eChapters

Introduction

“Bio” means pertaining to life and “Chemistry” is the Study of chemicals and chemical reactions. So Biochemistry may be defined as the study of chemical processes within and relating to, living organisms. It is a field of science that explores the chemical processes and substances within living beings. Biochemistry bridges the gap between biology and chemistry, aiming to understand how biological molecules give rise to the complex processes of life. In other words “Biochemistry is the science dealing with various molecules that are present in living cells and organisms and their chemical reactions.”

Scope of Biochemistry

As a life itself, the scope of biochemistry is vast and ever changing. It has its influence on vide range of fields playing a major role in understanding and influencing living organisms. Here some of the fields were put forth that have applications of biochemistry.

Human and Medical Healthcare

Nutrition and metabolism: As they say, we are what we eat; nutrition is a prime aspect of the being and knowing how the body process what it eats is a necessary knowledge that comes from biochemical aspect of nutrition. The dietary component of the beings converting into energy, protein and other essential bodily macro and micro molecules is a great knowledge imparted by biochemistry aspect of nutrition. Metabolism which broadly includes anabolism and catabolism deals with various activities of the physiological systems with in the body. Knowledge of biochemistry is very essential these days as the metabolic diseases are very much prevailing. Biochemistry imparts basic to complex know-hows about various metabolic processes and their derailments.

Introduction

The Poultry industry stands as one of the most advanced sectors globally. The impact of diseases on poultry can be profoundly detrimental, affecting productivity, trade of live birds, meat and related products. Vulnerabilities in biosecurity within production sites, as well as weaknesses in disease diagnosis, pave the way for emerging pathogens to establish as persistent threats. In numerous tropical and developing nations poultry infections like viscerotropic velogenic New castle disease have become endemic, leading to disastrous losses. Many developing countries contend with a prevalence of vertically transmitted diseases among village-level flocks, including ailments like pullorum disease and mycoplasmosis. The combination of hot, humid climates fosters mycotoxicosis, compounded by prevalent immunosuppressive diseases, which in turn hinder the effectiveness of vaccination efforts. In the absence of robust quarantine measures and government – mandated control programs, disease can persist within both commercial and local flocks. The introduction of new infections further compounds the vulnerability of susceptible poultry populations.

15.1. General Barriers and IB Strategies to Overcome

There are extensive barriers when it comes to doing business with people at the base of the pyramid. This is because of the market inefficiencies and high transaction costs that can render businesses unprofitable, particularly in the short run. For instance, customers in remote rural areas are hard to reach as the necessary infrastructure is not available. General barriers to IB models include:

• Shortages of adequate infrastructure such as roads, energy, water etc., particularly in rural areas and urban slums.

• The need to create a market (i.e. encourage demand): many goods and services are known as ‘push’ products (e.g. waste management and preventive healthcare). It is necessary to raise awareness about them in order to stimulate demand; new distribution channels must also be created.

• The lack of knowledge and skills among the poor, to act either as clients or as suppliers and employees.

• Complex or hostile regulatory or legal environments, affected by weak institutions and insufficient enforcement of rules and contracts. IB models overcome these barriers through innovation and by employing additional, targeted measures. Indeed, the strategies they use to overcome barriers to doing business with the BoP are one of the main defining features of IB models. These measures can be categorised as follows.

Introduction and Scope of Biochemistry

Biochemistry is the field of study that focuses on studying chemical reactions occurring within living organisms. It is a specialized branch that combines the principles of both chemistry and biology. In order to comprehend the molecular mechanisms behind every biological event, this multidisciplinary f ield incorporates elements of biology, chemistry, and physiology. The scope of biochemistry extends from the study of small molecules and their interactions within cells to the analysis of complex metabolic pathways, enzyme kinetics, and the structure and function of biomolecules.

One of the main goals of biochemistry is to elucidate the chemical reactions that take place in living systems and understand how they regulate key biological processes. Biochemists investigate the structure, function, and properties of various biomolecules, such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids. It helps us to study how these biomolecules interact and contribute to the overall functioning of cells, tissues, and organisms.

Biochemistry also plays a vital role in various areas of research and practical applications. For instance, in medical biochemistry, scientists study the molecular basis of diseases to develop diagnostic tests and therapeutic interventions. They investigate the biochemical mechanisms underlying genetic disorders, cancer, metabolic, and infectious diseases. Thus, understanding the biochemical basis of diseases can lead to the development of targeted and personalized treatments.

Plant cells contain far more compounds than are produced by the basic metabolism. Terpenes, waxes, alkaloids and pigments are just some key words that illustrate what is meant. The term basic metabolism comprises all pathways necessary for the survival of the cells, while secondary plant products are such that occur usually only in special, differentiated cells and are not necessary for the cells themselves but may be useful for the plant as a whole. Examples are flower pigments and scents or stabilizing elements. Both metabolisms are overlapping since it is often not understood why a certain compound is produced. Furthermore, no typical cell exists so that some compounds may be necessary for the survival of some cells but not for that of others.

Arguments in support of important functions for plant secondary products are underlined by the organizational complexity and specificity which characterizes many aspects of their biosynthesis. Furthermore – with the very important exception of substances produced in response to stress or pathogen attack – much of secondary metabolism is reproducible from one individual of a species to another and, to a remarkable degree, produces the same principal compounds in broadly the same relative proportions. For example, an Atropa plant extracted for alkaloids can confidently be predicted to contain predominantly atropine, rather than its immediate precursor, tropine, or a more distantly-related alkaloid, nicotine – just as the passenger boarding a train for Mumbai at Anand can be reassured that his train will not terminate prematurely at a “precursor station” (Surat), or even adopt an “alternative pathway” (to Poona). On the other hand, the evolutionary circumstances leading to the development of atropine formation in Atropa, rather than to the formation of other alkaloids with comparable activity (for example, nicotine) remain substantially unknown. A similar question has been discussed regarding two families of plant pigments with apparently similar functions, the anthocyanins and the betalains. With regard to defense (and similarly but perhaps less obviously protection against ionizing radiation), a general hypothesis argues that plants evolved a broad defensive strategy based upon a diversity of antimicrobial and anti feedant substances from which, as a result of chance mutation, more potent substances conferring additional selective advantage from time to time arose. It is conceivable that in some cases enzymes evolved or became adapted to catalyse reactions of benefit which could already occur to some extent (though in a non-stereospecific manner) non-enzymically. Mutation will then have led to the development of modified enzymes able to catalyse reactions with new or different substrates, or to catalyse alternative reactions with existing substrates.

Body Segmentation

In general, insect body is divided in to a series of segments, which in primitive arthropods are known as “somites” or “metameres”. During the process of evolution, these somites gets fused with each other in different ways forming the body parts of the existing arthropods. The type of arrangement of these body segments in embryonic stage is known as primary segmentation while in adult insects is known as the secondary segmentation which differ from primary in having a sclerotized membranous intersegmental region.

In adult and nymphal insects, and hexapods in general, one of the most striking external features is the amalgamation of segments into functional units. This process of tagmosis has given rise to the familiar tagmata (regions) of head, thorax, and abdomen. In this process the 20 original segments have been divided into an embryologically detectable six-segmented head, three-segmented thorax, and 11-segmented abdomen (plus primitively the telson), although varying degrees of fusion mean that the full complement is never visible.

Types of body segmentation.

(a) Primary segmentation, as seen in soft-bodied larvae of some insects. (b) Simple secondary segmentation. (c) More derived secondary segmentation. (d) Longitudinal section of dorsum of the thorax of winged insects, in which the acrotergites of the second and third segments have enlarged to become the postnota. (After Snodgrass 1935)

In any organism and biomolecules (enzyme, proteins, etc.), most biological activities could be seen only within a narrow environmental conditions. Therefore in order to carry out a successful experiment, from cell culturing to DNA sequencing or assessing an enzyme’s activity, one has to pay utmost attention in calculating correct reaction components.

A solution is defined as a homogenous mixture of solute and solvent. In this case the amount solute is less as compared to the solvent. It is not always necessary that solvent is liquid and solute is solid. There are several examples where solute and solvents are found in other physical states such as gas or solids. For example, carbonated water CO₂ is solute and water is solvent; and smoke is solution of different smoke particles (solute) in air (solvent). The concentration of solution is described as amount of solute in a given volume of solvent. Several ways are there to express the concentration of a solution, such as molarity, normality, molality, and ppm. In this chapter we would discuss the general terms used in making solutions and a brief introduction about buffer solutions.

Class: Insecta

It is the biggest class in animal kingdom. About 70% of species of animals are included in class insecta.

General Morphological Characters

1. All the character of arthropoda are also present in this class.

2. Body is divided into three tagmas i.e. head, thorax and abdomen.

Normally body of arthropods consists of twenty segments. Head region is formed by the fusion of 1st six segments. Thorax is formed by next three segments and abdomen formed by last 11 segments.

Modification of six pair of appendages of head: 1st pair of appendages is modified into eyes. 2nd pair is modified into antennae. 3rd pair is lost. 4th pair of appendages is modified into mandible. 5th pair modified into first maxillae and 6th pair modified into 2nd maxillae means mouth part is nothing but modification of 4th, 5th and 6th pair of appendages. On abdomen, appendages or legs are lost.

Morphology of head region of insects

Highest point of head known as “Vertex”. Anterior portion sloping in forward direction known as “Frons”. Posterior portion sloping towards thorax is “Occiput”. On the medial aspect of head, there is a pair of compound eyes. Each compound eye is made of number of lenses called as “facet”. Compound eyes may meet one another in mid line (holoptic) or are wide apart (dichoptic). Just medial to compound eyes, there is a pair of non-functioning simple eyes known as “ocellus.” Just in front of these two eyes on either side, there is a pair of antennae. Antennae are made up of three parts, base, pedicle and f ilaments. Pedicle is non segment basal piece. On these antennae, hair may be present. At the base of each antenna, there is olfactory pin. Lateral part of head is known as “Gena”. Just below the frons, there is a chitinous plate known as “Clypeus”. Below clypeus, there is mouth part. Mouth parts are located on ventral side. Mouth part consists of labrum which forms the upper boundary of mouth and labium which forms the lower lip or lower boundary of mouth. On underneath the labrum, there is membranous structure called epipharynx which bears the organ of taste. On upper surface of labium, there is another membranous structure called hypopharynx which bears the opening of salivary duct. Between labrum and labium there is one pair of mandibles and one pair of maxillae. Mouth parts are collectively known as “Proboscis”.

While describing fish, we need complete general information about the different specimens of fish included in the particular class or grade. A flow sheet of the general characters used in this concern may be tabulated as:

1. Origin of the term: The term Pisces comes from the old version of the plural of the Latin word piscis or singular word piscus meaning “fish.”

2. Literal meaning and definition: It describes either the creature or the meat from the creature. It is a streamlined, cold-blooded aquatic vertebrate with scales and gills,

3. Origin and evolution: The first fish appeared around 530 million years ago during the Cambrian period and then underwent a long period of evolution so that, today, they are by far the most diverse group of vertebrates. The Devonian Period is known as the “Age of Fishes”.

1. Genus - Pythium (Type species - Pythium aphanidermatum)

‘Pythium’ is a large genus comprising of more than 200 species. Species of Pythium are either terrestrial or aquatic. They are found world wide and most of them are plant pathogens on many economically important cultivated crops, as well as wild plants. They are facultative saprophytes and can live saprophytically in the soil and plant debris for indefinite periods in the absence of suitable hosts. Pre-emergence and post-emergence damping off of seedlings of numerous angiospermic plants, root rot, rhizome rot and fruit rot are the most common diseases caused by species of Pythium.

Pythium debaryanum, Pythium aphanidermatum, Pythium myriotylum, Pythium indicum, Pythium vexans and Pythium graminicolum are some of the most important plant pathogens, that cause damping off, seed decay, soft rots and root rots of many economically important crops, such as chillies, eggplant, tobacco, tomato, castor, potato, ginger etc.

Life cycle of Pythium

The mycelium of the fungi consists of slender, hyaline, coenocytic hyphae. The hyphae grow both inter- and intra-cellularly. No haustoria are produced.

The general circulation of the atmosphere explains the formation of pressure belts and wind systems in the earth’s atmosphere. It is known that the earth receives more solar radiation near the equator and gets heated more. Consequently, the air gets heated more and rises vertically upwards. As there is more convection of the air near the equator, the atmospheric pressure will be less. The warm air which moves upwards up to a height about 14 km near the equator gets cooled and move towards the poles.

The upper air gets gradually cooled when it reaches a latitude of 30°N in the northern hemisphere and 30°S in the southern hemisphere. At about 30°latitude the cold air descends to the earth’s surface. Some of the cold air after descending to earth’s surface moves towards the equator. The circulation of air between the equator and 30°N or 30°S latitudes is called Hadley cells (Fig. 8.1).

The winds blowing from 30° latitude towards the equator at surface level are called trade winds. These trade winds which move towards the equator in both northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere converge near the equator and the zone of the convergence of these winds is called Inter Tropical Zone of Convergence. As the convergence of air takes place, due to convection of heat as a result of high temperatures leads to vertical lifting of moist air. Therefore, the Equatorial regions receive more rainfall and there are tropical forests in this region.

Introduction

A thoroughly performed physical examination in poultry and avian clinical practice is of great importance. Most avian species happen to be prey animals, with the exception of a few raptors that tend to be predatory. This makes them try to appear healthy, in preparation to escape from potential predators, and as such, makes it difficult for their owners, keepers and veterinarians to detect early diseases. Physical examination when carefully performed in detail, increases the chances of obtaining fewer differential diagnosis that are likely to be harboring the confirmatory diagnosis after laboratory works are being performed. In essence, a thorough physical examination brings about cost efficiency in poultry/ avian clinical practice. Take for instance, a farm with over 50,000 layers, having lowered productivity. It will be cumbersome to go ahead and start blood sampling, faecal sampling or oral cavity swabs for laboratory analysis as the starting point. The disadvantages will be high labour demands, high capital demands, more stress on the animals and of course, long time till feasible outcome is to be obtained.

Structure of matter: every structure is made up of elements. Elements can join together to make compounds. The smallest particle of a compound is a molecule. The periodic table gives details of all elements.

Nucleus: the center of atom containing protons and neutrons and hence almost whole mass of the atom. 

Atom: the smallest units of matter composed of electrons are negatively charged, protons have a positive charged and neutrons are neutral. If there are more electrons atom will be negatively charged, if there are more protons it will be positively charged. The total charge of electrons is equal to protons and hence the atom is electrically neutral.

Analytical Reagents

Chemical reagents are supplied in different grades and each grade has a distinct purpose and range of uses. The purest grade is analytical reagent (AR), the second is laboratory reagent (LR), the third is guaranteed reagent (GR) and fourth is technical grade. Second and third form of reagents have a lot of impurities. Therefore, for the determination of micronutrients, AR grade reagents should be used.

Distilled Water

Distilled water is always used in chemical analysis. The quality of distilled water varies from single distilled water to double or triple distilled water depending upon the requirement of analytical technique(s) e.g. double distilled water (glass distilled) is always recommended for micro nutrient and heavy metal analysis.

All control measures are directed to bring down the nematode population low enough to raise the crop successfully and profitably. The choice of control measures to be taken depends upon the nematode species to be tackled and the crops involved.

1. Cultural methods 
The objective of these methods is to adopt suitable land management practices, so as to bring down the nematode population in the field to a low level, which may not cause economic injury to the crop or to keep the field free from parasitic nematodes by adopting suitable preventive measures. Besides causing direct damage to the crops, several nematode species are known to transmit many fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens, which aggravate the extent of damage caused to the crops. Many of these pathogens gain access to the host plants only through mechanical injury caused by the nematodes. By controlling the nematode parasites, the incidence of diseases caused by such phytopathogens can also be avoided to a large extent. Cultural methods, though may not give spectacular results within a short span of time of a single season or year, as in the case of chemical control measures, if followed over a number of years is sure to give encouraging results. Cultural methods include crop rotation, fallowing, ploughing, flooding, trap cropping, use of organic amendments, selection of seeds and seed materials, use of resistant and tolerant varieties etc.

Dairy animals are the backbone of animal husbandry. India is the largest milk producer and ranks first in the world with a share of 25% of global milk production. Haemoprotozoan diseases pose significant limitations to the health and production of cattle. It leads to significant losses in the livestock industry worldwide. However, most protozoan parasites in the blood are known tocause anaemia by inducing erythro-phagocytosis. In terms of  mortality, reduced milk production and reduced immunity power, hemoprotozoan parasites pose a major threat to the livestock population. Theileria, Babesia, Anaplasma and Trypanosoma are the most important hemoprotozoan diseases of veterinary importance. These diseases affect different livestock species, caused by different species of Trypanosoma, Theileria, Babesia and Anaplasma. Tick-borne hemoprotozoan infections have a significant negative impact on the health and productivity of cattle and result in major losses to the global livestock industry. In tropical and subtropical regions, tick-borne hemoprotozoan infections have a significant impact on animal production. In India, these hemoprotozoan parasites have long posed a serious threat to the survival of exotic and crossbred cattle (Ananda et al., 2009). Haemoprotozoan diseases have deleterious impact on health and production of animals causing death in acute cases, production losses in chronically affected animals which decrease economic share of livestock sector (Bharti et al., 2022)

In most of the underdeveloped and developing countries, regional diets are monotonous, unbalanced and poor in quality having a high percentage of starchy components and inadequate proportion of protein. The long-term solution to the problem of protein malnutrition lies in the greater production and better distribution of a protein-rich diet. Fish offers protein in a cheap and alternative form. Probably due to this, man has exploited the hydrosphere for food and consequently the history of the development of pisciculture. As the fish perishes rapidly, methods have been devised to keep the fish fresh between the catch and consumption.

The development of fisheries in India has attained considerable progress in increasing the per hectare yield of carps by controlled breeding and rearing of the young ones. Keeping the pace of development, the culture of air-breathing fishes has attracted the attention of aqua-culturists. Many varieties of these fishes have been successfully bred using pituitary extract (Ramaswami and Sundararaj, 1957; Moitra et al, 1979; Thakur, 1976). The traditional methods of transport of spawn, fry, fingerlings and even brooders in various open and closed systems pose major problems due to their heavy mortality. The mortality of live fishes is high mostly due to stress during transportation. For a long, studies on different aspects of transportation of carps and their allies have been carried out by fishery scientists. Some of the works which need special mention are that of Khan (1939, 1946), Ganapati and Chako (1951), Ranade and Kewalramani (1956), Saha and Chowdhury (1956), Saha et al, (1956a and b), Ramchandran (1969), Singh (1977), Selvaraj et al, (1981) and Jha (1995) etc. In comparison to Indian major carps, consumption of air-breathing fish is not so popular although they are a rich source of protein. However, their demand is gradually increasing. Much has to be done to meet the increasing demand of air-breathing fishes to exploit the maximum available derelict water.

The two commercially important Indian air-breathing fishes, Anabas testudineus (Bloch) and Channa punctatus (Bloch) commonly known as climbing perch and snake-headed murrel belong to the order Perciformes and Channiformes respectively. They live in different trophic zones of swamps and derelict ponds and are highly predatory habits. In the present work, oxygen uptake has been observed in Anabas testudineus and Channa punctatus concerning their body weight and group size. The effect of anaesthetic on the oxygen uptake and the effect of ammonia on the structure and function of the gills in Channa punctatus have also been studied. The findings have been used to evaluate suitable methods for long-distance transportation of these fishes. As we surviving in the COVID-19 pandemic, proper sanitization of all the equipment and accessories is one of the essential steps for fish transportation.

The term ecology was first of all proposed by zoologist H. Pietir in 1865. It was derived from the Greek word ecologic means oikos = living place and logos = study and some definitions of ecology presented below:

1. According to Ernst Haeckel, 1869 “The total relations of the animal to both its organic and inorganic environment is called as ecology”.
2. E. Warming 1895 “Ecology is the study of animals and plants in relation to their environment”.
3. According to Odum 1963 “Study of structures and functions of nature is defined as ecology”.
4. Krebs 1985 says that the “Ecology is the scientific study of interaction that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms”.

The life of insects is dependent on the adaptability of the environment, if the environment is unfavourable then the insect population ceases and vice-versa. This insect move one place to another to get the favourable environment so that they can pull on their life activities properly. There is a deep relationship between the living community and non-living environment. Both are affecting each other greatly. This inter-relationship between living community and non-living environment is called as ecosystem. The term ecosystem was first used by A.G. Tansley as early as 1935 and he defined, “Ecosystem is the system of resulting from the interaction of all the living and non-living factors of the environment”.