eChapters

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.

True/False

Q.1.    The precision of an estimator increases as the sample size increases.
Q.2.    Statistical power is the probability that a statistical test will indicate a significant difference is true i.e. it is the probability of taking correct decision.

Abstract

Bamboo is nature’s unique gift to mankind. It has tremendous scope for use in eco-friendly agro-forestry programmes, to bring marginal lands into use. The requirement for bamboo is increasing for various traditional and industrial requirements. In India almost 99% of annual bamboo production comes from the natural forests and only about 1% is derived from plantations.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Abstract

Bacilli, a group of endospore forming bacteria present in soil, contribute directly or indirectly to crop productivity. Bacilli have many physiological unique traits like multilayered cell wall, stress resistant endospore formation, secretion of peptide antibiotics, peptide signal molecules, extracellular enzymes, which make them ubiquitous and assist to their survival under adverse environmental conditions for long time.

Abstract

Since the beginning of the civilization, medicinal plants have been used to prevent and treat various ailments. At present, most of the pharmaceutical/ nutraceutical industries highly depend on wild medicinal plants for the supply of raw materials for extraction of bioactive compounds. As medicinal plants receive increased scientific and commercial attention, there is increasing pressure on the wild medicinal plant populations.

Abstract

Cancer is a potent disease causing nearly 6 million deaths per year worldwide. There are a number of cancers such as skin, brain, lung, breast, stomach, colon and blood cancer caused due to number of factors like unbalancing of hormones, smoking etc. Cancer could be treated by chemotherapies or through irradiation therapies.

Biodiversity, coined by W. G. Rosen in 1985, is the variety of life on Earth. It is the occurrence of different kinds of organisms and the complete range of varieties adapted to different climates, environments and areas being constituents of food chains and food web of biotic interrelationship. Biodiversity refers to totality of genes species and ecosystems of a region. Biodiversity differs from place to place. Biodiversity is the biological wealth of world.

There is continuous depletion of biodiversity due to increasing population resources consumption, urbanization and pollution. The basic reason for concern is that biodiversity is being lost even before it attains its size. Loss of biodiversity would check evolutionary capability of biota to cope up with environmental loss.

Livestock sector may be considered as a driving force for nutritional security and an important component of sustainable agriculture in India. Livestock sector besides providing milk and meat also provides a diverse range of output for agriculture (manure, draught power and transport) and for manufacturing sector (fiber and leather). According to estimates of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the value of output from livestock sector at current prices was about 4,59,051 crore during 2011-12 which is about 24.8% of the value of output from total agricultural and allied sector at current price and 25.6% at constant prices (2004-05). The value of output of milk is 3,05,484 crore in 2011-12, which is higher than the value of output of paddy and wheat. The value of output from eggs and wool group is 17,803 crore and 318 crore respectively for 2011-12. Livestock agriculture is the only way to produce food in many of the world’s harshest environments. Locally adapted breeds enable these vast areas to be used in a sustainable manner.

India has vast animal genetic resources with a wide variety of indigenous farm animal breeds. These breeds have evolved over generations to adapt to specific agro-climatic and socio-economic needs of the people. Many number of these breeds are now subjected to fast genetic degradation and dilution because of unplanned and indiscriminate breeding and introduction of exotic germplasm.

Domestic animal diversity in developing countries is embedded in traditional farming and pastoral communities who manage their livestock according to their Indigenous Technological Knowledge (ITK) and in tune with local ecological constraints.

Stress is described as the cumulative detrimental effect of a variety of factors on the health and performance of living beings (Rosales, 1994). Heat stress arises when there is an imbalance between heat production within the body and its dissipation. Homeotherms can maintain their body temperature within a relatively narrow range and both physiological and behavioural responses help in thermoregulation. Stress occurs when an animal suddenly faces a change in its environment. Heat stress during summer and post summer months in tropical countries is a problem of great concern among farmers and livestock producers as it costs both production and reproduction of animals.

True/False
 
Q.1.    The set of observations or measurements collected on specific characteristics from each item (individual) constitutes data.
Q.2.    Each characteristic that is measured or observed, varies from item to item and is called “Variable”.
Q.3.    “Blood type”, “stage of disease” and “weight” observed on a group of cancer patients, are three distinct variables.
Q.4.    A variable that can be expressed in numbers such as age, height, blood pressure, is said to be “Quantitative variable”.

Abstract

As we have entered in the post genomic era where we have successfully completed the full genome sequencing of many important crop species and now the future challenge is to ascertain the functions of all genes present in plant genome.

A finite growth capacity is a characteristic of all cells derived form the normal animal tissue. The cells pass through a series of age related changes before being incapable to divide further. The finite number of generations of growth is a characteristic of the cell type, age and species of origin and referred to as the “Hayflick limit”. The cells derived from embryonic tissue have a greater growth capacity than those derived from adult tissue.

A cell culture laboratory should allow the sterile handling of cultured cells with no or minimum level of contamination. The growth of bacteria and fungi is very high and no level of contamination can be allowed in animal cell culture. However, it is impractical to design a laboratory free from potentially contaminated microorganism. Further, it is possible to establish a laboratory with minimal risk of contamination. Several points should be taken into consideration while designing a new cell culture laboratory.

True/False

Q.1.    A set containing all possible outcome of a trial in a study is known as “Sample space”.
Q.2.    If we are interested in observing the blood type of a child born in a hospital then sample space may be a set S is of the form S = {A, B, AB, O}.
Q.3.    If outcomes are continuous in nature, the sample space is specified as an interval that contains all possible outcome values.
Q.4.    When the occurrence of one event excludes the occurrence of other events, the events are said to be “Mutually exclusive events”.
Q.5.    In case of testing the type of blood of a newly born baby in a hospital, the blood types A, B, AB, O or gender (male, female) are exclusive events.