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Background: Tigers are protected under schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The current report highlights the detection of Hepatoozoon felis in a tiger cub. The infection is transmitted by ingestion of infected tick, infected prey and carrion. It is subclinical in adults; however, the cubs and immunocompromised adults may show clinical symptoms. Concurrent infection with bacterial or viral infections may be fatal to the infected animal. Methods: Hepatozoonosis was detected by blood smear examination using Giemsa staining. A PCR targeting the 18S ribosomal RNA was used to confirm the infection. The amplicon was purified and sequenced using a sanger sequencer. The 18S ribosomal RNA fragment sequence was compared to the available sequences in NCBI database using the nucleotide BLAST Tool. Neighbour joining phylogenetic trees using the bootstrap method were constructed using MEGA X software. Result: The presence of an intermediate gamont stage in neutrophils was seen under high resolution. The 660 bp amplicon was purified, sequenced and analysed for identity using the nucleotide BLAST tool of NCBI. The sequence was found to be 99.32%, similar to Hepatozoon felis. The phylogenetic analysis by neighbour joining phylogenetic tree using the bootstrap method indicated similarity with other reported sequences of H. felis isolated from Asian Lions. The sequence, however, was very dissimilar to the previously reported H. felis isolated from Royal Bengal Tiger. Considering the potential threat Hepatozoonosis can have in the wild, the prevalence must be estimated in prey base, sympatric cat species and arthropod vectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the study of strongly r-precious ring is initiated. An element r ∈ R is strongly r-precious if r is the sum of an idempotent element, a regular element, a nilpotent element and these elements are commute with each other. A ring R is considered to be a strongly r-precious ring if all of its elements are strongly r-precious. In this article, we discuss some of the fundamental properties of strongly r-precious rings and discuss the behaviour of strongly r-precious rings under finite direct product, homomorphic images, matrix ring and group rings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflict leopards are often critically wounded and need care and rehabilitation under captivity. These incapacitated leopards need special health care and management including changes in diet to suit their physiological needs. In most zoos, a monotonous diet protocol of carabeef / beef is followed. It is essential to make changes to diet to suit the incapacity and provide wise supplementation where needed. In our study, five incapacitated or geriatric leopards were selected, their diet was modified considering their incapacity and their health was monitored by daily health monitoring, body score indexing, faecal scores, blood and biochemical monitoring etc. It was observed that making changes in regular diet to suit incapacitated and geriatric leopards was instrumental in the health and well being of incapacitated leopards in captivity. Similarly, geriatric leopards need special care to avert health complications and lead a healthy life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study related to assessment of meteorological drought in Maharashtra, India. It mentions that standardized precipitation index (SPI), decile drought index (DI) and effective drought index (EDI) are widely used meteorological drought indices for drought quantification. It also mentions that SPI and EDI detect the onset of drought, its spatial and temporal variation consistently.

Present study was taken up to develop a topical formulation that releases the drug in controlled manner, reduce the side effects associated with topical drug delivery and improve product efficacy with aid of microsponges. Microsponges loaded with sertaconazole nitrate were prepared by using quasi emulsion solvent diffusion with five different proportions of the polymer (Eudragit RS 100). The developed microsponges were analyzed for particle size, production yield, entrapment efficiency and drug content. Scanning electron microscopic images of microsponges revealed that they are spherical in shape and contain pores. Pore structure analysis was done by using mercury intrusion porosimetry technique, which confirmed the porous nature of microsponges. Microsponges were then incorporated in to a 1% corbopol gel and evaluated for pH, drug content, texture profile analysis and in vitro drug release. The batch F IV was found to be optimal as it shown 69.38% controlled drug release in 8 h that followed Higuchi model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]