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An experiment was conducted to evaluate the carcass characteristics of Salem Black kids under intensive and semi-intensive systems of management. Sixteen weaned kids were selected at random and they were placed in two treatments comprising of eight kids in each group. The dressing percentage of intensive and semi-intensively reared kids differed highly significantly(P< 0.01). The primal cuts percentage did not differ significantly for leg, loin, rack, breast and fore shank and the neck and shoulder. The loin eye area was highly significant (P<0.01) between intensive and semiintensively reared kids. The kidney and omental fat was significantly (P<0.05 and P<0.01 ) higher in intensive system when compared compare to semi-intensive system of rearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was carried out to analyse the pig husbandry practices in semi-arid region of Tamil Nadu. The study revealed that, 95.00 per cent of farmers reared the pigs in shed covered with asbestos sheet (53.83 per cent) followed by thatches (34.64 per cent) on concrete flooring (92.28 per cent). The majority of the farmers (76.92 per cent) maintaining Large White Yorkshire pigs and followed natural service using boars. The farmers followed stall feeding and 50 % of the farmers fed swill feeding along with poultry offal waste with small quantity of own mix concentrate feed. Majority of the farmers (50 %) vaccinated their pigs against both swine fever and FMD and 19.23 per cent of the farmers did not give any vaccination. 61.54 % farmers followed deworming using allopathic medicine. Similarly, only 65 per cent of the farmers protected their piglets against piglet anemia with iron injection and 32.5 % of them used ectoparasitic drugs in their farms. The farmers followed weaning at 2 months of age and castration of male piglets at 2 to 3 weeks of age. Pigs were marketed at 8 to 9 months of age when they attained the body weight of 90 to 100 kg at the rate of Rs.90 to 95 per kg live weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of non-genetic factors namely breed, sex, age, season and cause of death on the mortality of rabbits were studied utilizing a total of 835 mortality records over a period of 20 years. The study revealed that there is a significant difference (P<0.05) in number of pre-weaning mortalities between seasons, with more mortality in summer and least in winter season. The preweaning mortality observed in Soviet Chinchilla in summer, south-west monsoon, north-west monsoon and winter seasons were 29.53, 28.37, 27.60 and 14.48 per cent, respectively and the values observed in White Giant were 32.80, 27.12, 32.49 and 7.57 per cent, respectively. The postweaning mortality did not differ significantly between breeds, sexes and seasons. The cause of death did not influence the number of mortality between four seasons of the year. However, pneumonia and enteritis resulted in more mortalities than other causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiment was carried out at Instructional Livestock Farm complex, Veterinary college and Research Institute, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu during 2015-2016 and with the aim to study the feeding behaviour of sheep fed with cultivated hybrid napier and multicut fodder sorghum at different stage of cuttings under intensive system. Intensity of eagerness towards the green fodders and bouts length, duration and frequency were studied. The intensity of eagerness towards the fodder was highest in CO(BN)5 group followed by CO(CN)4 and COFS29 at 60th and 75th days of cuttings. The number of bites per min was highest in CO(BN)5 group whereas the bout time (min) and frequency of bite was highest in CO(CN)4 group and lowest in COFS29 group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted to assess the effect of saline dilution of fowl semen for artificial insemination in egg layer breeder hens under the prevailing environmental conditions. The study was conducted in BV300 layer breeding hens. The dilutions were made with normal saline in the ratio of 1:1 and undiluted semen served as control. Three thousand two hundred and fifty (3250) hens were assigned at random to each group. The dose of insemination was 0.05 ml and the hens were inseminated artificially twice in a week in the afternoon between 1430 h and 1730 h. It was found that the hens in saline dilution group produced significantly (P < 0.05) less infertile eggs than the hens in undiluted semen group. Besides, diluted semen inseminated group had numerically lesser early embryonic mortality per cent, dead in shell per cent, lesser live in shell per cent, lesser chicks culling per cent and increased hatchability and saleable female chicks. The present study provided evidence that hens inseminated with 1:1 semen dilution produced more fertile eggs compared to those hens inseminated with undiluted semen. Additionally, insemination with saline diluted semen group had reduced the cost by ₹ 0.47 per female chic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Namakkal district, 14 Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers Societies (TCMPS) were selected randomly and the data (n=16028) available at Namakkal Chilling Centre, Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers Federation (TCMPF) were used for this study. The mean milk fat percentage was generally higher in the evening milk when compared to the morning milk. The pooled overall mean fat percentage was found to be 4.42 per cent. Mohanur block recorded significantly highest milk fat per cent both in the morning and evening followed by Sendamangalam and Namakkal blocks. Maximum mean fat per cent (4.517) was observed in north-east monsoon followed by winter (4.43 per cent) and south-west monsoon (4.372 per cent). The least mean fat per cent was registered during summer (4.343 per cent) season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was conducted to analyse the goat farming practices adopted by farmers under field conditions in southern agro-climatic region of Tamil Nadu. A total of 180 goat farmers were utilised for this study in Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Virudhunagar districts. Based on the agricultural land holding the goat farmers were categorised as landless, marginal, small and large land holders and they were 48.89, 33.89, 10.56 and 6.66 per cent, respectively with the mean land holding size of 1.50 ± 0.17 acres. Goat farmers preferred to live in nuclear family (78.33 per cent) than joint family (21.67 per cent). Majority of goat farmers in the study area were Hindus (91.11 per cent) and remaining (8.89 per cent) were Christians and they belonged to the backward class, scheduled class and most backward communities comprising 37.23, 34.44 and 28.33 per cent, respectively. Farmers had an average of 10.41 ± 0.46 years of experience in goat farming. The average annual income generated by the goat farmers in the study area was Rs. 53,160.16. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey was conducted in three blocks of Namakkal district by selecting 50 dairy co-operative society farmers per block, totaling 150 farmers. The data on the concentrate feed, green and dry fodder resources, feeding management practices were collected from the selected farmers by personal contact, using pre-tested schedule. The overall average number of cows available per farmer was 3.12. Except one farmer, all the farmers had followed individual feeding system. In general, majority of the farmers followed sorghum fodder feeding either alone or combined with field grass or Co-3 grass. In dry fodder feeding, maximum number of farmers used sorghum stover either singly or in combination with either paddy straw or groundnut hay. Maximum number of farmers had green fodder availability either only during post monsoon period or during rainy season or both. Majority of the farmers derived the green fodder either from cultivation or collected from field. Only about one-fourth of the farmers had green fodder availability throughout the year. Average dry matter intake for milch cattle, pregnant cum dry animal and calves through concentrate, green and dry fodder were 3.04, 2.37, 3.29; 1.06, 1.60, 2.75; and 0.32, 0.39, 0.91 kg, respectively. 91.33 per cent of the farmers had poor knowledge on improvement of fat and SNF content of milk and only 8 per cent had fair knowledge. Only 6.67 per cent farmers attempted either mineral mixture or calcite for improvement of fat and SNF content of milk and experienced positive response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment was carried to assess growth and carcass characteristics of Large White Yorkshire pigs fed with 100 per cent concentrate feed alone (T1) and 50 per cent replacement of concentrate with swill feed (T2). Though the body weight was lower in the Swill fed group during the early period, the piglets have got compensatory weight gain at the end. The body weight was more in T2 (72.13 ± 3.60 kg ) than T1 group ( 70.06 ± 2.62 kg ) at 7th month of age. Similarly the overall weight gain and daily gain was more in T2 ( 60.84 ± 3.72 kg and 402 ± 13.2 g) compared to T1 (58.25 ± 2.80 kg and 386 ± 10.4 g). But the feed conversion efficiency was better in concentrate fed group (3.26 ± 0.11 ) than the swill fed group (3.73 ± 0.27). The dressing percentage, BFT and LEA were significantly more in swill fed group than the concentrate fed group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An adult female Mecheri in an organized sheep farm exhibiting the signs suggestive of Johne's disease was positive for the bacilli, Mycobacterium avium sub species paratuberculosis by Zeihl - Neelson technique and the haematological and serum biochemical parameters of the positive case were analyzed. The case on necropsy was confirmed for Johne's disease by it's characteristic gross lesions and histopathological findings. Faecal examination and necropsy revealed the concurrent infestation by the stomach worm, Haemonchus spp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]