The present study was conducted to identify specific acoustic features which could be used as possible indicators for early diagnosis of pneumonia in buffalo calves. In pneumonia, change in elasticity and resonance of vocal sound producing organs occur which eventually affects the vocal signature of calves. Twenty Murrah buffalo calves' voice was recorded during both healthy and pneumonia infected stage where pneumonia was confirmed by lung X-RAY radiography. From the recorded vocal sound, acoustic features viz. call duration (sec.), call interval (sec.), frequency (Hz), bandwidth (Hz) and peak amplitude (P) with their sub variants were extracted with the help of PRAAT 3.2.36 software. Out of these, call duration (sec.) (0.879+-0.29 v/s 0.689+-0.24), call interval (sec.) (0.288+-0.059 v/s 0.107+-0.047) and peak amplitude (P) (start (0.750+-0.118 v/s 0.435+-0.113), end (0.102+-0.045 v/s 0.508+-0.268) and maximum (0.938+-0.210 v/s 0.684+-0.480)) were found significantly (p LT 0.05) different between two groups. Rest acoustic features did not differ statistically between two groups. This study indicates that it is possible to discriminate pneumonia voice from normal/healthy voice by acoustic analysis and farmers can acquire an early warning of pneumonia infections in calves through this non-invasive method.

Fascioliasis causes huge economic losses in livestock industry by reducing the growth, fertility rate, meat and milk yield. In the present study, somatic antigens isolated from Fasciola gigantica were assessed for the early detection of infection by developing antibody detection enzyme immunoassay. The somatic antigens extracted from adult F. gigantica worms was separated on SDS-PAGE and immunogenicity was determined by Western blot (WB). The results showed polypeptides bands between 15 to 95 kDa, and most prominent bands were 15, 28, 36, 38, 55, 72 and 95 kDa polypeptides. The WB revealed a single polypeptide of size between 36 to 55 kDa as antigenic. The sensitivity and specificity of ELISA test established for 36 to 55 kDa somatic antigens was 95.45 percent (95 percent CI: 77.16 percent to 99.88 percent) and 87.1 percent (95 percent CI: 70.17 percent to 96.37 percent), respectively. Kappa value revealed that the strength of agreement is considered to be very 'good'. In house established ELISA was implemented in the field and 12.1 percent (31/256) large ruminants were found positive, while 4.68 percent (12/256) with postmortem examination. The fasciolosis did not show significant (P GT 0.05) association with host type, breed and age groups, while significant (P LT 0.01) association with host sexes. The result confirmed that in-house established ELISA test had good value for serodiagnosis of fasciolosis in cattle and buffaloes for large scale epidemiological studies.

The present study was conducted in buffaloes to determine the occurrence of subclinical mastitis and its diagnosis in relation to milk SCC and biochemical composition. The results showed that taking quarter foremilk (QFM) somatic cell count (SCC) threshold limit of LT 200*10**(3) cell for defining healthy quarters, 16.48 percent of buffaloes and 5.79 percent of quarters were positive for specific subclinical mastitis. In total, 57/363 (15.70 percent)of quarters were bacteriological positive with 21 (5.79 percent) representing specific and 36 (9.92 percent) latent infections. The major pathogen isolated were 28 (49 percent) coagulase-negative staphylococci followed by 16 (28 percent) S. aureus, 09 (16 percent) Streptococcus and 4(7 percent) Corynebacterium spp. The average QFM SCC was found as 52.50*10**(3) cells /ml for the quarter with no bacteria, and 356.51*10**(3) cell /ml for the quarters infected with one or the other bacteria (p LT 0.05). The milk electrical conductivity (EC), Fat and Lactoseshowed significant alterations with the quarter infection, the EC and Fat increased while Lactose decreased in infected quarters (p LT 0.05). The California mastitis test CMT) at cut off score of GT 0.5 for diseased quarters showed 68.75 percent sensitivity with 99.09 percent specificity. The EC with 87.50 percent sensitivity and 74.02 percent specificity and Lactose with 84.37 percent sensitivity and 66.16 percent specificity also showed significant (p LT 0.01) discrimination ability to differentiate healthy and mastitis quarters in buffaloes. The milk pH was not found to be a good parameter to identify diseased quarters.

Paratuberculosis (PTB) in buffaloes is a chronic enteric disease triggering health implications and huge economic losses in livestock. This study was designed to explore a simple, cost-effective diagnostic approach for PTB in water buffaloes. Blood (5 ml/animal) and intestinal tissue samples accompanied by lymph nodes associated with mesentery were collected from weak and diarrhoeac animals slaughtered at local abattoirs. Out of total n=771 clinically suspected animals, only n=53 carcasses were sampled based on gross observation. Tissue smears of the gut mucosae were obtained and were made adopting special staining protocol. Tissue samples were processed by paraffin sectioning and stained with Ziehl-Neelsen and Hematoxylin-Eosin staining methods. Acid-fast bacilli were observed only in 11/53 cases on mucosal tissue smears. Pressure atrophy of small intestine villi were evident, and the mucosae were found sloughed off. The submucosae were heavily infiltrated with mononuclear cells and multifocal cellular nodules dominated by epithelioid macrophages. The foamy cytoplasm of the macrophages appeared to be engorged with acid fast bacilli and depicted the positive cases. All tissue sections of the suspected samples showed 100 percent +ve results while only 20.8 percent samples were found +ve with smear method. All histo-pathologically positive cases were further confirmed by ELISA based serological analysis. Therefore, it was concluded that histopathology is an economical and yet the most trusted tool for diagnosing bubalian PTB in countries like Pakistan.

Mastitis is common in buffaloes with significant impact on the rural economy. The present work was undertaken to find out the prevalence of sub clinical mastitis in buffaloes in and around Gannavaram, Andhra Pradesh, India by using different diagnostic methods. The prevalence of sub clinical mastitis based on California Mastitis Test, somatic cell count, electrical resistance and milk pH was 20.34, 21.62, 6.20 and 8.27 percent, respectively on screening of 629 quarters of 158 Graded Murrah buffaloes. Bacterial culture was considered to be a gold standard and revealed the prevalence as 28.30 percent with 178 quarter milk samples positive for bacterial growth. Further the study was also focussed on the comparison of the diagnostic tests CMT, SCC, ER and pH by using culture results as gold standard. The percent accuracy of California Mastitis Test, Somatic cell count, electrical resistance and pH were 89.83, 92.69, 77.27 and 79.65, respectively.