eChapters

Introduction

In India, almost 85 % of our population resides in rural areas and the same proportion is dependent on agriculture for sustenance and animal husbandry for additional income. Distribution of livestock is more equitable compared to that of land and about 85 percent of livestock are owned by the landless, marginal and small landholding families. This sector provides employment for the farmers through livestock farming as well as in processing, value addition and marketing of livestock products.

Rapid population, economic growth, increased demand for livestock products such as meat and dairy products, in?uences the present livestock production systemtowards intensive production. There is increased con?ict over scarce resources such as land, water, food grains etc. Losing livestock assets for rural communities might lead to abject poverty with serious effect ontheir livelihoods. The climate change impact will worsen the vulnerability of livestock systems and those farmers depending on livestock, particularly the poor.

Introduction

Statistics generally refers to information about an activity or a process that is expressed in quantitate as well as qualitative traits. The quantitative research process is well structured whereas the qualitative one is fairly unstructured. It depends upon how a piece of information have been collected and analyzed. A good researchers need to have both types of skill. This article highlights about the operational procedure, about methods, procedures and techniques that are used in analysis of climate related data.

Parameter vs Statistic

When a data is collected with survey of all the individuals (like in a census) and analysed for certain values, it is called a parameter. But when, we guess the same value with a random sample and interpret for whole population it is called a statistic. Environmental parameters are: mean, variance, correlation, regression, heritability, repeatability etc. Again, there are two types of variables: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative variables can take any value in a specified range. So, they are of continuous type. But qualitative variables are very few types ( 2 ,3 or 4 types) and they are of discrete type. Body weight is an example of quantitative variable whereas, comb type is a qualitative variable.

Introduction

R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. It is a GNU project which is similar to the S language and environment which was developed at Bell Laboratories (formerly AT&T, now Lucent Technologies) by John Chambers and colleagues. R can be considered as a different implementation of S. There are some important differences, but much code written for S runs unaltered under R.

R provides a wide variety of statistical (linear and nonlinear modelling, classical statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification, clustering) and graphical techniques, and is highly extensible. The S language is often the vehicle of choice for research in statistical methodology, and R provides an Open Source route to participation in that activity. In a nutshell, R is an open-source software environment for statistical computing that is rapidly becoming the tool of choice for data analysis in the life sciences and elsewhere. It’s developed by a large international community of scientists and programmers and is at the forefront of new developments in statistical computing.

Introduction

Aquatic ecosystems are critical components of the global environment and provide a variety of resources for human population, including food, water for drinking and irrigation, recreational opportunities, and habitat for economically important fisheries. Fish is the main source of animal protein for 3 billion people worldwide, providing a valuable protein complement to the food platter worldwide. Fish is also an important source of essential vitamins and fatty acids. Furthermore, it provides an important source of cash income for many poor households and holds a great potential as a source of foreign exchange. However, aquatic ecosystems are increasingly being threatened directly and indirectly by climate change. Global warming with consequent climate variability and extreme weather conditions has a great impact on the aquatic ecosystems resulting in increased temperature variation, ocean acidification and freshwater salinization etc. As per report of IPCC 2018, global warming of 1.5 ºC above pre-industrial levels has been declared (IPCC, 2018) and expected to rise further in future. Thus, variations in temperature, salinity, acidity and dissolved oxygen along with the effects of other anthropogenic activities may exert strong in?uences on aquatic ecosystems and the aquatic animls will be facing these climate-related stressors in near future. Such environmental stressors is projected to alter fundamental ecological processes, geographic distribution of aquatic species, reproductive and immunological performance of species etc.

Introduction

Nanotechnology and nanoparticles are increasingly recognized for their potential applications in various aspects of human animal and animal welfare like development of various healthcare or cosmetic products, nano-electronics and techniques for environmental remediation, and many consumer products. Nanoparticles, by definition, are structures that have one dimension in the 1–100 nm range. Nanotechnology involves the application of materials at the nanoscale to new products or processes. Over the past few decades, inorganic nanoparticles, whose structures exhibit significantly novel and improved physical, chemical, and biological properties, phenomena and functionality due to their nanoscale size, have elicited much interest. Nanophasic and nanostructure materials are attracting a great deal of attention because of their potential for achieving specific processes and selectivity, especially in biological and pharmaceutical applications. Nanotechnology has made a new generation industrial revolution by developing product and formulations for medical, agriculture (nano-fertilizers, nano-herbicides, nano-pesticides, recalcitrant contaminants from water, nano-scale carriers, nanosensors), veterinary care, fisheries and aquaculture, detection of nutrient deficiencies, preservation, photocatalysis, nanobarcode, quantum dots etc. It is a rapidly growing industry currently worth billions of U.S. dollars, with many potential benefits to society. Nanotechnology has the environmental applications to protect climate change and environmental pollution as nanocatalyst, light weight nanocomposite materials, nanocoatings, improved renewables and nanosensors.

This fast growing technology is already having a significant commercial impact, which will certainly increase in the future. Because of their widespread application, the commercial nanotechnology industry is predicted to increase significantly to more $3 trillion in few years. While nanotechnologies offer many opportunities for innovation, the use of nanomaterials in food, agriculture and environment has also raised a number of safety, environmental, ethical, policy and regulatory issues.

Introduction

Poultry production is one of the fastest growing sectors of livestock industry in developing countries. Environmental variation is one of the major factors that affect sustainability of poultry production systems in tropical climate (Sinha et al., 2017a). Adverse climatic stress declines the production performance of chicken which causes high economic loss to the enterprises as well as the farmers. Heat stress has an adverse effect on egg production, egg weight and shell quality of laying hen (Whitehead et al., 1998). Climatic variables like temperature, humidity, radiation and wind speed that directly affect the mechanism of thermoregulation and rates of heat exchange by all animals (NRC, 2001). Heat stress is a major factor that decreases productivity and reproductive efficiency of livestock due to lower feed intake and negative energy balance (De Rensis and Scaramuzzi, 2003). Moreover, it badly affect the production due to decline feed digestibility such as proteins, fats, starch (Bonnet et al., 1997). In addition, the acute heat stress drastically decreases the reproductive performance of hens due to alterations in acid-base balance and ion exchange mechanism (Mahmoud et al., 1996). Climate change in?uences the emergence of disease and their transmission due to increases vectors, pathogens. All the above effects impact a huge economic loss to the farmers as well as the country.

Blood Sample collection

Blood samples (5 ml per goat) will be collected aseptically from the jugular vein in a vacutainer tube (B.D. Bioscience, Germany) containing EDTA as anticoagulant and transferred to the laboratory in an ice box.

Isolation of Genomic DNA

The Genomic DNA will be isolated from the blood samples by ‘Phenol: chloroform isolation’ method as described by Sambrook and Russel (2001). The steps for isolation of genomic DNA are as follows:

Introduction

There is an ongoing debate on global warming worldwide as it is seriously impacting climate change. The global temperature has been increased by 0.74±0.18°C during the last century and the climate model projections summarized in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report indicate that the global surface temperature will probably rise a further 1.1 to 6.4°C during the twenty-first century (IPCC, 2007). High ambient temperature is one of the most important stressors to poultry, which has a direct relationship on profitability of chicken meat and egg production. A seasonal problem in many parts of the world, high environmental temperature (35-43^oC in tropical countries) causes economic losses through reducing feed intake while decreasing nutrient utilization, live weight gain, egg production, egg quality and feed efficiency in poultry (Corzo et al., 2003; Panda et al., 2007a; 2008). The ideal temperature for broilers is 10-22^oC for optimum body weight and 15-27^oC for feed efficiency (NRC, 1994). Layers will produce egg constantly in the temperature range of 10-30^oC. Above 30^oC, performance in terms of growth and egg production declines.

Introduction

The egg production in India is 75 billion and the broiler production is 4.2 million tonnes per annum. The growth rate of layer market is 6-7 percent per annum and broiler market is 8-10 percent per annum. The Indian poultry sector is valued at INR 1 lakh cr or USD 15.38 bn. Approx. 80 percent of egg production is contributed by commercial poultry farms, remaining comes from household/ backyard poultry. Backyard poultry plays a key role in supplementary income generation and family nutrition to the poorest of the poor. It is estimated that there are around 30 million farmers engaged in backyard poultry as per 19^th Livestock Census. Backyard poultry are being practiced for its inherent strengths. Free range birds reared by the farmers have the advantage of small body size, coloured plumage, broodiness to hatch chicks, adaptation to harsh climatic condition, lower diseases and production with least investment. The birds are scavenging in the backyard, supplemented by kitchen waste and are kept in low height houses for shelter using locally available materials. It helps to improve the nutritional status of rural poor and also improve the subsidiary income of the poor people. Such stocks make minimal use of land, labour and capital and integrate well into the backyard. Backyard poultry production system is self-sustaining because of minimal needs and can be afforded by poor people of the rural areas. The high yielding white feathered chicken varieties being reared in the intensive poultry farming are not suitable for backyard / free range backyard poultry farming due to the adverse climatic and high pathogen load prevailing in such rearing practices. Backyard poultry farming is an in-separable part of the poor tribal people and it will continue to be due to its advantages. Although backyard poultry production is not an occupation per se, it often supplements household income, primarily for poor families. Strengthening backyard poultry production may help overcome poverty and malnutrition in impoverished communities. However, the effect of climate change on these birds needs to be studied for its sustenance.