Summer season induced changes in quantitative expression patterns of different heat shock response genes in Salem black goats.

Research efforts of elucidating the molecular mechanisms governing heat shock response which imparts thermo-tolerance ability to indigenous breeds are very scanty. Therefore, a study was conducted with the primary objective to determine the impact of heat stress on the expression pattern of different heat shock response genes in the hepatic tissues of indigenous Salem Black goat. The study was conducted for a period of 45 days in twelve 1-year-old female Salem Black breed goats. The animals were randomly allocated into two groups of six animals each, C (n = 6; Salem Black control) and HS (n = 6; Salem Black heat stress). The C animals were maintained in the shed in comfort condition while HS animals were exposed outside to summer heat stress between 10:00 h to 16:00 h during experimental period. The animals were slaughtered at the end of study and their liver samples were collected for assessing the different heat shock response genes. Based on the results obtained from the study it was established that the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), HSP90, super oxide dismutase (SOD), nitrous oxide synthase 1 (NOS1) genes were significantly (P < 0.05) down regulated. However, heat stress did not influence the expression pattern of heat shock factor-1 (HSF1) gene. The lower level of expression of all heat shock response genes may be due to less magnitude of heat stress in the study to induce cellular stress response in Salem Black goats.

Effect of dietary supplementation with phytogenic blend on growth performance, apparent ileal digestibility of nutrients, intestinal morphology, and cecal microflora of broiler chickens.

The effects of dietary supplementation with phytogenic blend (PB) of Aerva lanata, Piper betle, Cynodon dactylon, and Piper nigrum on growth performance, ileal nutrient digestibility, intestinal morphology, and cecal microflora were determined in a 42-day broiler feeding trial. A total of 192 broilers were assigned to 4 dietary treatments (6 replicates and 8 birds/replicate): basal diet, basal diet supplemented with antibiotic (chlortetracycline), 1% and 2% PB, respectively. The body weight gain (BWG) of starter chicks increased linearly (P = 0.023) as dietary supplementation levels of PB increased. At grower phase, broilers fed diet supplemented with 1% PB had similar BWG with the antibiotic group, but other treatments had reduced (P = 0.0001) BWG. Dietary supplementation with 1% PB resulted in the highest (P < 0.0001) BWG during the study. Feed intake was not affected by the treatments during the starter, finisher, and overall rearing periods. Broilers fed diet supplemented with 1% PB had the best (P < 0.0001) feed conversion ratio during the study. Overall, broilers fed only basal diet had the highest (P = 0.0450) mortality. Ileal organic matter (OM) digestibility increased linearly (P = 0.044) with broilers fed diet supplemented with PB, but reduced with antibiotic group. Dietary supplementation with 1% PB had the highest (P = 0.0402) ileal digestibility of tryptophan. In the duodenum, broilers fed diet supplemented with PB had longer (P = 0.0006) villi heights than the birds fed only basal diet, but similar with antibiotic group. Broilers fed diet supplemented with PB had longer (P = 0.0064) villi height in the jejunum than the antibiotic group. Bifidobacterium concentration of the cecum content showed a slight increase (P = 0.053) with increasing supplementation levels of PB. In conclusion, the current study shows that dietary supplementation with PB improves growth performance, intestinal morphology, and apparent ileal digestibility of OM and tryptophan in a dose-dependent manner with the best response at 1% inclusion level.

Response of in ovo administration of zinc on egg hatchability and immune response of commercial broiler chicken.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of in ovo administration of different forms of zinc with respect to hatchability and performance of commercial broiler chicken. In trial 1, the fertile eggs on day 18 were divided into six treatment groups: Group I as control without any supplementation of zinc, group II to IV were supplemented with 0.5 mg zinc per egg as zinc sulphate, zinc methionine or nano zinc, respectively, and Group V with nano zinc at 0.25 mg zinc per egg. Sixth group received 0.5 ml citric acid per egg as sham control. The results of the first trial indicated that in ovo administration of nano zinc at both levels and zinc methionine resulted in complete failure of hatchability. A second trial to validate the result of trial 1 consisted of Group I control (no administration). Group II and Group III were supplemented with zinc sulphate and zinc methionine, respectively, at 0.5 mg zinc per egg. Group IV and Group V were supplemented with nano zinc at 0.04 and 0.08 mg per egg. In the second trial, again there was a similar pattern for zinc sulphate and zinc methionine. Administration of Zn by nano form had around 80% hatchability on fertile eggs in comparison with the unadministered control eggs (92%). There was no difference (p > .05) in body weight gain, feed intake and FCR. No difference (p > .05) was observed between treatments for cell-mediated immune response and humoral immune response. Nano Zn-administered group showed a non-significant downregulation of MUC2 gene. It could be concluded that in ovo administration of higher levels of zinc has to be with caution for the developing embryo of commercial broiler chicken.

A Brief Review on Diagnosis of Foot-and-Mouth Disease of Livestock: Conventional to Molecular Tools.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is one of the highly contagious diseases of domestic animals. Effective control of this disease needs sensitive, specific, and quick diagnostic tools at each tier of control strategy. In this paper we have outlined various diagnostic approaches from old to new generation in a nutshell. Presently FMD diagnosis is being carried out using techniques such as Virus Isolation (VI), Sandwich-ELISA (S-ELISA), Liquid-Phase Blocking ELISA (LPBE), Multiplex-PCR (m-PCR), and indirect ELISA (DIVA), and real time-PCR can be used for detection of antibody against nonstructural proteins. Nucleotide sequencing for serotyping, microarray as well as recombinant antigen-based detection, biosensor, phage display, and nucleic-acid-based diagnostic are on the way for rapid and specific detection of FMDV. Various pen side tests, namely, lateral flow, RT-LAMP, Immunostrip tests, and so forth. are also developed for detection of the virus in field condition.