eChapters

AMR is undoubtedly the most serious challenge ever faced by the world health community because of its multifaceted complex nature and its overwhelming impact over the human and veterinary communities. Livestock sector is no exception to have the serious and devastating impact from the emergence and spread of AMR. Because of a steady shift towards intensive farming and increased stocking density there has been increase occurrence of infectious diseases. Growing world population, rapid urbanization, and deforestation, shrinkage of grazing land all aided to this process. This leads to increased usage of antimicrobials in food animals – cause of concern for the scientific community as AMU is known the single most important driver of AMR.

Punjab, known as the “breadbasket of India,” relies heavily on livestock, particularly cattle and buffalo, for its agricultural prosperity. These animals play a crucial role in the region’s dairy industry, contributing significantly to milk production and rural livelihoods. However, like all livestock, cattle and buffalo in Punjab are susceptible to a range of diseases that can impact their health, productivity, and overall well-being. Timely and accurate diagnosis is essential for effective treatment and prevention. This article explores some of the most common diseases affecting cattle and buffalo in Punjab, along with the diagnostic procedures used to detect and manage these health issues, ensuring the sustainability and growth of the dairy sector.

Hydatidosis

Hydatidosis is a zoonotic disease caused by metacestode stages of parasite Echinococcus granulosus and is recognized as a major public health problem worldwide. This tapeworm is found in small intestine of the canid (definitive host) where it produce proglottids containing eggs. Upon shedding through faeces the later are ingested by the cattle, buffaloes and other intermediate hosts including man. These hatch in their intestine and the oncosphere invade circulatory system and lodge in various organs (liver, lung, brain etc.) where they develop into large thick walled unilocular cavity called hydatid cyst, which expands and can reach very large size and buds hundreds and thousands of protoscoleces endogenously. In a survey on hydatid cysts, a prevalence rate of around 5% has been recorded in more than 4000 meat samples of different animals in Punjab.

Introduction

Climate change, a global phenomenon of present time, has emerged as the greatest challenge of the world in the twenty-first century. Rising earth’s surface temperature is one of the most threatening factors coming into view. The substantial changes in the earth’s climate have an impact on ecosystems, economics and societies in a variety of ways (Sharma et al., 2024). It is one of the important environmental, agricultural, human and animal health issue. Climate change is an association of multidimensional effects involving physical characteristics, causes and consequences (Visschers, 2018). The climate change has resulted in to increasing global average temperature of air and ocean, melting of snow, rising of ocean level, change in the rainfall pattern and extreme whether events such as drought, flood, heat waves, storms etc.

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.

Veterinary Nuclear Medicine (VNM)

Veterinary Nuclear Medicine (VNM) is a specialized field that uses radioisotopes to detect, diagnose, and treat diseases. Gamma scintigraphy involves injecting radioactive tracer pharmaceuticals into the animal’s body and imaging them as they move through the body using a gamma radiation-sensitive camera. This technique provides a 2D or 3D image of the whole body or a specific organ, allowing for the estimation of the quantitative distribution within the region of interest (ROI). Advancements in gamma scintigraphy have allowed for the acquisition of information about both static and dynamic high-resolution images, such as heart wall motion, blood flow, and myocardial perfusion. Unlike other diagnostic modalities viz X-rays, ultrasonography, and CT; gamma scintigraphy offers functional information of specific organs. The most commonly used gamma radiation-emitting isotope is 99m-Technetium (99mTc), which emits a gamma energy of 98% 140-keV photon with only 10% internal conversion. Other radionuclides used in veterinary nuclear medicine facilities include iodine (123I and 131I), Gallium (67Ga), and Thallium (201Ti).

Rabies is an ancient, dreadful disease known to mankind from the vedic ages. It is a zoonotic disease caused by Rabies virus, genus Lyssavirus family Rhabdoviridae, affecting all mammals including man. The WHO categorizes rabies as a neglected zoonotic disease that causes around 59,000 human deaths globally annually after onset of symptoms. It is a vaccine preventable disease reported from over 150 countries and territories barring the island nations like Australia, Brunei, Japan, Maldives, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Timor Leste and the Pacific Island Countries. The Indian islands of Andaman Nicobar and Lakshadweep are rabies free so far.

On the other hand, Africa and Asia has the highest burden of human rabies including South-East Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, DPRK, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The Asia Pacific region having 60% of the world’s population includes the world’s most populous countries – India and China. Asia alone shares almost half of the global rabies deaths annually.

Opportunities

India is home to largest milch animal population, totalling around 100 million cattle and buffalo (out of total population of 300 million) spread over 6.5 million census villages. India is the largest milk producer with CAGR of 4.5%, likely to go up to 5%, which is likely to create around 20 million jobs every year. The most significant factor is that dairy industry is likely to exceed IT industry in employment generation. In year 2018, India produced 146 million tonnes of milk contributing 26% of the agriculture GDP.

But the foundation of dairy industry is economically vulnerable as per animal productivity and fertility are very low leading to meagre profits and frequent demands to enhance procurement price. National schemes like Operation Flood, National Dairy Plan-I and National Dairy Plan II, largely focussed on milk collection, processing, distribution and organising farmers but the animal component has been neglected. Enhancing per animal productivity by empowering farmers to scientific management and breeding to achieve genetic improvement needs urgent attention. Although numerous technologies to improve health and genetics are available but the single most important gap is failure to deliver these to farmers. Unlike western world, India has not been able to develop modern veterinary service delivery models. In order to cater to breeding and health services of cattle and buffalo (300 million in numbers) and also pet animals in rural areas and small towns, huge manpower and infrastructure will be required.

Veterinary oncology is an upcoming field in recent years due to the integration of the importance of spontaneous canine cancers in understanding and developing novel strategies for human cancer management. We are stepping towards a very exciting era in veterinary oncology, where comparative oncology has played a significant role for many decades in understanding the molecular basis of cancer in companion animals. The comparative animal models have generated remarkable interest in both academia and industry. Studies have demonstrated the utility of comparative oncology in understanding drug resistance and tumor biology, contributing to the translational research[1]. This has yielded breakthrough discoveries, from advanced diagnostics to novel therapies, providing opportunities to improve the longevity and quality of life of the pets. These inputs have led to advancements such as the first conditionally approved chemotherapeutic agent for lymphoma, novel BRAF testing for canine urothelial carcinoma, tyrosine kinase inhibitors for mast cell tumors, updates in stereotactic/FLASH radiation, and novel immunotherapeutics. As the understanding of cancer biology has advanced, the field of veterinary oncology has grown significantly, paralleling developments in human oncology. Veterinary oncologists treat a variety of cancers in domestic animals, particularly dogs and cats, but also in exotic animals, horses, and even zoo animals. While the types of cancers in animals share similarities with human cancers, treatment strategies can differ significantly due to species-specific differences in anatomy, physiology, and response to therapies [2, 3].

Introduction

In the last decade, digitalization has transformed every aspect of life and society, changing almost every area of our day-to day lives. Not just that; the rate of change that is happening is astonishing and only going to accelerate further. From the way, we work and communicate to how we organize our lives, digital tools and technologies are everywhere including the veterinary sector. Veterinarians are recognizing the need to depart “the analog island” and increasingly willing to embrace digital solutions. Undoubtedly, digitalization is crucial when it comes to boosting efficiency and quality in veterinary medicine and delivery of animal healthcare to masses across various geographies and resource poor setups. Uniquely these digital tools helps vets also to focus on the needs of patients and animal owners.

Product Development and Marketing

Several efforts are being made on the research front for development of novel products from fish which have enhanced shelf life, retain the freshness and nutrients and are safe to consume. During the course of product development, which are in many stages, studies are conducted prior to commercialisation to ensure the acceptance of a product.

In a business, understanding consumer behaviour plays an important role in success. To be in a business for a long time, it is essential to know what the consumer prefers and why. Consumers make the buying decisions based on a number of factors. The purpose behind studying the buying behaviour and consumer preference is to produce and market products which may better meet the needs of a consumer. The emerging fastfood culture among the young and affordable has brought focus on processed food and its demand in the domestic food market in India. Domestically, spending on food and food products constitutes the largest portion of the Indian consumer’s spending – more than a 31% share of wallet. Evaluation of consumer preferences before introducing a new product will help the marketer to refine the product for better reach.

Conjoint Analysis

Conjoint analysis is a popular technique used in marketing research to study the features a product that should possess to have a wide consumer reach. Conjoint analysis was initially conceptualised by Luce and Tukey (1964) and further developed by Green and Rao (1971) for marketing research. It employs a decompositional method to estimate the structure of consumer preferences and consumer utility values of different attributes of a product or service. It is a decompositional method that disaggregates the structure of consumer preferences into utility values. The relative importance of a product can also be estimated using this method.

Introduction

Precise learning of the components of the general structure of a research article is inevitable in writing a research article. The general structure of a research article consists of Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, References and Supporting materials. There are no specific guidelines for which one of the above should be written first.

Process of Writing - Building the Article

To start writing a research article, it is not advisable to consider all the tables and data that are available to the writer. The easiest way to start with is to choose the tables and data that can be used wisely in the paper. The writer should be aware of the types of the chart or table which are accepted and the number of charts and tables that should be included in the paper (generally a research paper contain 7 to 9 figures and charts in each category). It is also not recommended to use conventional ways of presenting data and figures (like bar charts, pie diagram). The figures or illustrations should not be so simple. Figures and Tables should be self-communicating. The reader of the paper is very well educated and may have mastery in the particular subject. The language and illustration should be appealing to them. The figures and illustrations should have an impact on the reader to think and draw inference from the data provided by the research. Two dimensional and three dimensional data presentation create more interest in the reader rather than the one dimensional presentations. Next to consider is Methods that explain how the data was collected. In case of writing the methods in research paper, unlike thesis, the methods need not be elaborated in the paper. Results are the description of the data and the broad observation made. Results should not contain the inferences that are already known. Results should be supplementing the tables and charts, not a description of them. Discussion involves the comparison of the obtained result and the previous results. The contribution to the previous research results can be discussed. New findings and solutions can also be discussed. Conclusion is a single paragraph which altogether summarizes the final outcome. Generally the conclusion should not contain citations.

Introduction

Economists consider a producer as an income or profit maximiser. In our context, it may mean enhancement of fisheries contribution to the GDP, increased fish production, Nutritional security of those who need it most, not just those who can afford to pay for it improvement in the livelihood conditions of the stakeholders, augmenting exports to net more foreign exchange, growth with social equity or inclusive growth, etc. Realisation of a goal or target depends on development and enforcement of necessary policy strategies for which a reliable data base is inevitable. Analytical trends of the past data could help to project future trend which could indicate feasibility of the envisioned goal. Here, an outline of some of the Methodological issues in Fisheries data collection is provided.

The Resource Endowments

Fisheries is a sunrise sector in India, in terms of food and nutritional security, employment and income generation. India is the 3rd largest fish producer and the 2nd in aquaculture production, globally. It contributes about 1% of national GDP and 5 % of agriculture GDP. The exports of marine products account for about 5% of total Indian exports in 2018-19. The estimated fish production during 2017-18 was 12-59 million tones (mt). It was 10.14% increase over 11.43 million t in 2016-17. Inland fisheries grew at 14.05% while marine fisheries rose at 1.73% in 2017-18. Fisheries sub-sector provides livelihood support and gainful employment to 14 million people. Many more may be employed now as available data is yet to be updated.

Introduction

Impact Assessment is simply defined as the process of identifying the future consequences of a current or proposed action. The “impact” is the difference between what would happen with the action and what would happen without it (International Association for Impact Assessment). It’s a structured process for considering the implications, for people and their environment, of proposed actions while there is still an opportunity to modify (or even, if appropriate, abandon) the proposals. It is applied at all levels of decision-making, from policies to specific projects.

IA aims to

• provide information for decision-making that analyses the biophysical, social, economic and institutional consequences of proposed actions;

• promote transparency and participation of the public in decision-making;

• identify procedures and methods for the follow-up (monitoring and mitigation of adverse consequences) in policy, planning and project cycles; and contribute to environmentally sound and sustainable development.

Key Facts

• Global fish production peaked at about 171 million tonnes (MT) in 2016, with aquaculture representing 47 perc ent of the total and 53 per cent of non-food uses (Global capture fisheries production was 90.9 MT in 2016)

• World fish production is projected to increase by 15% in the next 10 years, reaching around 200 MT per year

• The total first sale value of fisheries and aquaculture production in 2016 was estimated at USD 362 billion, of which USD 232 billion was from aquaculture production

• Fish (including shellfish) provides essential nutrition for 3 billion people and at least 50% of animal protein and minerals to 400 million people from the poorest countries

• 10-12% people, i.e. over 870 million people, depend on fisheries and aquaculture

• Aquaculture is the world’s fastest growing food production system, growing at 7% annually

• Women account for 19% of all people directly engaged in the fisheries and aquaculture sector, and over 50% when including the post-harvest sector

Climate Change: A global externality

Climate Change (CC) is a result of the externality associated with greenhouse gas emissions. It entails costs that are not paid for by those who create the emissions.

Distinguished Features from Other Externalities

• Climate change is global in its causes and consequences;

• The impacts of climate change are long-term and persistent;

• Uncertainties and risks in the economic impact are pervasive;

• There is a serious risk of major, irreversible change with non- marginal economic effects

Definition of Climate Change

Climate change refers to a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer).

Parametric and Non-parametric tests

Parametric and Non-parametric tests are used for comparing differences between groups (e.g. Difference in catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) of two types of Codends) and to test the relationship between two or more variables (e.g. Gender differences in awareness levels of fish farming (High, medium and low). As there seen differences in types of data, Non-parametric statistics are used when

• Data is non-normal

• Small sample size

• The variables are categorical

• Short response categories (<5 ) in scales

Introduction

Resources are used unscientifically commonly. For example applying feed somewhere in the pond results in loss, but by using technology, we can know when to apply where to apply, and how to apply which leads to efficient management of resources. Monitoring should be continuous which is not possible and very difficult for humans, but with technology, it could be monitored and the status could be known even from home which is communicated through mobile, which is sent by sensors installed. The data are also easily maintained. When technology is used, resources are efficiently utilized, since everything has a demand and that can be satisfied. So resources can easily be maintained which reduces wastage. Field management is a very skilled activity and it needs years of experience and onsite exposure which needs skilled labour, in such cases technologies aids with better methodologies. When the resources are applied at the right time, at the right amount, the growth becomes normal which increases the produce quality. After a product is produced, it has to be sent to a series of channels such as transport, market etc. and a technology should backup and monitor everything. The produce after being produced should be sold and many apps can be downloaded to improve the marketing. The whole world is changing within a period of time. So one should stay updated to impress the livelihood and the wide knowledge on technology helps to lead a better life with easy management practices. Thus data driven technology interventions are needed for efficient management of resources, monitoring of things anytime & anywhere, reduction of wastage of resources, reduction of dependence on trained and skilled manpower, enhanced product quality, better integration, better marketability, to stay updated with latest knowledge and access to other knowledge source for better upgrades.

Biometrical Genetics - Historical Background

It is a science built on the principles of Mendelian genetics and the way in which the genetic factors influence the statistical properties of traits in families and populations. The roots of biometrical genetics go back to Gregor Mendel, who first demonstrated the existence of the hereditary factors and to Francis Galton who first applied statistical methods to study biological inheritance. Galton introduced the concepts of regression and correlation for studying the continuous variation in humans, but was not aware of the principles of genetics discovered by Mendel. Galton, Karl Pearson and Walter Weldon together started the journal Biometrika in 1901, with the aim of promoting the statistical studies in biological phenomena. The differences of opinion persisted between the Biometricians and Mendelians in the early 20th Century. In 1918 Ronald A. Fisher published a landmark paper ‘The correlation between relatives on the supposition of Mendelian inheritance, in which he showed the two seemingly contradictory approaches could be reconciled in terms of a simple biometrical genetic model. Ronald A. Fisher’s paper laid the foundation for the discipline of Biometrical Genetics.

Foundation

a) Mendelian Inheritance

Mendel proposed three principles based on his work and now known as Mendel’s laws of inheritance

• Law of uniformity: if two homozygote parents of different alleles cross together, all offspring must have the same genotype

• Law of segregation: an individual receives with the equal probability one of the two genes from the genotype of the mother and similarly from that of the father.

• Law of independent assortment: the segregation of the genes for one trait is independent of the segregation of genes for other traits in the formation of reproductive cells

In association studies, the law of segregation is the basis for the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT). The possible violation of law of independent assortment forms the basis of the gene mapping technique, linkage analysis. These principles are used to check the quality of parent-offspring genetic data. Mendelian principles though developed for dichotomous traits, they can be applied to the inheritance of traits influenced by multiple genes and are fundamental to genetic analysis.

Introduction

The influence of various socio-economic factors on the willingness of the decision makers to adopt new technologies has been investigated by a number of studies (Roe, 1983; Shakya and Flinn, 1985; Thomas et al., 1990). In most studies of adoption behaviour, the dependent variable is constrained to lie between 0 and 1 and the models used are exponential functions (Kebede et al., 1990). However, the decision to adopt a new technology can be very effectively captured using binary choice models. Binary choice models are appropriate when the choice between two alternatives depends on the characteristics of the problem. Application of a linear probability model to this type of problem, however, suffers from a number of deficiencies (Capps and Kramer, 1985), particularly, the one associated with the estimated probabilities in some cases being greater than one or lesser than zero as a result of neglecting significant interaction effects (Mingche, 1977). These deficiencies could be circumvented through the use of a monotonic transformation (probit or logit specification) which guaranties that predictions lie within the unit interval (Capps and Kramer, 1985). Univariate logit and probit models and their modified forms have been used extensively to study the adoption behaviour of farmers and consumers (Schmidt and Strauss, 1975; Garcia et al., 1983; Shakya and Flinn, 1985; Harper et al., 1990). According to Hanushek and Jackson (1977), the choice between logit and probit models is largely a matter of convenience. However, Maddala (1983) and Shakya and Flinn (1985) have recommended probit models for functional forms with limited dependent variables that are continuous between 0 and 1, and logit models for discrete dependent variables.

Model Specification

Univariate logit model is generally used to study the adoption behaviour of farmers and consumers.

The model is estimated using the maximum likelihood method.

Introduction

Indian agriculture, including fisheries, is highly monsoon dependent and effect of climate change is immense on its large tracts of rainfed farms. The effects of climate change could be thwarted through better adaptation techniques using all information available with various agencies concerned with agriculture and using advanced analytical tools. Presently, in the country, there is a gap in the capability in capturing, processing and analyzing huge source of information generated in Indian agriculture. This task can be accomplished using Big Data Platform which works in cluster mode and provides the capability of handling huge volume of data, capturing streaming data or real time data and also can accommodate unstructured data. As per FAO, 70 percent in increase in food production in another 30 years is required to overcome the increasing global food demand. It may not be possible to achieve that target due to variety of problems such as reduction in land for cultivation, climate change, and various other factors, such as increasing the fish production etc. Improvement in crop genetics, application of fertilizer in higher dosages, irrigation facilities, etc. may not be possible in future. We need to create a big data platform involving important parameters on crop production viz., soil, soil temperature, water requirements, and relative humidity, pests and diseases, and micro and macro nutrients in temporal and spatial. Now, since available data is properly utilized for making valid analytics by the farming community due to certain issues. Even the data created is incompatible, data available from various sources is also not compatible among themselves due to which decision making is also a big challenge. Due to the incompatibility of agricultural data from different sources, farmers do not have the accessibility to vast pool of available information for making effective, efficient and timely decisions.

Big Data in Agriculture (including fisheries)

Big data, an emerging data driven system helps in precision agriculture based on data collected. This helps farmers in making efficient decisions on sowing, planting, fertilizing and various other farm operations including

harvesting crops at the appropriate time. Of late, sensors are placed in the fields to collect data on related parameters viz., soil temperature and moisture relative humidity, wind speed, weather, etc. which help in crop growth. Images obtained using satellites are helpful in monitoring the crop growth during crop period. Agro-produce includes not only yields obtained from crops but also include produce from horticulture, livestock, fisheries, and other systems also. Agriculture is dependent on various parameters such as climate, seed, soil cultivation practices, agronomic practices, irrigation requirement, fertilizers pesticides, weeds, harvesting, post harvesting techniques, etc. Data collected on all these parameters would help in estimation of yield and other relevant parameters. Governments, Universities, Research departments, Agro-business and Agri-input companies generate, maintain and use voluminous data related to various farm management practices and other related issues say insurance marketing, supply chain, packaging, distribution, etc. This voluminous and wide variety of data poses several challenges for making effective decisions. Information on various fish related parameters can be collected from the stakeholders and a big data platform can be developed for effective decision making.

Introduction

A fundamental issue when analysing trade policy reform in global seafood market is the extent to which domestic agricultural commodity markets in developing countries respond to changes in international prices. Price trans mission from the world to domestic markets is central in understanding the extent of the integration of economic agents into the market process.

Studies on the transmission of price signals are founded on concepts related to competitive pricing behavior. In spatial terms, the classical paradigm of the Law of One Price, as well as the predictions on market integration provided by the standard spatial price determination models (Enke, 1951; Samuelson, 1952; Takayama and Judge, 1972) postulate that price transmission is complete with equilibrium prices of a commodity sold on competitive foreign and domestic markets differing only by transfer costs, when converted to a common currency. These models predict that changes in supply and demand conditions in one market will affect trade and therefore prices in other markets as equilibrium is restored through spatial arbitrage.

The absence of market integration, or of complete pass-through of price changes from one market to another has important implications for economic welfare. Incomplete price transmission arising either due to trade and other policies, or due to transaction costs such as poor transport and communication infrastructure, results in a reduction in the price information available to economic agents and consequently may lead to decisions that contribute to inefficient outcomes. Fisheries and seafood food trade policy reform, especially, is a priority issue in the next WTO negotiations, as trade liberalization is viewed as encouraging allocative efficiency and long run growth.