eChapters

Camels across the world are reared for milk, meat, draught, race and tourism. They are distributed in the African, Arabian and south Asian countries.  Apart from this, a feral population exists in Australia and recent reports indicate that a few animals of the species are also being reared in Europe. The world camel population shows an increasing trend with 12.92 m in 1961 to  24.68 m in 2010 producing 0.38 m tonnes of meat and 2.36 m tonnes of milk per annum.  The top 20 camel rearing countries produce both milk and meat with the exception of India and Pakistan as per FAO. Contrary to this, the research articles and news reports indicate that the species in the two south Asian countries too produce both milk and meat.

India, the progenitor of the present day chicken, is a vast country having varying climatic zones such as the high altitude Himalayan regions, the Indo-Gangatic plains, the Deccan plateau in the south and hot and humid coastal areas. Although, no exact data is available, factual information suggest that poultry raising in this sub continent is as old as its civilization. Owing to the long widespread chicken raising in the vast territory of this country and manifold ecological niches at different places, many native breeds were evolved over the years some of the documented breeds and ecotypes are Aseel, Ankaleshwar, Busra, Brown Desi, Chittagong, Daothigir, Denki,  Ghagus,  Haringhatta black, Kadakanath,  Kalasthi, Kashamir faverolla,  Miri,  Naked neck, Frizzle, Punjab brown, Tellichery, Titri, Teni and Nicobari.

Rural poultry production constitutes vital component of agricultural economy in India. The organized sector of poultry industry is contributing nearly 70% of the total output and the rest 30% by the unorganized sector. In unorganised sector, poultry are reared in free range extensive system with very little input in the form of grain or farm by-products, birds have to scavenge from limited amount of feed resource. The productive out put of these birds are very low (60-70 eggs per bird per annum; 2.0 kg. and 1.5 kg. body weight per bird in males and females, respectively). Moreover, still more than 50 % population of poultry in India comprises of non-descript / deshi birds.

Poultry has been extensively used for various biological experiments and its contributions to science are impressive. Among poultry species, chickens have made fundamental contributions to our current understanding of many immunological processes and it ranks high in the biological world. It still serves as an animal model to investigate immunogenetic aspects of disease resistance and tumor regression. Among the major contribution from poultry, the first evidence for viral induced tumor came from chicken (Rous, 1911; Nobel prize, 1966), reverse transcriptase enzyme was isolated from Avian Leukosis virus (Tamin and Baltimore, 1963; Nobel Prize, 1975), oncogenes in virus are from host cells (Bishop & Harold Varmus; Nobel Prize, 1989) and major two arms of immune response i.e. the T and B cells were first discovered in chicken.

Poultry industry in India has a strong standing globally, being third highest egg producer with more than 50000 million eggs and fifth highest broiler producer with 2.25 million tones of broiler meat. Largely, Indian poultry industry is chicken dominated and the rearing of high yielding varieties under intensive rearing system is the backbone of its present face. Analysis of trend of egg production in last five years i.e. 2001-2006 revealed that annual growth rate in egg production is about 5-6 %, except a much lower rate of 3 % during 2003.

Introduction

Agricultural biodiversity must be an integrated part of climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts. Climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation should complement each other (FAO, 2007, 2008). Climate affects vectors, pathogens, hosts and host-pathogen interactions from the level of cellular defence to that of the habitat. Hoberg et al. (2008) provide an overview of predicted responses of complex host-pathogen systems to climate change. Climate change may affect the spatial distribution of disease outbreaks, and their timing and intensity (Epstein 2001). Outbreaks of African horse sickness, peste des petits ruminants, Rift Valley fever, bluetongue virus, facial eczema and anthrax are triggered by specific weather conditions and changes in seasonal rainfall profiles.

Bioinformatics is a branch of biological science which deals with the study of methods for storing, retrieving and analyzing biological data, such as nucleic acid (DNA/RNA) and protein sequence, structure, function, pathways and genetic interactions. It generates new knowledge that is useful in such fields as drug design and development of new software tools to create that knowledge. Bioinformatics also deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, structural biology, software engineering, data mining, image processing, modeling and simulation, discrete mathematics, control and system theory, circuit theory, and statistics.

Introduction

Over decades, improvement of domestic animal species has been done by selecting superior animals, mainly based on individual performance and their subsequent breeding to get progenies with higher production potential. Within the 20th century, understanding of inheritance of economic traits, factors influencing genetic potential and their interactions provided better criteria for selection and this has resulted into faster genetic gains. Several selection criteria which were composite ones based on the individuals as well as its relative performances were being used.

Breeds are the result of the hundreds of years of natural selection and evolution. They are adapted to tropical climate and diseases and perform reasonably well even with low quality of feed and fodder. India has agrarian economy, with majority of population dependent on agriculture. India is a mega diversity hub of different livestock breeds. There are 10 buffalo breeds, 30 cattle breeds, 42 sheep breeds, 20 goat breeds, and 18 poultry breeds contributing significantly to GDP of the country. Despite our vast population of different species, there is a need for conservation of breeds. Conservation is the management of human use of the biosphere, so that it may yield the maximum sustainable benefits to the present generation, as well as maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generation.

Introduction

In India 70 to 75 per cent of the indigenous cattle and buffaloes are designated as non-descript that is they do not come under any well defined breed. Among the animals of defined breed also, less than 5-10 per cent of the population can be considered as elite and used for the production of breeding stock. Average productivity of cross-bred and desi cows is 2141 kg/lactation & 634 kg /lactation, respectively, which is still very low. The average productivity of buffaloes is 1355 kg/lactation only.

Dairy buffalo production has been a tradition in Asian region and some other parts of the world where fresh  buffalo milk, dahi (cultured sour milk), ghee (butter oil) and yoghurt are very popular. In Italy, the dairy buffalo industry is flourishing; thanks to the popularity of buffalo mozzarella cheese. Because of the market for Mozzarella, buffalo farming is a profitable enterprise and is carried out in an organized manner with modern equipment.

Livestock is an important source of income for the rural poor and marginal farmers which enables earn income and food security using common resources.It is a best option to utilize such waste resources in proper way to earn income. About 65-69% of Indian population consisting of small and marginal farmers and land less laborers reared animal as supplementary occupation by feeding their animals agriculture by products. Indian agriculture is very difficult to sustain without dairy animals. Per capita availability of milk comes out to 281gm per day, which is below than the average of 300gm recommended by Nutrition Council of ICMR. Thus, there is a further need to increase the milk production of the country in view of minimizing difference between per capita availability and requirement. Milk production in India has increased from a modest 22 million tons during 1970-1971 to about 122 million tons in 2011—2012 (Deptt. of Animal Husbandry and Dairying).

Introduction

India is a vast country comprised of different agro-ecological regions with diverse climate, natural vegetation resources, topography, possesses almost all domesticated animal species, landraces and crops with different production systems. Domestic animals provide a considerable amount of   food requirements for mankind. India ranks first in milk production with 112.5 million tonnes milk produced in 2010-11. As India is a tropical country, in summer the temperature hikes about 40-48°C in various parts of the country. Such a temperature is certainly not within the comfort range of animals and thus the animals respond to the stress imposed by temperature on them in various ways to combat the stress and to maintain the homeostasis.

The prospects of Farm Animal Genetic Resources (FAnGR) are exceedingly uncertain. The FAnGR characterize the genetic makeup of the thousands of local breeds worldwide which are well-adapted for producing in harsh environments, and which for millennia have been essential in nourishing human communities. Currently, the genetic diversity in numerous livestock breeds across the world is threatened. Decades of consistent selection intended mainly for production increase has caused irreversible loss of genetic diversity (FAO, 2009).

India’s livestock sector is one of the largest in the world and dairy farming is the single largest contributor to country’s GDP, apart from being the biggest source of employment. India has 56.7 per cent of world’s buffaloes. Buffalo genetic resource greatly helps the countries to assess their strengths and potential to harness the nature’s gift and India is fortunate in terms of having largest buffalo population, huge buffalo germplasm diversity (13 recognized plus 14 distinct population groups) and the world renowned buffalo breeds: Murrah, Banni, Jaffrabadi and Nili-Ravi.

Hill cattle in Uttarakhand are multipurpose animals. They are used for milk, draft, manures and ceremonial purposes. Improvement for these attributes depends on definition and subsequent selection for various traits. Based on the criteria for improvement and detailed literature analysis, it is believed that the hill cattle of Uttarakhand is one of the potential population for milk in the state specially in the remote and high altitude areas.. Hill cattle have also been used for dairy improvement as a dam breed for crossbreeding in some cases in the state. It has been observed that hill cattle in the state mostly reared as dual purpose animal i.e milk and draft. Therefore, the hill cattle could be improved for both milk and draft. The aim of the present study is to know the status, characterstics and performance  and to suggest the possible options for improvement in milk productivity of hill cattle in the state.

Introduction

India ranks third in sheep population and accounts for 6.13 % of world population (FAO, 2009) with 71.56 million sheep to its record as of Livestock Census 2007 (DAHD, 2012). Out of 71.56 million sheep, 3.73 million are crossbred and 67.83 are indigenous. Sheep husbandry is backbone of rural economy in India. It is important as it helps in sustaining the livelihood of rural poor in difficult terrains characterized by sparse vegetation, marginal land and a high incidence of poverty. These breeds were developed following domestication and natural and artificial selection over the past 12,000 years.

India produced 121.8 MT milk during the year 2011-12 and continued to rank first in world milk production. India contributed 16 % of world milk production. As per 2010 statistic, India with 12.5 % of world cattle population contributed 8.4 % in world cow milk and  with 56.7 % of world buffalo population contributed  67.45 % in world buffalo milk. In total milk production of India, contribution of crossbreds, indigenous cattle and buffalo were 23 %, 20% and 53%, respectively.

Dairy farming has been the backbone of the agriculture and rearing of livestock for milk/milk products and draft power has been the tradition of ancient rural India. Whenever the crops have failed miserably attributed to natural calamities, the livestock has emerged the savior of farmers providing livelihood security in rural India. India is a country of villages (640930 villages) and 68.84% population of India is living in villages as per the All India Census, 2011. Further, 41.8% rural population is below poverty line as compared to 25.7% urban population (Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics, 2012). The marginal and small farmers are rearing 71.7% of total livestock revealing that livestock has been the source of sustainable livelihood security for rural poor majority of which falling under the category of population below poverty line.

Animal husbandry is an integral component of Indian agriculture supporting livelihood of more than two-third of the rural population. The livestock sector plays a significant role in supplementing family incomes and generating gainful employment in the rural sector, besides providing cheap nutritional food to millions of people. Livestock provides milk, egg, meat as nutritious food, draught power for agriculture, wool, fibre, manure and domestic fuel, hides & skin. In 2010-11, this sector contributed 121.84 million tonnes of milk, 63.02 billion eggs, 42.99 million kg wool, and 4.83 million tonnes of meat. Milk is the main output of livestock sector accounting around two third (67%) of the total output by livestock sector. Meat and egg share 17.5% and 3.6% of the value of livestock output. Livestock contributed 4% to the total GDP and 26% to the agricultural GDP in 2010-11. Livestock are the best insurance against the vagaries of nature like drought, famine and other natural calamities.