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Understanding the principles involved in plant growth and development is prime important for managing agronomic practices for higher productivity of dryland crops sustainably. Systematic study of plant growth based on the variability and interpreting plant development based on biometric methods is called as growth analysis. Plant data in turn biometric data is collected from the field and analysed over the period to know the growth condition of the plants. Based on biometric data, agronomic practices like application of fertilizers, irrigation and weed management practices were employed. Several growth indices are devised for identifying environmental or genetic factors as sources of variation in plants. Both whole plant and their component organs (leaf) are basis for calculating growth indices.

The most common parameters used in growth analysis are leaf area index, crop growth rate, relative growth rate, net assimilation rate and leaf area duration.

The main aim of blood testing is to ascertain the adequacy of each new diet in relation to the herd’s requirements, i.e. what the cows think of their rations. So blood sampling should be carried out as soon as possible after major changes in dietary constituents. But two weeks must elapse after the changes to allow the rumen to become fully adapted. The metabolic profile is based on the concept that the laboratory measurement of certain components of the blood will reflect the nutritional status of the animal with or without the manifestation of clinical abnormalities. The values of Hb, PCV, TEC, TLC, DLC and erythrocytic indices are useful indicator of health status of the animal.

2.1. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of collecting data is to collect evidence for reaching a sound and clear solution to a problem. In this chapter we will study the sources of data, mode of data collection and its techniques.

Sources and Types of Data

Statistical data can be obtained from two sources:

Primary and

Secondary

Background
Fine needle aspiration (FNA) is a minimally invasive diagnostic procedure used to obtain cells from a mass or lesion for examination under a microscope. It’s a valuable tool in diagnosing tumors in canines (Figure 5) and other species of animals, including humans.
Advantages of FNA
• Minimal invasiveness to the animals. Thus, no sedation of animals is required.
• Rapid results - Results are obtained faster as cell processing is not required.
• Cost-effective
• Risk-free
• FNA can be performed under image guidance, such as ultrasound, CT, and MRI, for precise identification of the location of cells inside the tissue.
• May be able to differentiate between benign and malignant tumors
• Can assess tumor grade
• FNA helps monitor treatment response. FNA is helpful as it can help pre-plan the treatment of the dogs. If the tumor is malignant, then the treatment can be given immediately, and if it is benign, then the treatment can be postponed.

Bovine
 
1.    PPR    Eye, mouth, rectal swab in PBS on ice, 10 ml blood  in anti-coagulant at height of temperature, Prescapular lymph node, spleen, piece of intestine on ice, lung, liver, spleen, tonsil in 10% neutral formol saline solution.

6.1 Introduction
The majority of milk demand is urban, while production is restricted to rural areas in nearly all developed dairying countries. Consequently, milk must be collected and transported from production sites in the milk-shed areas to processing and distribution points in cities.
The common systems for collection (assembling) of milk are as follows.
1. Through a cooperative organisation. Established by collective or individual dairy societies. Producers are most advantageous when there are no intermediaries involved in profit labelling.
2. by contractors. Producers receive a diminished return.
3. By independent producers. Convenient for individuals who reside in close proximity to dairy processing facilities.
Note: The milk shed is the geographic region from which a city dairy obtains its fluid milk supply. India is currently contemplating the allocation of specific milk silos to individual dairies in order to facilitate their development.

Background
As a non-invasive and relatively stress-free method, saliva holds great potential as a diagnostic sample. It has already been utilized in diagnostic tests for rabies and other diseases in dogs. Saliva secretion is the secretion of salivary glands that maintains homeostasis in the oral cavity, protects against pathogens, and helps digest food. It contains inorganic substances, cells (blood and epithelial cells) and microorganisms. Saliva also contains immunoglobulins, enzymes, hormones, and cytokines derived from serum and bronchial secretions. The saliva of dog is being used to detect rabies virus (Kasempimolporn et al., 2000), parvo virus (Kocaturk et al., 2021), cancer and measure stress levels. Obtaining saliva rapidly, painlessly, and uncomplicatedly can be an easy tool for disease screening.
For the identification of serval prognostic biomarkers for various physiological and pathological conductions, saliva proteomics can be very helpful. In humans, saliva contains more than 3000 proteins (Kawas et al., 2012). Several diseases like oral carcinoma, AIDS, hepatitis B, cystic fibrosis, and other diseases like diabetes mellitus. Differential expression of dog saliva proteins compared to human saliva revealed 2532 proteins. Proteins related to apoptosis and adhesion were predominant in the oral proteome of dogs, in addition to proteins related to regeneration and healing processes such as FGF and EGF (Sanguansermsri, et al., 2018).

Specimens serve as enduring records of a species or population as they existed at a specific time and location. The future value and utility of any specimen are heavily influenced by the meticulousness with which the collector selects, gathers, and prepares the specimens. The following guidelines and recommendations on specimen preparation, field equipment, and field records are provided to help collectors produce high-quality herbarium specimens with comprehensive field notes.

Collecting Objectives and Planning

The specimens you collect should align with your specific objectives, which will determine the techniques used, the amount of material collected, and the type of field data recorded. The following suggestions can help you maximize the benefits of valuable field time:

1. Outline Objectives

• Clearly define the goals for your specific expedition.

2. Prepare Equipment List

• Make a comprehensive list of all equipment needed for the field expedition.

3. Identify Localities

• Use herbarium specimens to determine specific localities if needed materials are known.

• Have multiple localities in case some areas are disturbed.

• Check flowering and fruiting dates on herbarium specimens.

For the diagnosis of clinical reproductive problems it is essential to collect blood, penile swab, Prepucial swab, prepucial washing, semen, smegma etc from breeding bulls. These samples are dispatched to the nearest laboratory for clinical diagnosis. 

5.1 Collection of Blood Serum

The bull is properly restrained and jugular vein area is cleaned and sterilized with 70% alcohol. An sterile hypodermic needle is used to collect 5-10 ml blood aseptically in a sterile test tube. This test tube is then kept in a slanting position. Serum is separated after the formation of blood clot and dispatched to the laboratory.

5.2 Collection of Seminal Plasma

Semen sample is collected as per the standard procedure. Carbolic acid or 1 % sodium acid is added to preserve seminal plasma at the rate of 2 drops in 1 ml ejaculate in the centrifuge tube. It is then centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 20 minutes. The supernatant is collected and stored in deep freeze till further analysis.

7.1 INTRODUCTION

Grafting and budding are horticultural techniques used to join parts from two or more plants so that they appear to grow as a single plant. In grafting, the upper part (scion) of one plant grows on the root system (rootstock) of another plant. In the budding process, a bud is taken from one plant and grown on another. The practice of grafting can be traced back 4,000 years to ancient China and Mesopotamia. As early as 2,000 years ago, people recognized the incompatibility problems that may occur when grafting olives and other fruiting trees.

7.2 ROOT STOCK

The part of the graft that provides root system to the grafted plant is known as rootstock. It is, normally, raised by seeds in the seedbed and then, transplanted in the nursery bed for budding and grafting. Rootstocks are also raised in pots and polythene bags.

For seed storage in the gene banks, the seed stored should have high quality which is greatly affected by seed handling during collection. The details on these issues have been given by Smith (1995).  In terms of seed storage characteristics seeds are of following 3 steps.

Soil testing identifies various constraints in soil that limit crop production. Fertilizer recommendation and soil management practices to be adopted are based on the soil test report. Soil testing starts with collection of soil samples from the field
and ends with interpretation of soil test results leading to necessary recommendations for increasing crop production.

This chapter explains how representative soil samples should be collected, labelled, transported and prepared for analysis. It identifies essential sampling equipment, including spades, khurpis, augers, trays, sampling bags, markers and polythene sheets. The recommended procedure involves dividing land into uniform sampling units, collecting soil from several well-distributed locations and combining these portions into a composite sample. The chapter describes V-shaped sampling cuts, suitable sampling depths and sample reduction through quartering. It also lists the field information that should accompany each sample. Procedures for air-drying, grinding, sieving and mixing samples are presented, together with precautions for avoiding unusual areas and contamination.

Background
Urine collection is a fundamental procedure in veterinary medicine, providing valuable insights into an animal’s health status. Urine analysis can detect urinary tract infections, kidney function, and metabolic disorders. Several methods can be employed for urine collection in dogs, each with its advantages and limitations. Always collect urine in clean, sterile and leakproof containers.
Procedures of Urine Collection In Animals
1. Free catch or voided urine: Collecting urine as the animal voids naturally. This procedure is non-invasive and easy to perform. However,
the collection of voided urine may not be free from contaminants. Contamination risk from external genitalia and dilution or concentration variation in urine composition is common.
2. Catheterization: Inserting a catheter into the urethra to obtain a sample, often used in larger animals or when free catch is not possible. It provides a sterile sample that is suitable for bacterial culture and cytology. However, catheterization is an invasive procedure with the potential for trauma and discomfort to the animals.
3. Cystocentesis: Inserting a needle directly into the bladder through the abdominal wall to collect a sterile sample. Like catheterization, cystocentesis provides a sterile sample, ideal for bacterial culture and cytology.

Active plant breeding programmes call for continuous search for new genes to be incorporated into advanced breeding lines to face the new problems and the challenges. The rapid technological developments in gene transfer technology in recent years have opened new avenues for introducing useful genes from wild and weedy relatives of crop plants. It is also a fact that due to genetic erosion, wild species, are getting lost. Therefore, systematic collection of germplasm of wild and weedy species have become more relevant today then ever before for the following reasons (Bothmer and Seberg, 1995).

PLANT EXPLORATION AND GERMPLASM COLLECTION OF PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES

Plant exploration and collection activities have been undertaken for a wide range of needs - by naturalists, travelers and plant hunters over the past several centuries in the quest for new and better economic plants in the southeast Asian region, ornamentals in the Himalayas and many others; by taxonomists for working out plant diversity and delineating phyto- geographic differences, and providing a basis for pinpointing areas with high species diversity and changes over time; world-wide collection, augmentation and characterization of crop plant diversity by Vavilov and co-workers (1926) for understanding the patterns of crop plant diversity and delineating centres of diversity; search for wild forms of species, and wild relatives of crop plants for working out primary centres of origin and crop genepools; biosystematic study, survey and in situ study and collection in protected areas for determining patterns of diversity build-up in crop and wild species. Concept of centres of origin of crop plants, importance of the wild genepool of crops, dependence on wild plants as a source of edible and otherwise useful species ensuing from these efforts provide the basis for systematic exploration and collection of plant genetic resources.

Introduction

Plant genetic resources represent a huge reservoir of genes of economic importance, which acts as buffer against environment fluctuations. These genes are largely spread in the land races and traditional cultivars, which have been conserved by virtue of their specific merits. The human and natural selection interventions have resulted in establishment, improvement and differentiation of numerous types, which represent genetic wealth of the crop species and are commonly referred as plant genetic resources (PGR).

Genetic Erosion and Need for Conservation

In view of the availability of high yielding varieties/hybrids, the traditional cultivars/ land races have been disregarded by the farmers due to their low economic potential. Sustaining the green revolution, changing cultivation practices and intensification of land use pattern have been the potential threats for rapid erosion of plant genetic diversity. The erosion of these resources has resulted into the extinction of several valuable genetic materials. Realizing the consequences of genetic erosion and importance of plant genetic resources, more diversity needs to be conserved for future. Prior to conservation the collection and characterization of germplasm through morphological and molecular markers for establishing the identity of genotype is essentially required. For effective utilization of PGR in vegetable improvement programme, the proper characterization and evaluation of genotypes for breeder driven traits including biotic and abiotic stresses in target environments is urgently needed. In addition, value addition is an important area of concern especially in vegetable crops. After implementation of recommendations of Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), the major thrust has been given on conservation of bio-resources. In view of the globalization and emerging IPR regimes (UPOV, TRIPS, ITPGFRA etc.), there is a need for having suitable mechanisms for the protection of bio-resources.

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in two replications with seventy germplasm lines during kharif 2012 at College of Agriculture, UAS, Raichur. The germplasm included 30 local varieties from different parts of Karnataka and 40 lines collected from AICRP, Jabalpur. Each entry was sown in three lines of 4 m length with 30 cm x10 cm spacing. Out of seventy lines sixty two entries were germinated. These lines were evaluated for seed yield and other ancillary characteristics viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of primary branches, number of capitula, number of seeds per capitulum and seed yield. Among them, six entries performed better than check variety No. 71 and 12 entries performed better than another check variety RCR 18. Among all the entries N-84 (238.89 kg/ha) and SD-33 (215.28 kg/ha) produced high yield. Hadagali local and No. 71 (51.5 days) were found earliest in flowering and maturing varieties and SP 141 was late in flowering (71 days) and late in maturing. Tavaregere local (66.5 cm) and SP134 had less plant height (67.5 cm) and BMD 127 had highest (113.5 cm) plant height. The number of primary branches was more in the genotype Humnabad local (12.5). Number of capsules per plant was more in Humnabad local and ICP 76 (53.0) and number of seeds per capsule were more in BMD 115 (77.0).

Transfusion therapy is basically an attempt to replace blood or its components when the life is threatened. Blood transfusion plays a life saving role in general mostly to shorten the recovery time during any severe blood loss conditions arising due to accidents, major surgical interference, haemoprotozoan diseases especially in canines during anaemic conditions due to sever helminthic infestions, tick infectation, haemophilia etc.

In livestock, diversity of blood and lack of commercially available blood typing reagents, make blood group matching and typing difficult, which results in reduced importance in veterinary practice. Blood or individual blood component is to be transferred during the following conditions-

Collection of Blood Objective: To diagnose the existing disease condition, if any. Types of blood collection • Arterial sampling: In order to measure arterial blood gases, an arterial blood sample is taken from an artery. Only veterinary professionals who are legally permitted to do so for their work in their country and who have proven their expertise via formal training should take arterial blood samples. • Venipuncture sampling: The most used method of taking blood from humans and animals is venipuncture. Collection occurs from a superficial vein near the surface that is not very close to any large nerves.