eChapters

Food Animals are the main protein source for human nutrition in the world.Sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics are commonly used in food animal production, through their addition in feed and wateras antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs). Animal production is considered one of the main sources of antimicrobial resistances (AMR), thus the research for alternative strategies to the use of antibiotics in animal diet is essential to f ight the emergence of AMR. Currently, AMR causes the death of 700,000 people per year and it is forecasted that this will increase exponentially to 10 million by 2050, becoming the main cause of death worldwide.The reduction of antimicrobial resistance is a major challenge for the scientific community. In a few decades, infections by resistant bacteria are forecasted to be the main cause of death in the world. The withdrawal of antibiotics as growth promoters and their preventive use in animal production is essential to avoid these resistances, but this may impair productivity and health due to the increase in gut inflammation. The best alternative to Antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) is a general improvement of conditions for food animals. In order to start a reformation of the Food Animal Industry as a whole, it’s essential to research to find out effective, resistance rare, low toxic and affordable alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters. Culinary herbs derived bioactives may be the promising products to address this challenge because it is traditionally proven to restore the gastrointestinal health due to beneficial effects on microbiota composition, mucosal barrier integrity, and immune system to control inflammation.

1. Introduction
Molecular techniques are laboratory methods used to study and manipulate DNA, RNA, and proteins. These techniques are crucial for analyzing and understanding the molecular basis of biological processes and have applications in various fields like medicine, agriculture, and forensics.
2. Molecular Marker Analysis
Molecular markers can be expressed as a DNA sequence or gene expression product that represents differences in genomic level in relation to a gene or a property. Molecular markers are markers that can be used to monitor differences at the DNA level and for a gene that is being investigated. DNA markers are also DNA regions in which polymorphism in individuals within a species can be determined.
Molecular markers are nontissue-specific DNA regions that are reliable, repeatable, standardizable, capable of identifying multiple regions in the genome, capable of identifying more than one region in the genome, independent of environmental conditions, dominant and codominant.
Molecular markers are classified as dominant and codominant markers. Heterozygous individuals cannot be distinguished from homozygous dominant individuals, since dominant markers are not suitable for identification of heterozygous individuals when related to dominance between alleles is dominated by dominant markers. Thus, three different individuals (AA, AA and AA) can be distinguished for any marker at any point.
The use of molecular marker systems based on this meta-analysis has become more prevalent in genetic studies conducted by the discovery of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The rapid development of technology and the accompanying needs, the facilities of the laboratories where the applications will occur, the biological properties of the species and the abundance of markers in the genome have contributed to the development of DNA markers [5]. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), randomly amplified polymorphic DNA markers (RAPD), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), sequence labeled sequences (STS), microsatellites (SSR), cleaved polymorphic sequence (CAPS), single strand such as complementary polymorphism (SSCP), amplicon length polymorphism (ALP), interspecific sequence repeat polymorphism (ISSR),

Fungal diseases are a significant threat to crop health and productivity worldwide, causing substantial economic losses and compromising food security. The development and spread of fungal diseases are influenced by a complex array of factors, including crop susceptibility, pathogen virulence, and environmental conditions. Among these environmental factors, weather plays a critical role in determining the severity and impact of fungal diseases on crops. Weather conditions, such as temperature, humidity, precipitation, and wind, can significantly affect the life cycle of fungal pathogens, including spore production, dispersal, and infection. For example, high temperatures and dry conditions can inhibit the growth and development of some fungal pathogens, while cool and wet conditions can favor their development and spread. Similarly, wind and precipitation can facilitate the dispersal of fungal spores, leading to the rapid spread of disease (Fig. 7.1). Understanding the impact of weather on fungal diseases is essential for developing effective disease management strategies. By recognizing the weather conditions that favor or inhibit the development of fungal diseases, farmers and crop managers can take proactive measures to prevent or mitigate disease outbreaks. This may involve adjusting planting dates, irrigation schedules, and fungicide applications to minimize the risk of disease. Furthermore, knowledge of the weather effects on fungal diseases can also inform the development of more accurate and reliable disease forecasting systems.

Indian agriculture – the back bone of our economy accounts for about 65 per cent of the country’s employment and 20 per cent the total export earnings. Despite a drastic increase in the food grains production during the last five decades, the profit margins of farmers particularly small and medium farmers has declined due to certain serious problems like declining water table, deterioration in soil health, outbreaks of new pests diseases and weeds, and environmental pollution etc. With the globalization of market, the farmers will have to change themselves from mere producers’ in the domestic markets to producer cum seller in a wider market sense in order to best realize the returns for his investments, risks and efforts. Now the focus should be on high quality produce, low cost of production and high productivity.

Diamond back moth: Plutella xylostella: Plutellidae
 
The adults of this moth are small, greyish brown having pale whitish narrow wings and with inner margins yellow. There are three pale whitish triangular markings on hind margins of each forewing. At rest, when both forewings come together, they form a dorsal median patch of three diamond shaped yellowish white spots that give them their name diamond back moth. Hind wings have a fringe of long hairs.

Germplasm
 
Germplasm of crop may be defined as sum total of hereditary materials, i.e. all alleles of various genes present in a crop species and its wild relatives. The germplasm can be utilized in a breeding programme in following ways:
•    Direct release as a variety
•    It may be subjected to selection for developing a variety
•    It may be used as one of parents in hybridization programmes

The importance of lipids have already been elaborated. They play a major role as source of energy and as components of membranes which have implications in plant growth regulation. The complete metabolism of fat leads to oxidation, the final products being CO₂ and water. The burning of one mole of palmitic acid gives 2340 kcal.  The molecular weight of palmitic acid is 256. This works out to approximately 9 kcal/g of palmitic acid. This energy is twice that derived from either sugars or proteins. Fats and oils are thus better and more efficient forms of storage of energy in living beings.

Lab coat: A loose white coat with deep pockets that is worn in a laboratory or medical office.

Labelling: It means any written, printed or graphic matter that is present on the label, accompanies the food or is displayed near the food, including that for the purpose of promoting its sale or disposal. After packaging, labels are required on the finished products intended for distribution and sale. Labelling can reflect on the quality of the product. It must be clear and informative. Information includes Name of the Manufacturer, Date of Manufacture, Net Weight, Gross Weight, Best before etc. Proper storage is needed for maintenance of the quality. Storage must be done only at recommended temperature, relative humidity, light and air / oxygen and carbon dioxide conditions etc. to maintain the quality of the food product. Label may include tag, brand, and pictorial or descriptive matter, written, printed, embossed, graphic, perforated, stencilled or stamped impressions. It is attached to container, cover, lid, or crown of a food package.

Laboratory: A place equipped for experimental study in a science or for testing and analysis. Broadly, it is a place providing opportunity for experimentation, observation, or practice in a field of study.

Lacquer: It is a colloidal dispersion of a solution of cellulose derivative, resin and plasticizer in solvent and diluents, where in all these constituents dried in air by evaporation of solvents, thus yielding a transparent, hard and water proof film.

ABSTRACT

Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia Andrews) is a high value spice crop having immense potential for cultivation in India as a source for natural vanillin. Though the crop was introduced way back in 1835, its cultivation gained momentum only in the recent past due to various reasons. Lack of sufficient good quality planting materials is one of the constraints for expanding the area under the crop. Conventionally vanilla is propagated by vine cuttings, but this method is inadequate to have large number of planting materials in a short span of time. So, micropropagation was attempted and proved to be highly successful. In the present study, performance of vanilla plants raised from tissue culture plantlets and vegetative cuttings was assessed on large-scale in planters’ field covering a total area of 111 ha in Kerala(68ha), Karnataka(28ha) and Tamilnadu(15ha) with the financial assistance of the Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi under the project entitled “Tissue culture Vanilla : Product Plan“. Disease free elite accessions of vanilla identified by the Indian Cardamom Research Institute (Spices Board), Myladumpara from its germplasm repository were used as mother plant source for tissue culture multiplication and also for raising the nursery for producing vegetative cuttings. The field planting for the demonstration plots was carried out during 1996-1999 on a cluster approach basis having 400 plants in each unit or plot of 0.25 ha. Accordingly a total of 444 evaluation plots were laid out under the project covering the aforesaid three states. Out of the 400 plants in a plot, 80% were nursery hardened grown up tissue culture plants and the balance( 20% )vegetative cuttings of comparable length. Observations on growth and yield attributes such as vine length, number of leaves per vine, internodal length, number of beans per vine, bean size, yield etc. revealed that performance of tissue culture plants is on par with that of conventional plants raised from vegetative cuttings of comparable length. It is also observed that if good management practices are adopted, tissue culture plants perform better at the full bearing stage of the plant. This proves that tissue culture plants of vanilla can be popularized as a cost effective and faster source of planting materials compared to conventional vegetative cuttings. As the demonstration plots were distributed under varied agroclimatic situations, the influence of different weather parameters on yield was also ascertained. Further, the project could convince the farmers about the comparable performance of tissue culture plants and that is quite evident from the ever increasing request for tissue culture vanilla plants received by the Spices Board.

Ozonium Wilt

Ozonium texanum var. parasiticum Thirum / Guizotia abyssinica

Economic Importance

• The disease was reported around Varanasi.
• Heavy losses are incurred as the diseased plants dry.

18.1. What?

The basic objective of sowing is to place the seed in rows at the desired depth, to maintain proper spacing between seed to seed, cover the seeds with soil and provide proper compaction over the seed if required. Precise sowing/planting helps in better crop stand. This helps to achieve optimum yields. Traditional sowing methods include broadcasting manually, opening furrows by a country plough and dropping seeds by hand (i.e.) dibbling. In the present day, improved seed-cum-fertilizer drills are used for sowing and fertilizer application. These are provided with seed and fertilizer boxes, metering mechanism, furrow openers, covering devices, frame, ground drive system and controls for variation of seed and fertilizer rates.

18.2. Types of sowing/planting equipment

Sowing equipment include seeders and transplanters. Various types of sowing equipment, viz., manually operated, animal drawn, power operated and tractor drawn are used throughout India.

18.2.1. Seed drills

Seeders are available for sowing seeds of various crops. Some seeders have been designed with adjustable metering mechanism which makes them versatile for sowing two or three kinds of seeds. For example, a multicrop planter developed by CIAE is used for sowing garlic, maize, moong, peas and groundnut. Similarly, the institute has developed a small seed sowing drill which is used for sowing small seeds such as bajra, rapeseed and mustard.

Inland fisheries are important global contributors to food security, livelihoods, and ecosystem services. A report on the global snapshot of expert-perceived impacts of COVID-19 on inland fisheries has been submitted by Stokesa et al, (2020). They studied an online survey to determine perceptions of Inland fisheries pressures between June and July 2020. They also analysed pandemic impacts on inland fisheries, based on the responses analyzed against fish capture and human development index data.

Fruits and vegetables grown in kitchen garden or in the field can be preserved in various forms like juice, squash, puree, pickle, jam, jelly, murabba, paste, ketchup, sauce, etc. for year round consumption. Seasonal produce of vegetables and fruits can be preserved through various methods for consumption at a later time.

Juice

Fruits like pineapple, mango, orange, lemon, etc. can be used to prepare juice, squash and other ready to serve beverages. Beverages can be prepared by following various steps. The fruits are washed thoroughly and pat dried with clean cloths. Then the peels are removed wherever necessary. Peeling can be done by hand or by knife. The juice is extracted by using juice extractor or by netting. The extracted juice is then strained using a muslin cloth or mosquito net. To enhance the taste and shelflife, the juice is mixed with sugar syrup. The sugar syrup is prepared by dissolving sugar in water and boiling it. After the syrup is ready, it is allowed to cool and strained through muslin cloth. Then the extracted juice is added with the syrup and citric acid. Preservatives like potassium meta-bisulphite or sodium benzoate is added for storage of the juice. If necessary, essence can be added @ 2 ml/litre of juice. The juice is to be stored in a narrow mouth bottle by leaving a head space of one to two centimetres. The cap of the bottle is to be sealed with wax.

The salts of the milk include those constituents that are present as ions or in equilibrium with ions. The main salts of milk are phosphates, citrates, chlorides, sulfates, carbonates, and bicarbonates of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Approximately 20 other elements are found in milk in trace quantities including copper, iron, lead, boron, manganese, zinc, iodine, etc. These ions are more or less associated with themselves and with proteins. Some metals act as catalysts in the oxidation of milk fat leading to oxidative rancidity and certain metals like Ca, P, Mg, Mo, Co, Fe, etc. are components of metalloproteins such as lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase, xanthine oxidase, and parts of phospholipids.

Distribution of Salts Between Casein Micelles and Serum

The phosphorus is present as orthophosphate, but part of it is bound to organic components like serine and threonine residues of casein, molecules of hexoses and glycerol, phospholipids, etc. Phosphorus is also found in the hydroxyapatite structure of the colloidal calcium phosphate in the micellar structure of casein. The sulfur content of milk is about 0.36 g/kg, but most of it is in the amino acid residues methionine and cysteine of the proteins. About 10% is present as inorganic sulfate.

Physical Equilibria Among Salts

Milk contains several elements but all of them are not entirely in a soluble state. Some minerals exist in colloidal and ionic states at the normal pH of milk. The compounds that are in soluble condition play an important role in keeping various milk constituents in stable condition. A balance exists between the components that are in a soluble state and those which are in colloidal state.

Abstract
Aquatic weeds, such as duckweed, present a dual challenge and opportunity within aquatic ecosystems and the poultry feed industry. These fast-growing plants, often deemed nuisances due to their potential to disrupt ecosystems, offer significant potential as alternative feed sources. Duckweed, a floating aquatic plant, is particularly noteworthy due to its high protein content, rapid growth rate, and nutrient recycling capabilities. In freshwater systems, excessive growth of aquatic weeds can lead to decreased ecosystem productivity, hypoxia, and anoxia, making effective management crucial. However, duckweed’s ability to thrive in nutrient-rich conditions and its high nutritional value, including substantial protein and essential vitamins, position it as a valuable feed ingredient for poultry. The Indian poultry sector, growing at an annual rate of 8-10%, faces challenges such as rising feed costs and limited availability of conventional feed ingredients. Integrating duckweed into poultry diets can provide a cost-effective, sustainable alternative that reduces reliance on traditional feed sources and supports ecosystem management. This approach not only addresses feed shortages but also contributes to environmental sustainability by recycling nutrients and mitigating pollution. Despite its potential, challenges such as lack of standardized regulations and market acceptance remain. Continued research, policy support, and market promotion are essential to harness the full benefits of aquatic weeds.
Keywords: Aquatic, Duckweed, Poultry, Sustainable and Feed Additives

Bacterial diseases are a significant threat to human health, agriculture, and the environment. These diseases are caused by pathogenic bacteria that can infect various hosts, including humans, animals, and plants. The severity and spread of bacterial diseases are influenced by various factors, including weather parameters. Weather conditions, such as temperature, humidity, wind, and precipitation, play a crucial role in the development, dissemination, and survival of bacterial pathogens (Fig. 8.1). Fig. 8.1. Bacterial infection on soybean leaves Temperature, for instance, affects the growth and reproduction of bacteria, with optimal temperatures varying among different species. High temperatures can accelerate the growth of some bacteria, while low temperatures can slow it down or even kill them, however every pathogenic bacterium have its own weather window. For example, a daytime temperature of 35°C and nighttime temperatures of 27°C are most favorable for Xanthomonas oryzae infecting rice. Similarly, humidity influences the survival and dissemination of bacteria, with high humidity favoring the growth and spread of many bacterial pathogens. For example, lower soil moisture decreases the chances of infection of Ralstonia solanacearum in tomato plants. Wind and precipitation also impact the spread of bacterial diseases. Wind can disperse bacterial spores and cells, allowing them to reach new areas and infect new hosts. Precipitation, on the other hand, can influence the availability of moisture, which is essential for the growth and survival of many bacterial

Some of the constraints in cashew production in the country which limits the productivity of cashew per unit area

• % Large area under cashew in the country is still covered with non-descript genetically inferior seedling progenies.

• % Cashew is a neglected plantation crop among the farmers and generally grown under neglected condition.

• % The land which is not suitable for other plantation crops only are available to cashew crop. Hence, the land which is available for cashew is usually eroded and degraded with poor soil fertility.

• % Farmers are not fully aware of the latest cashew production technologies due to inadequate transfer of technology.

• % Even if farmers are aware of the latest cashew production technologies, non adoption of recommended package of practices to the extent required.

• % Absence of compact and dwarf high yielding varieties, because of which high density planting cannot be adopted to realize the full potentiality of high density planting technology.

Chilli thrips: Scirtothrips dorsalis, Thrips palmi: Thripidae

The adults of this insect are small brownish black with fringed wings. The nymphs are slender and yellowish straw coloured, later acquiring more brownish hue. They lacerate the tissues and feed on the exuding sap. Leaves become crinkled, curled upward and shed. The attack can be confused with chilli mosaic symptom.  In capsicum and chilli, they also feed beneath calyx of flowers and fruits causing flower/fruit drop and reduction in yield and market value of capsicum. Buds become brittle and drop down. Plants get stunted and bronzed. The fruits if at all formed are crinkled and small.

Industrial Microbiology is the discipline that uses micro organisms, usually grown on large scale, to produce commercial products or carry out important chemical transformations.

The products derived from such processes are

1 Alcohols and alcoholic beverages.
2 Production of pharmaceutical agents like antibiotics, vaccines etc.
3 Food additives
4 Enzymes
5 Chemicals
6 Single cell proteins

1. Introduction

Phytochemists and pharmacologists from all over the world obtain several patents for herbal drugs developed on the basis of the indigenous knowledge systems of different ethnic groups. Many countries rich in traditional medicinal knowledge have been conducting ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants (Patil and Bhaskar, 2006). In India the native people have exploited a variety of herbal medicines for effective curing of various diseases. The plants used, preparation and administration of drug varies from area to area (Rajaram, 2006). The ethnobotanical research still plays its evident scientific role in stimulating further phytochemical and pharmacological studies (Leporatti and Corradi, 2001).

The objective of this study is to interact with Kani traditional healers and document their traditional knowledge. The Kani-tribals are one of the most primitive hill tribes of Western Ghats. They occupy the slopes of the Agasthiarmalai in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India. Some ethnobotanical studies have been done in this area (Anonymous, 1948-76, Chopara et al., 1956, Satyavati, 1976, Jain, 1981, Nagendra Prasad et al., 1996). The impact of deforestation, urbanization and modernization makes the tribals shifting from their natural habitats to urban areas. Documenting the traditional knowledge through ethnobotanical studies is important for the conservation of medicinal plants and traditional medicines.