The poultry industry is based on raising fast-growing chickens. In recent decades, several antibiotics have been employed as growth promoters in the chicken industry, but antibiotic use is banned in the poultry industry due to increased antibiotic resistance and negative impacts on human health. Scientists started searching for alternative antibiotic products as antibiotic resistance increased. Probiotics, prebiotics, organic acids, plant extracts, etheric oils, and immunological stimulants are some of the alternatives. In recent years, these products have improved animal performance, increased animal productivity, prevented and controlled enteric infections, and reduced antibiotic use in animal agriculture. Artemisia, which is currently in scattered form in various research papers, and to draw the attention of experts throughout the world to the Artemisia species' untapped potential. Artemisia annua is also known as sweet wormwood, sweet Annie, and sweet annual wormwood (Chinese: qngho). It's a common wormwood species native to Asia's temperate zones. The active ingredient present in the Artemisia genus is Artemisinin, and chemically it contains both volatile and non-volatile constituents. Biological activities of the Artemisia genus include antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-malarial, anti-coccidial, anti-oxidant, and anti-tumor effects. It has positive effects on growth performance, FCR, gut health, immunity, digestibility, and meat quality of broilers. In conclusion, Artemisia annua is the best alternative product for avoiding anti-microbial resistance in the poultry industry without compromising growth and production. This study aims to review the research conducted on the Artemisia genus.

The genetically improved modern commercial layers are capable of producing 330 eggs in their productive life of up to 72 weeks. The journey of genetic improvement continues and the breeding companies now developed ‘long life’ layers that can lay 500 eggs in 100 weeks of age. The changing production dynamics of layer chicken calls for better understanding of nutrient requirements and good nutritional programming. Prediction models are being used to assess the nutrient requirements of the hybrid layers; while, precision feeding of quantity of feed and or nutrients can lower feed costs and ensures more predictable bird performance. In-ovo and early chick nutrition give jump start at juvenile stage of chicken. The idea of split feeding, although beneficial in certain production parameters, suffers the disadvantages of additional infrastructure and workforce requirements. The nutritional programme foregg size, shell quality and feeding for value added designer egg production is aimed at increasing the profit to the farmers. In recent days, feeding for healthy gut that enables efficient digestion and absorption of nutrients has also gained paramount importance. The concept of feed nanotechnology can help in increasing nutrient availability and environment protection; while, phytogenic products can some extent replace the role played by antibiotic growth promoters. The advancements in biotechnology has opened up not only numerous opportunities for the development of products and technologies for poultry feeding, but also to study the influence of nutritional factors on genomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

Antimicrobial resistance is a global pandemic and one of the biggest public health challenges. Efflux pumps are one of several antimicrobial resistance mechanisms. Efflux pumps are proteins that act by efflux or pumping substances out of cells. The major efflux pumps in bacteria include the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) Superfamily, Small Multidrug Resistance Family (SMR), Major FacilitatorSuperfamily (MFS), Multidrug and Toxic Compound Extrusion Family (MATE), and Resistance Nodulation Cell Division (RND). Quinolones are antimicrobials that inhibit DNA synthesis by inhibiting type IV topoisomerase and DNA gyrase of bacteria. Efflux-mediated quinolone resistance can happen by the overexpression of some efflux pump genes in the prokaryotes. The substrate for most of the efflux pumps is fluoroquinolones like ciprofloxacin and Norfloxacin. A novel strategy to combat antimicrobial resistance is by the use of efflux pump inhibitors which can effectively block the efflux pumps. Plant-derived phytochemicals are promising lead molecules in developing an efflux pump inhibiting drug and thereby combat quinolone mediated efflux resistance. This review discusses plant-derived EPIs that can be used to combat quinolone-resistant microorganisms. 

Ticks and tick-borne diseases affect animal and human health worldwide and are the cause of significant economic losses. During necropsy of a free ranging wild Asian elephant unusually large, engorged ticks attached to the ear and d ewlap was noticed. On the basis of morphological study, the ticks were identified as Amblyomma integrum. This is the first report on the occurrence of A. integrum ticks on Asian elephant of Tamil Nadu, India. The detailed morphology of the sexes and the medical and veterinary significance of the tick are discussed in the light of available literature.

The present investigation was conducted in four districts (Namakkal, Tiruppur, Tirunelveli and Vellore) of Tamil Nadu with an objective to record animal husbandry breeding related ethnoveterinary medicines (EVM) and its scientific rationale. For this two blocks were chosen purposively from each of the selected districts and two villages from each block were selected randomly. Fifteen livestock rearers were selected randomly from each of the villages selected thus making a final sample of 240 livestock farmers. Results of this study revealed that, a total number of five ethno veterinary medicinal practices for anestrum and six EVM practices for retained placenta were adopted by the farmers. Out of these practices, use of half of a coconut and rhizome of viralimanjal (Curcuma longa) of 10 g for 10 days orally to the anestrum cow and feeding of the animals with bamboo leaves for the retained placenta was found to be having highest scientific relevant score of 0.5781 and 0.8437 respectively. On the basis of this study it was recommended that dairy cow owners should be made aware of using these two successful EVM treatment for anestrum and retained placenta after validating  these practices through suitable clinical trials.

The study was carried out to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of boric acid on serum biochemical, tibia morphometry and mineralization of Japanese quail fed diets supplemented with boric acid at different levels of 0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 ppm were prepared in a 5 x 3 design. A total of 150 day-old Japanese quail chicks were individually weighed and allotted randomly into five treatment groups with three replicates containing ten birds each, the birds were fed with experimental diets for a period of 5 weeks. At the end of the 5th week, two birds per replicate an average of six birds per treatment were slaughtered. Blood and tibia were collected accordingly. Serum calcium level significantly (p<0.05) increased but serum phosphorus, serum alkaline phosphatase, tibia morphometry and mineralization were not influenced by dietary boric acid supplementation. Results indicated that dietary boric acid level can be further increased in the quail diet for optimum bone mineralization.

Avian infectious bronchitis (IB) is a common, highly contagious, acute, and economically important viral disease of chickens caused by avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) of Coronaviridae. Nephropathogenic strains have emerged from mutation of widely used classical, live attenuated IB vaccines which mainly protects from respiratory form of the disease. The present work is directed to study the ultrastructure of the new strain of IBV, the IND/AHL/16/01, that was first isolated from an outbreak of nephritis and gout related mortality cases of coloured layer pureline birds at Indian Council of Agricultural Research - Directorate of Poultry Research (ICAR-DPR). Molecular characterisation and phylogenetic analysis was carried out and it was confirmed that the isolate is a novel nephropathogenic strain. Nine-day-old Embryonated Chicken Eggs (ECE) obtained from in-house hatchery of ICAR-DPR were inoculated by allantoic route and observed for embryonic lesions and mortality. The allantoic Àuid from these ECE were collected into 2.5% glutaraldehyde and stored at 4 degree Celsius until processing. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) imaging by negative staining technique, revealed electron dense, pleomorphic Virus Like Particles (VLP's) of 120 nm diameter.

In India fast growing sub-sector of agriculture is the livestock production. The present study made an attempt to analyse the seasonal inÀuence on the retail price of mutton in Tamil Nadu. The data relevant for the study were collected from the Annual Statistical Abstract published by the Department of Statistics, Government of Tamil Nadu for the period from April 1975 to March 2018 and using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) formula the time value of money was calculated. The results revealed that significantly higher average retail price was noticed during winter summer season (Rs. 17.24 ± 0.16; 17.25 ± 0.13) than monsoon (Rs. 16.80 ± 0.11) and post monsoon (Rs. 16.69 ± 0.13). The result of current study gives an idea to the small ruminant farmers on the future strategies to fetch more income from animal rearing.  

Campylobacter spp. are the most common cause of foodborne illnesses and bacterial enteritis across the globe. Poultry harbours this pathogen the most and transmit them to human beings. Being the fastidious organism, isolation and detection of Campylobacter is time consuming and difficult. In this study, the most common species - Campylobacter coli was detected using Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification assay (LAMP). A total of 191 broiler chicken caecal samples, after presumptive identification of Campylobacter, were subjected to LAMP assay with colorimetric detection. Out of 191 samples collected, 14 were found positive for C. coli. LAMP assay takes only around 45 min after extraction of DNA to detect C. coli.  LAMP assay aids in rapid detection of C. coli isolates and does not require any sophisticated instruments. Thus, LAMP assay is a simple and rapid detection method for Campylobacter coli can be performed in any basic clinical laboratory.

Occurrence of lice infestation is not uncommon in wild and exotic birds. The present report deals with occurrence of lice in a Brahminy kite, Haliastur indus belonging to Accipitriformes. External examination of free range Brahminy kite from Vandaloor zoo, Tamil Nadu revealed presence of large sized louse in the feathers and was identified as Laemobothrion maximum on the basis of morphology and morphometry. The present report is found to be first of its kind from Tamil Nadu.