infection-specific nonstructural protein antibodies deteted in populations of mithun (Bos frontalis), yak (Bos grunniens) and their hybrids maintained in farms and villages of Arunachal Pradesh, India.Not Availabl

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The article Received 11 August 2016 Revised 11 September 2016 Accepted 16 September 2016 PublishYak is an iconic symbol of Tibet and high altitudes of Northeast India. It is highly cherished for milk, meat, and skin. However, yaks suffer drastic change in milk production, weight loss, etc, when infested by parasites. Among them, infestation by leeches is a serious problem in the Himalayan belt of Northeast India. The parasite feeds on blood externally or from body orifices, like nasopharynx, oral, rectum, etc. But there has been limited data about the leech species infesting the yak in that region because of the difficulties in morphological identification due to plasticity of the body, changes in shape, and surface structure and thus, warrants for the molecular characterization of leech. In anticipation, this study would be influential in proper identification of leech species infesting yak track and also helpful in inventorying of leech species in Northeast India. Here, we investigated, through combined approach of molecular markers and morphological parameters for the identification of leech species infesting yak. The DNA sequences of COI barcode fragment, 18S and 28S rDNA, were analyzed for species identification. The generated sequences were subjected to similarity match in global database and analyzed further through Neighbour-Joining, K2P distance based as well as ML approach. Among the three markers, only COI was successful in delineating species whereas the 18S and 28S failed to delineate the species. Our study confirmed the presence of the species from genus Hirudinaria, Haemadipsa, Whitmania, and one species Myxobdella annandalae, which has not been previously reported from this region.Department of Biotechnology, Government of Indi

Genetic assessment of leech species from yak (<i>Bos grunniens</i>) in the tract of Northeast India

<p>Yak is an iconic symbol of Tibet and high altitudes of Northeast India. It is highly cherished for milk, meat, and skin. However, yaks suffer drastic change in milk production, weight loss, etc, when infested by parasites. Among them, infestation by leeches is a serious problem in the Himalayan belt of Northeast India. The parasite feeds on blood externally or from body orifices, like nasopharynx, oral, rectum, etc. But there has been limited data about the leech species infesting the yak in that region because of the difficulties in morphological identification due to plasticity of the body, changes in shape, and surface structure and thus, warrants for the molecular characterization of leech. In anticipation, this study would be influential in proper identification of leech species infesting yak track and also helpful in inventorying of leech species in Northeast India. Here, we investigated, through combined approach of molecular markers and morphological parameters for the identification of leech species infesting yak. The DNA sequences of <i>COI</i> barcode fragment, <i>18S</i> and <i>28S rDNA,</i> were analyzed for species identification. The generated sequences were subjected to similarity match in global database and analyzed further through Neighbour-Joining, K2P distance based as well as ML approach. Among the three markers, only <i>COI</i> was successful in delineating species whereas the <i>18S</i> and <i>28S</i> failed to delineate the species. Our study confirmed the presence of the species from genus <i>Hirudinaria, Haemadipsa</i>, <i>Whitmania,</i> and one species <i>Myxobdella annandalae,</i> which has not been previously reported from this region.</p