eChapters

Introduction

Picrorhiza kurroa Royle ex Benth is an important alpine medicinal plant of the Himalayan region. The root and rhizome of P. kurroa are source of the crude drug, which is characteristically bitter in taste and is linked to the medicinal properties. In Indian system of medicine, the species popularly known as Kutki, is an important constituent of several drugs items. This plant also finds a place in Chinese system of medicine where it is known as Hun-hung lien. Chemically, compounds of interest in Picrorhiza are iridoid glycosides: picroside-I and picroside-II. Material for crude drug has traditionally been extracted from the wild. Natural stands have sharply dwindled due to over extraction and habitat degradation. The species was listed as “endangered” in 1997 by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Commercial cultivation is not popular, but is urgently recommended.

Pork production in India is limited, representing only 9% of the country’s animal protein sources. Production is concentrated mainly in the northeastern states of the country and consists primarily of backyard and informal sector producers. The contribution of pork products in terms of value works out to 0.80% of total livestock products and 4.32% of the meat and meat products. The contribution of pigs to Indian exports is very poor.

The chromosomes of the domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) are known to be prone to reciprocal chromosome translocations and other balanced chromosome rearrangements with concomitant fertility impairment of carriers. The domestic pig has diploid chromosome (2n) number 38. The domestic pig karyotype shows a tendency for balanced structural chromosomal rearrangements, such as reciprocal, Robertsonian, and tandem translocations, as well as inversions. There is extensive polymorphism in the heterochromatin, with G-C-rich heterochromatin located in centromere regions of biarmed chromosomes and less G-C-rich heterochromatin in the centromere regions of one-armed chromosomes.

The diploid chromosome number of the pig is 2n = 38, consisting of 18 autosomal chromosome pairs, which vary in length and morphology (12-bi-armed and 6 one-armed pairs), and two sex chromosomes, XX or XY. Robertsonian translocation is known to occur in the acrocentric chromosomes 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18. In these cases, the chromosomes fuse at the centromeric region, resulting in the production of two derivative chromosomes, a large bi-armed chromosome, and a secondary short chromosome often lost in subsequent cell divisions. Thus, the karyotype of a domestic pig carrying Robertsonian translocation has a distinct 2n = 37 diploid chromosome number, with the noticeable addition of a novel large bi-armed chromosome.

Identification of Diseased Animals

Detection of compromised pigs necessitates awareness and fast decisions about treatment, transportation, and/or culling.

Walking the pens daily to observe the pigs will aid in the early identification of healthy and unwell pigs. Before unsettling a group of pigs, try to assess them from afar. This allows you to assess their behaviour.

Check the pens for down or lame animals, watch for increased activity around the water or feeders, and listen for coughing or sneezing. Inspect the ventilation system for improper or poorly managed air quality.

Then, enter the pen area quietly and study the pigs individually utilising B.E.S.T. Method. This acronym stands for:

• Body
• Eyes/Ears/Nose
• Skin/Hair-coat
• Temperament.

Pig Identification

Animal identification is very important aspect on any livestock farm. Some types of identity are merely temporary, dissipating after a few days. Temporary identification, such as a grease paint stick, can be used to identify certain pigs within a pen, such as when immunisation pigs.

Some forms of identification are more durable. Ear tags are commonly used. Some producers use plastic tags with numbers to help them identify individual pigs. Pigs, on the other hand, are inquisitive creatures who frequently consider a plastic tag on another pig as an intriguing toy. Plastic tags are commonly torn and misplaced as a result. Additionally, when the tag punctures the ear, pigs frequently develop an ear infection. Tiny metal tags may be used, but they are subject to the same long-term loss and infection problems.

The most lasting method of identification used by most manufacturers is ear notching. In this procedure, little notches are carved into the baby pigs’ ears right after birth using a small pair of v-shaped pliers. The notches represent numbers and will accompany the pig for the remainder of its life. Farmers may develop their own ear-notching system, but the universal ear notching system is the most widely used.

Pig Nutrition

Proper feed is necessary for development, body maintenance, and the production of meat and milk. When correctly prepared, one can use less expensive locally available feeds that are nutritionally sufficient. Pigs can be fed effectively with leftovers from a family’s kitchen. Pig nutritional needs can be divided into six sections. Examples include water, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals.

Pigs are omnivorous, which means they can consume both meat and plants. Pigs’ digestive systems can also manage roughage-rich diets. Pig must drink plenty of clean, fresh water every day. Pigs will consume practically anything. They will consume grass and other plants. They can be kept in a safe field where they will consume all vegetation and grass. The pig will burrow into the ground and consume both the roots and the green parts of plants. A pig with a nose ring cannot root plants. Pigs will develop and fatten more quickly if fed concentrate feed. Grain meal that has been thoroughly pulverised is a good feed for pig.

Pigs can also be fed leftover veggies and scraps from the kitchen. Before feeding scraps to the pig, household scraps, especially those containing meat, must be well prepared. The pig requires constant access to fresh, clean water. Each day, a sow with young requires 20 to 30 litres of water.

Introduction

Meat has become an integral part of human food to meet the essential nutrients, like proteins. For a balanced diet, a good biological availability of meat is preferred in the modern day era. The per capita consumption of meat in India is only 14g per day as against the actual requirement of 125g. Non availability of quality meat and its exorbitant prices have restricted meat consumption. Increasing the meat production through intensive rearing of various meat animals will help to meet the ever growing demand of a balanced human diet. In the modern era and educational status social taboos are also getting relegated with need of quality proteins.

The very important role of pigs in human life is control of environmental pollution by scavenging the biological waste. Pig converts biological waste material to quality proteins in the form of pork. Pigs have a rapid growth rate, high reproductive efficacy, require comparatively less space, and can be reared on small scale in backyards or as commercial units.

Successful management strategies require an understanding of the pig reproductive system. Profitability in pig production farm is primarily limited by reproductive efficiency. Increasing reproductive efficiency lowers the cost of each pig sold. Increased pig marketing per female could reduce the number of sows required or increase the overall number of pigs marketed per year. Nonetheless, improving reproductive performance requires time. There are no quick fixes for enhancing reproductive performance. To improve the reproductive parameters of swine farms, sound management approaches and a rigorous genetic selection programme are required.

Introduction

Pigeon are domesticated from 4500 B.C. Domestic pigeons are decedents from the wild pigeon, distributed in Rocky Ravines throughout the Asia and Europe. They are generally kept for ornamental purpose. The production of young meat pigeon provides alternatives income to the small farmers. Squabs are being reared as a side line in village, towns and on farms. Squab rearing can be made profitable source of income with good management and market. Squabs require little land since all breeders are kept in small pens and houses. There are fair demand of squabs in large cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. Squab rearing also has tremendous export potential to Dubai, Australia, Thailand and Singapore. A pigeon is a tradition part of Middle Eastern country diet. In China, pigeon meat is a popular restaurant dishes and there is a good demand from Jewish Community clubs all over the world. Rearing of pigeon using modern methods is a very profitable than traditional way.

Pigeons have been a friend of man from early times. They utilize not only for ornamentation but to get cheap food for the table. Pigeon are versatile birds and used for Sport of racing pigeon, Flyers and performers, showing of fancy pigeons and Meat production. In the earliest art, many used pigeons to symbolize love, peace and loyalty.

Pigeon pea seeds discovered in historical tombs suggest it was farmed in Egypt circa 2000 BC. Vavilov (1939) concluded that India is the primary origin of the cultivated pigeon pea due to the wide diversity of germplasm available. It’s a crucial location in rain-fed agriculture. It is grown on 4.92 million hectares worldwide, including 3.58 million hectares (72.7 percent) in India alone. Although the crop is planted in 22 nations, it is only cultivated in considerable areas in a handful of them. Its seeds have become a widespread food in Asia, Africa, and Latin America since its domestication in the Indian subcontinent at least 3,500 years ago. It is an important source of protein for the Indian subcontinent’s people and is consumed on a big scale in South Asia. India is a major producer of pigeon peas. Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Mozambique, and Tanzania are major producers of pigeon pea on the African continent.

Pulses are seeds of leguminous plants used as food. They produce dal rich in protein. The important pulse crops are greengram, blackgram, redgram, bengal gram, soybean, cowpea, peas, lentil and lathyrus. The total area under pulses in India is 29.81 m ha with a production of 25.42 m t and the productivity is 853 kg / ha. Pulses can grow both in rainfed and irrigated conditions.

Introduction

The productivity of pulses in India has remained stagnant over the past several decades. In the case of pigeonpea, which a major pulse crop in India, it has been hovering around 700 kg ha-1 for the last five decades. Uttar Pradesh (UP) occupies 9.14% (2.16 million ha) of the total area under pigeonpea in the country (23.63 million ha). Poor crop management practices adopted by the farmers, non-availability of quality seed of improved varieties, damage by insect pests and diseases and drought are some of the factors responsible low productivity in pulses. In a recent review, Maruthi Shankar et al. (2004) identified shortage of quality seed as one of the major constraints for increasing pigeonpea production in India. The genetically pure seed alone can increase productivity by 10-15% (Saxena, 2006).

Despite release of several improved varieties of pigeonpea, local landraces dominate the cultivation of pigeonpea in the country. Timely availability of quality seed of improved varieties at affordable price remains one of the major concerns in pigeonpea cultivation. Most of the farmers procure their pigeonpea seed from local traders or rely on their ‘own-saved’ seed.

Of the total global pigeonpea production, over 90 percent of this is grown in India. The major pigeonpea growing states are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh, contributing to 88.2% of the total pigeonpea basket and the same holds goodover the years. Over the decades, whatever little increase in production level was observed i.e. from 1.75 mt (19701975) to 2.75 mt (20052009), it is neither uniform nor steady. It is mainly through the expansion of area from 2.52 mha to a level of 3.58 mha ( 20052009 ) without significant change in productivity which ( 1970 1975) has remained almost stagnant around 700 kg/ha (Table 1) and is a matter of real concern (Srivastava, 1993).The gross geographical shifting of area ( 467 th. ha) took place mainly from traditional areas (Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) to new and less productive areas (Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa) with a netgainof area 837 th. ha in Central zoneandSouthzone includingexpandedadditional area (Table 23).

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan, (L.) Millspaugh, 2n = 2x = 22, an often crosspollinated crop with 20 – 70% cross-pollination, family-pea family Leguminosae or Fabaceae, genome size 808 Mbp) is a short-lived perennial shrub that is traditionally cultivated as an annual crop in developing countries.. It is grown in Asia, Eastern and Southern Africa, Latin America and Caribbean countries. On an average, it is cultivated worldwide on 4.92 million hectares (M ha) with an annual production of 3.65 Mt giving a productivity of 741 kg/ ha. India is the largest producer followed by Myanmar and Eastern and Southern Africa (principally Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

Being polytocous animal, sow give birth several (8-14) piglets in each farrowing, mother pig find several deficiencies and disorders during gestation, farrowing and postnatal conditions. Prior to birth intrauterine competition amongst the feotus piglets for nutrition and gas exchange is a big stress for abortion. Several infectious and non-infectious causes may hamper proper growth and pathological conditions resulting mortality (15-20%) in piglets than weaner and adults (Sarma, et al, 2012). Several risk factors are also responsible for piglet mortality.

Prenatal factors: Insults during pregnancy can impact a piglet’s ability to survive after birth and regulate their body temperature. Some maternal aspects that affect survability and mortality amongst piglets are prolong farrowing duration more than 4 hours, number of parity of sow, usually first and second parity show high mortality than subsequent parities and also older sow lose more piglets.

1. The first impression of a food is usually visual and major part of our willingness to accept a food depends upon its
   1. Size
   2. Shape
   3. Colour
   4. Texture
2. Colour can serve as a useful criterion of
   1. Quality
   2. Nutrition
   3. Texture
   4. Acceptability

1. Introduction

At present there is an increasing demand for colourants from natural sources. Since there is a possibility of banning of synthetic colours in view of their carcinogenic properties and already a reduction in number of permitted synthetic colours from 13 to 8 numbers in our legislation (PFA, 2005), the demand for natural colours is evident. In Japan and European countries because of the green movement, the demand for synthetic colours has been reduced. Synthetic colours in global market account for 400 million dollars. Despite processing limitations and higher costs, the global market for natural colours is estimated to be more than 939 million dollars (Espszezola, 1998). Color is recognized as a major factor affecting food acceptance. The consumer expects a specific food to possess a well defined colour and rejects any appreciable deviation from the normal. The change in colour during the preparation of food is a useful guide to quality control and is used by many food processors as the criterion for selecting raw materials. The characteristic colour of raw food is due to the natural pigments present in the plant and animal material. These can be enhanced in processed food products through the addition of food colourants. Addition of colour can make up for the colour losses during processing. Some of the major groups of colours are anthocyanins, carotenoids, betalains, chlorophylls, flavones and chalcones. Some of the plant sources of pigments are kokum, roscelle, chilli, marigold, beetroot, grapes and safflower. Sources of natural colours can be plants, animals or microbes. Fruits and vegetables form one of the main plant sources of pigments. Some of the plant materials rich in colours viz., alfalfa, marigold, safflower, strawberry, aronia fruits, grapes, red cherries have been exploited for pigment extraction and the results have shown positive effects. Some of the interesting features of the work carried out by researchers in this area are presented in the following sections.

The pigments are energy-rich organic compounds. The potential chemical energy of these compounds comes from the light energy. The light enrgy to be effective in photosynthesis must be absorbed by a suitable pigment. This vital role is performed by a suitable pigment. This vital role is performed by the green pigment. Chlorophyll, carotenoid (carotenes and xanthophylls), anthocynin and phycibilins.

1.    The function of myoglobin is to store in living animal’s muscle.

(a) Oxygen

(b) Nitrogen

(c) CO₂

(d) Oxygen + carbondioxide

2.    Myoglobin is in color when not carrying an oxygen molecule.

(a) Red

(b) Blue

(c) Purple

(d) White

Haemorrhoids or piles are due to swelling or enlargement of the veins that supply the rectal outlet of the body. Localized inflammation and bleeding, and also thrombosis in many cases often complicate this painful condition. People who suffer from constipation and other bowel disorders are more likely to develop haemorrhoids. Piles are also more common in pregnancy, and in conditions affecting the liver and upper bowel.