Present experiment was conducted on sixty Murrah buffalo divided into three groups: lactating, involution stage/dry and pregnant stage (non-lactating early pregnant stage, non-lactating mid pregnant stage and non-lactating late pregnant stage). Most of the alveoli were spherical to oval elongated in shape. In lactating stage, only small and medium sized alveoli were present. In involuting stage due to degeneration and inactiveness only small alveoli were recorded. In non-lactating late pregnant stage most of the alveoli were large sized. A highly significant statistical difference was noted among different stages of lactation in the diameter of alveoli. The active alveoli were lined by cuboidal epithelium to low cuboidal epithelium, while resting alveoli were lined by squamous epithelium with dark nuclei. The number of resting alveoli were found increased with the advancement of lactation. Up to two months of involution most of the alveoli were degenerative. A highly significant statistical difference was noted in the height of alveolar epithelium in different stages of lactation.

Flexor tendons of forelimb play a major role in the locomotion of the animal and also in bearing 45 percent of the body wieght, thus making these tendons prone to several injuries. Current investigation was carried in three post-natal age groups of buffalo bulls to elucidate gross morphological and morphometrical features of superficial (SDFT) and deep (DDFT) digital flexor tendons of forelimb. Morphological studies revealed that they are shiny white fibrous structures bound by tough, durable fibrous sheath the 'flexor retinaculum' on palmar aspect of manus in all three groups (G) i.e., 1 to 3 years (G I), 3 to 6 years (G II) and 6 years and above (G III). SDFT in cross sections at myo-tendinous junction was flat elliptical shaped in G I and G II whereas it was oval in G III specimens. At mid metacarpal region the SDFT was dorso-ventrally compressed and ring-shaped in digital region. Thickness increased in aged specimens at their origin, mid metacarpus and at insertion points. Lengths of the two slips of SDFT in buffalo gradually increased from inter digital space up to their insertion points from G I to G III. Cross sectional profile of DDFT in mid metacarpus was flat elliptical in outline in all groups. Thickness of the tendon steadily increased with age from G I to III. Length of DDFT from origin to its division and from division to insertion steadily increased.

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 study aimed to analyze the adoption of 22 technologies on dairy buffalo production in selected sites in the Philippines. A total of 666 farmer-informants who were previously exposed to training and other extension support services on dairy buffalo production were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire. Dichotomous (yes or no) frequency and percentage responses along five stages, i.e., 'awareness', 'interest', 'evaluation', 'trial', and 'adoption' were transformed to sigma (Z) scores for adoption. Frequency responses for 'number of years of adoption' were likewise transformed to sigma scores. The two sigma scores were added to get the total adoption scores for each technology. The total or combined adoption scores (dependent variable) for all technologies were then tested for linear correlation and multiple regression with selected socio-economic traits, farm characteristics, and other independent variables. Most of the farmer-informants had at least 75 percent adoption rate in animal health care, improved forage feeding, estrus detection, and feeding of calves with colostrum. Multiple regression analysis indicates that attribution scores, years of experience in dairying, technical assistance, animal inventory, distance of the farm from a buffalo R and D institution, access to information materials and income from dairying positively and significantly influenced adoption scores. To increase adoption, improving the attribution by farmers to technologies as regards their relative advantage, compatibility with existing farm operations, trialability, and simplicity should be given priority consideration in designing and implementing extension delivery systems since it is the most powerful predictor variable to adoption.

Systematic studies on expression and characterization of toll like receptors (TLRs) in buffalo and cattle will help to understand the innate immune response specific to each species of animals. TLR4 gene is one of the most studied innate immune receptors which is mainly triggered by lipopolysaccharide. Therefore, the present study was carried out to investigate the mRNA expression and sequence analysis of TLR4 in buffalo in comparison to that of cattle. In vitro expression of TLR4 was assessed by challenging the Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC) with bacterial LPS which showed significant increase of TLR4 gene expression (P LT= 0.01) in buffaloes when compared to cattle. Further the comparison of mRNA sequence of TLR4 of buffalo and cattle revealed 96 percent similarity with the cattle sequence. The primary structure of protein showed the highest percent of leucine amino acid for both the species of animals. At the same time, the number of Leucine Rich repeats (LRR) of buffalo is varied from those present in cattle TLR4. Alpha helix is the prominent secondary structure, however, there were few amino acid variations between buffalo and cattle in certain regions of TLR4 which altered the three dimensional conformation of TLR4 proteins, this in-turn possibly can influence the binding affinity and interaction with pathogens which may influence the difference in immune response in buffalo when compared to that of cattle.