eChapters

Spikeborer : Helicoverpa armigera : Noctuidae

Larvae of this polyphagous moth feed on the spikelets, flowers and developing seeds. The young larvae bite holes into the spikelets and the grown up ones attack the mature spikes

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.

Fruit flies: Bactrocera cucurbitae:Tephritidae

This pest is more serious in bitter gourd, snake gourd and to a certain extent on ridge gourd. Other cucurbits are attacked to a lesser level. Damage by this pest causes losing the fruit quality, rotting and fruit drop. The adults lay many eggs inside the fruit sing their big ovipositor that hatch out into worm like apodous maggots. Feeding by the maggots on the pulp of fruits result in rotting, yellowing and fruit drop. The dropped fruits allow pupation by the maggots in the soil from where they emerge out as adults and start egg laying on fresh frits.

their starchy seeds, which are scientifically referred to as caryopsis. These plants, along with cereal fodders and grasses, typically exhibit a determinate growth pattern and the quality of their herbage tends to decline following the flowering stage.
Kharif Crop (Hot and Wet Season)
1. Bajra /Pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum/typhoides): Bajra, also known as pearl millet, ranks as the fourth most significant cereal crop, following rice, wheat and sorghum. This crop is primarily cultivated for both grain production and as fodder. It thrives predominantly in the arid and semi-arid regions of India, where it is typically grown as a rain-fed crop during the Kharif season, specifically in the months of June and July. Bajra is characterized by its rapid growth and resistance to diseases, making it an ideal fodder option; however, it is not well-suited for areas with high rainfall. Harvesting and yield: The average yield of green fodder from bajra is approximately 300-400 quintals per hectare. When harvested for grain, the kadbi production can reach 50-60 quintals per hectare. For optimal fodder production, harvesting should occur before the flowering stage or at the 50% flowering mark to ensure quality feed for livestock. Nutritive value: At the flowering stage, the CP content is around 4.50%. The initial cutting is recommended 50-80 days post-sowing, with subsequent cuts occurring every 35-40 days, maintaining a cutting height of 15 cm above ground to promote re-growth. A total of two cuts can be achieved for enhanced yield. Bajra serves as a non-maintenance type of fodder. It is typically harvested and provided to livestock as green fodder, with the potential for conversion into hay or silage. However, the straw produced from bajra is of inferior quality, containing only 4-5% CP and 1% DCP. Additionally, this fodder is high in oxalates, necessitating supplementation with calcium sources such as DCP or calcium-rich leguminous fodder. The composition of bajra includes 8.52% CP, 1.76% EE, 54.91% NFE, 25.01% CF, 9.80% TA,
0.55% Ca and 0.27% P on DMB. The DM content is 22%, with 13% TDN and 0.90% DCP on as-fed basis. When expressed on DMB, the DCP and TDN values are 3.04% and 48.47%, respectively.

Grass and Forage Crops
Grassland can be divided into natural grassland and cultivated grassland. Natural pastureland includes rough and hilly grazing land. Grasses, legumes and herbs are examples of natural grassland. Cultivated grassland can be divided into temporary grassland and permanent grassland.
Chemical composition of grassland
Dry matter: The composition of the dry matter is dependent on the relative proportions of cell walls and cell contents. In very young grasses its moisture content is 75-85% while in mature material its moisture is around 60%.
Crude protein: Proteins represent the nitrogenous substances found in herbage, with true protein constituting approximately 80 percent of the total nitrogen content. While the overall protein concentration diminishes as the plant matures, the relative distribution of amino acids remains relatively stable. Additionally, the amino acid profiles of proteins show minimal variation across different grass species. Approximately half of the cellular protein in grasses is comprised of a single enzyme, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase, which is crucial for the photosynthetic process of carbon dioxide fixation. The average crude protein content ranges from about 3% in very mature herbage to as high as 30% in young, heavily fertilized grass. In mature herbage, a considerable portion of the protein may be indigestible due to its association with fiber, specifically in the form of acid detergent insoluble nitrogen (ADIN). Grass proteins are notably abundant in the amino acid arginine and also contain significant levels of glutamic acid and lysine. They exhibit a higher biological value for growth compared to seed proteins. Methionine is identified as the first limiting amino acid, followed by isoleucine, which is not utilized by ruminants. The rumen displays a rumen degradable protein (RDP) level of 80-90%. The primary constituents of non-protein nitrogen (NPN) include amino acids, amides, and nitrates. In the rumen, excessive nitrates (-NO3)
are converted into nitrites (-NO2), which subsequently lead to the conversion of ferrous ions to ferric ions (methaemoglobin), rendering them incapable of transporting oxygen.

Introduction

Yak is a main source of livelihood for the high altitude residents in Ladakh. The domestic yak (Bos grunniens) is a long haired domesticated bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent as well as in the Tibetan plateau, Mongolia and Russia. They are originated from the wild yaks. Yaks are belonging to the genus Bos. The yak is the only bovine species (ruminant) which resides in the high hills of the Himalayas even at altitudes of 6000 meters above the mean sea level. The normal living range of yak is at 3000 to 4500 meters height from the mean sea level which are tree less uplands. Similar to domestic cattle and goat, Chromosomes number of yak is 60. Zoological name of yak is Poephagus grunniens or Bos grunniens.

Distribution

The distribution of Yak is majorly found in Northern Ladakh, the plateau of Tibet and part of the Kansu province in China. Within India, yak mostly found in Changechenmo valley in Ladak and spiti valleys of Himachal Pradesh, and also in North Eastern states, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Nagaland. Small number of yaks is also found in Garhwal district of Uttar Pradesh. It is native in Tibet country as well as surrounding countries in Central Asia. The yak is also found in Pakistan, Northern Afghanisthan, Bhutan, Mongolia and in China.

Mealy bugs: Ferrisia virgata, Planococcous lilacinus, P. pacificus, Maconellicoccus hirsutus, Perisopneumon ferox: Pseudococcidae

The fruit is seen covered with a mealy coating due to colonies of small reddish-white mealy bugs. They also infest leaves, shoots and buds. Due to sucking of sap by nymphs and adult female mealy bugs, fruits remain small in size and become shrivelled. Large number of mealy bugs is seen in the tip of the petiole abd also on the grooves of fruits epicarp. The fruit also becomes blackish due to the development of sooty mould.

Principle

Cyanide is distilled from chloroform and water soultion into KOH solution, forming potassium cyanide. KCN is titrated with silver nitrate; 2 KCN + AgNO₃ = KCN. AgCN + KNO₃. An excess of AgNO₃ produces insoluble AgCN, which is the end point of titration.

Cystic ovarian disease (Cystic ovarian degenertaion or ovarian cysts) is a common ovarian dysfunction in cattle and causes huge economic loss to farmers due to its high incidence and negative impact on the reproductive performance of cow. Animals having cysts on ovary result in anoestrum as the most significant clinical sign. Althouugh the exact cause that leads to cystic ovarian disease is not yet fully clear but altered release of LH hormone is the most accepted hypothesis.

Cytauxzoonosis is an emerging tick-borne disease of domestic cats and wild felids caused by the protozoa of the genus Cytauxzoon. The common clinical findings in affected cats are similar to other hemoparasitic infections namely anorexia, depression, anemia, vomiting, icterus, and high fever. The first reporting of feline cytauxzoonosis with four fatal cases was done by Wagner in Missouri, USA in the year 1976.

Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are recognized as the natural wild reservoir of Cytauxzoon felis with prevalence reaching up to 100% in some enzootic areas (Zieman et al., 2017). This infection is highly fatal in domestic cats with 97% mortality without treatment (Meinkoth and Kocan, 2005). However, subclinical infection in some cats has also been evidenced i.e., they were infected with C? felis but did not display the acute clinical signs of the disease before diagnosis (Brown et al., 2010 and Rizzi et al., 2015).

Several other wild felids apart from bobcats and domestic cats have been found to be affected by fatal or nonfatal Cytauxzoon sp. infection. These include lions, jaguar, cougars, pumas, ocelots, Iberian lynx, meerkats, European wild cats and Asiatic wild cat, panthers, and tigers (Jakob and Wesemeier, 1996; Rotstein et al., 1999; Yabsley et al., 2006; Andre et al., 2009; Filoni et al., 2012 and Furtado et al., 2017).

Origin & Distribution of Cattle

All types of domestic cattle belongs to class Mammalia, subclass Ungulata, order Artiodactyla, suborder Ruminantia, family Bovidae, subfamily Bovinae, tribe Bovini, which includes genus Bos. The aurochs or urus (Bos primigenius) is the probable ancestor of most of the present day Bos taurus and Bos indicus cattle. The humped Bos primigenius namadicus were the forerunner of today’s zebu cattle while humpless Bos primigenius primigenius gave rise to modern European cattle. Both category of cattle possess the same number of chromosomes (2N=60). Other related animals in the Bovini tribe include the gaur cattle (Bos gaurus), banteng (Bos banteng), kouprey (Bos sauveli) of South and East Asia, bison (Bison bison) of North America, European bison (Bison bonasus) and the yak (Poephagus mutus) of central Asia. According to Payne & Hodges (1997), domestication of aurochs (Bos primigenius ) took place first probably on the lower mountain slopes in the region of western Asia known as the ‘fertile crescent’. They suggested that the first domestic cattle were humpless (Bos taurus) Hamitic Longhorn type and were domesticated around possibly 9000 BP (years before the present i.e. 1950). About 2000 years later the humpless (Bos taurus) shorthorn type evolved or was developed in the region and these two types of humpless cattle are believed to the ancestor of Bos taurus. Humped (Bos indicus) zebu cattle were domesticated in the northwest arid areas of the Fertile Crescent around c. 5000 BP.

India has the highest livestock population in the world with 50% of the buffaloes and 20% of the world’s cattle population, most of which are milch cows and milch buffaloes. The dairy industry in our country is considered as one of the most successful development programmes in the post-Independence period. In the year 2006-07the total milk production in the country was over 94.6 million tonnes with a per capita availability of 229 gm. per day. The industry had been recording an annual growth of 4% during the period 1993-2005, which is almost 3 times the average growth rate of the dairy industry in the world. Milk processing in India is around 35%, of which the organized dairy industry account for 13% of the milk produced, while the rest of the milk is either consumed at farm level, or sold as fresh, non-pasteurized milk through unorganized channels. Dairy Cooperatives account for the major share of processed liquid milk marketed in the India. Milk is processed and marketed by 170 Milk Producers’ Cooperative Unions, which federate into 15 State Cooperative Milk Marketing Federations. Over the years, several brands have been created by cooperatives like Amul (GCMMF), Vijaya (AP), Verka (Punjab), Saras (Rajasthan). Nandini (Karnataka), Milma (Kerala) and Gokul (Kolhapur). Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are the milk surplus states in India.

Reliable artificial intelligence depends on accurate, timely and multidimensional livestock data. This chapter examines the transition from manual record-keeping to sensor-based systems that capture physiological, behavioural, production and environmental information. Data sources include wearable devices, IoT monitoring networks, computer-vision systems and environmental sensors. Their applications include monitoring health, welfare, movement, feeding and productivity. The chapter also considers the integration of heterogeneous datasets and persistent challenges involving missing values, noise, interoperability, scalability and system reliability. By connecting data generation with intelligent analysis, it emphasizes that robust acquisition protocols and dependable infrastructure are essential for developing effective, evidence-based and responsive livestock-management systems.

Livestock farms generate large quantities of physiological, environmental, behavioural and production data through sensors, IoT devices and management records. Raw information must be processed before it can support dependable analysis. This chapter explains data cleaning, missing-value treatment, noise reduction, anomaly detection, integration, normalization, transformation and dimensionality reduction. It also discusses feature extraction, categorical encoding, variable transformation and temporal-feature analysis. Machine learning, AutoML, Python, R and other analytical platforms are introduced as tools for preparing livestock datasets. Applications include disease prediction, yield improvement and movement monitoring. The chapter concludes by examining scalability, data quality, privacy and ethical challenges in intelligent livestock analytics.

Semilooper: Thysanoplusia(Plusia) orichalcea : Noctuidae

Bluish green or grey coloured eggs are laid singly on lower surface of leaves.The larvae are semi loopers and feed voraciously on leaves and cause defoliation of the plants.

Traditional livestock diagnosis is often reactive and may identify disease only after clinical symptoms become visible. This chapter introduces deep-learning methods for automated health monitoring, early disease detection and predictive analytics. Models analyse images, videos, body temperature, heart rate, activity patterns and historical health information. Convolutional neural networks extract visual features and classify diseases, while LSTM networks identify patterns in time-dependent physiological and behavioural data. Multimodal fusion improves the reliability of predictions by integrating different data sources. IoT-connected systems can generate real-time warnings and support timely intervention. The chapter compares deep learning with conventional approaches and evaluates accuracy, recall, false-negative rates and practical deployment.

Nutritional deficiencies are a major cause of ruminal disorders, impacting animal health, productivity, and farm profitability. Balanced diets tailored to the specific needs of ruminants can prevent these deficiencies and ensure optimal rumen function. By employing preventive strategies, using highquality feedstuffs, and incorporating appropriate supplements, farmers can safeguard their livestock from the adverse effects of nutrient deficiencies. Combining traditional knowledge with modern technology and research is essential for sustainable livestock production.
The rumen is a complex and vital organ in ruminants, responsible for fermenting feed into nutrients that support growth, reproduction, and production. Maintaining optimal rumen function depends heavily on a balanced diet that meets the animal’s nutritional requirements. Deficiencies in key nutrients can lead to ruminal disorders, disrupting the fermentation process, impairing nutrient absorption, and compromising overall animal health and productivity.
a) Cobalt deficiency causes ruminal disorders
Cobalt deficiency is a significant concern in ruminants, as it plays a vital role in their health and productivity. This trace element is an essential component of vitamin B12 (cobalamin), which is synthesized by rumen microorganisms and is critical for various metabolic processes. Cobalt deficiency leads to a cascade of health issues, prominently manifesting as ruminal disorders. Here explores the mechanisms, symptoms, and management of cobalt deficiency in ruminants, focusing on its impact on ruminal health.

Introduction

Any work condition revolves around three main components - the man, machine and environment. 'Man'-is represented by the worker who is either the controller or the executor of an action. Therefore the work output depends on how efficiently the workers are performing. In this context, the health of the worker is of utmost importance. It is one of the prime supporting pillars of productivity. If the health condition declines, efficiency is reduced and productivity suffers. Work involves a variety of physical and cognitive activities performed to achieve a desired or specified productivity. It may include a single individual or a small or large group of people as the worker. It is characterized by a specified duration, specific speed or work pace and a required amount of effort. The performance and efficiency expected from the workers have a direct bearing on the work process or work tool and the work environment. All these stress the bodily systems and affect the health of the worker. The stress could be classified as physiological stress and psychological stress Occupational health deals with the study and maintenance of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in the workplace (WHO, 1957). Occupational Physiology and Ergonomics are related branches of Occupational health that are in particular concerned with the study and maintenance of health and well-being during work.

Dehydration is a critical condition in animals characterized by an imbalance between fluid intake and loss, leading to a deficit in total body water. It is a common problem across all species and can result from a variety of causes, including disease, environmental factors, and inadequate water intake. Understanding the causes, clinical signs, diagnosis, and treatment of dehydration is vital for ensuring the health and well-being of animals.
Physiology of fluid balance
Water is essential for physiological processes, including nutrient transport, waste elimination, temperature regulation, and cellular metabolism. Animals maintain fluid balance through mechanisms that regulate intake (via drinking and food consumption) and output (via urine, feces, respiration, and sweat in some species). Dehydration occurs when water loss exceeds water intake. Body’s water compartments are divided into Intracellular fluid (ICF): About two-thirds of total body water: One-third of total body water, including plasma and interstitial fluid. Dehydration affects these compartments differently based on severity and cause, potentially leading to hypovolemia (decreased blood volume) and compromised organ function.
Causes of dehydration
Insufficient water intake
Neglect or inaccessibility: Lack of access to clean, fresh water. Behavioural issues: Reluctance to drink due to stress or environmental changes. Illness: Conditions like oral pain or esophageal obstruction can reduce water consumption.

Introduction

Flowering plants (Angiosperms) are identified by their morphological characteristics like flower, fruit and seeds that help their taxonomic characterization into different species, genera, families and orders. The floral characters which are used for taxonomic characterization of plants include the type of inflorescences, perianth structure, floral symmetry, arrangement of floral leaves, type of androecium, stamens, gynoecium, carpel, ovule, etc. The type of fruit and seed also play important roles in taxonomic classification. In this chapter we will briefly discuss about various morphological features of flowering plants (in botanical terms) that are useful in taxonomy.

Nomenclature of Plant

Nomenclature of plant is the formal and scientific naming of plants. It is related to but distinct from taxonomy for grouping and classifying plants and provide botanical name.

The scientific/botanical nomenclature started with Species Plantarum by Carolus Linnaeus in 1753. Botanical nomenclature is governed by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), which replaces the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN).

ICBN and ICN

International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, (ICBN) was adopted by the VIIth International Botanical Congress held in Stockholm, July1950. While the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) was adopted by the XVIIIth International Botanical Congress held in Melbourne, Australia in July 2011.