A 6 year old female Afghan Hound dog was presented to the Small Animal Critical Care Unit, Madras Veterinary College, TANUVAS, Chennai with a history of dyspnea, coughing, weight loss and anorexia for 5 days with abducted gait. On physical examination, thoracic auscultation revealed muffled heart sounds and lung sounds. Low amplitude QRS Complex was observed on electrocardiographic examination. Thoracic radiography revealed pleural effusion. An echoic fluid accumulation around the heart, floating lung lobe and fibrin string was observed during the ultrasonography examination. Heamatological and biochemical parameters were within the normal value. Thoracocentesis was performed and removed around 450ml of milky white fluid intermittently. Based on pleural fluid analysis the case was diagnosed as idiopathic chylothorax. The dog was treated with intravenous fluid, antibiotics, tablet rutin, diuretics and steroids. After 1 week of treatment animal recovered gradually.

Foetal mummification is a common condition in swine. A four year old Large White Yorkshire sow gave birth to one mummified foetus along with 7 normal live foetuses in 4th parity.

The  breeding  values  of  51  Sahiwal  sires  were estimated from the actual and predicted FL305DMY by applying four sire evaluation methods viz., least squares, simple regressed least squares, best linear unbiased prediction and derivative free restricted maximum likelihood. The derivative free restricted maximum likelihood method had lowest error variance for both actual and predicted first lactation 305-days milk yields and it was considered to be the most efficient method. The BLUP method was second efficient  followed by LSM and SRLS method.

This study was conducted to assess the effect of dietary supplementation of vitamin E and selenium on Japanese quail broilers. This trial was conducted in 525 Japanese quail birds from day- old to five weeks of age. Experimental birds were randomly divided into seven groups viz.T1Control:  Basal diet (standard Japanese quail ration), T2 Basal diet with vitamin E 150mg/kg, T3 Basal diet with vitamin E 300 mg/kg, T4 Basal diet with selenium 0.3mg/kg, T5 Basal diet with selenium 0.6mg/kg,T6 Basal diet with combination of vitamin E 150mg/kg and selenium 0.3mg/kg, T7 Basal diet with combination of vitamin E 300mg/kg and selenium 0.6mg/kg. Dietary supplementation with the combination of vitamin E 300mg/kg and selenium 0.6mg/kg resulted in significantly higher body weight, better feed efficiency, livability percentage and also enrichment of alpha-tocopherol and selenium level of liver, thigh and breast muscles in the Japanese quail broilers.

Di butyl phthalate (DBP) is a most important plasticizer which is suspected as reproductive toxicant and exposure to it has the  potential effect on the human as well as animal reproductive system. The research work was conducted to evaluate the repeated dose toxicity of di butyl phthalate in male wistar rats. The animals were divided in four different groups with 12 male rats in each group.  Group I served as control and was administered corn oil (2 ml/kg body wt.) while groups II, III, and IV were administered DBP orally at  the dose rate of 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg respectively for consecutive seven days. Three rats from each group were sacrificed at 24 hrs, 7th day, 14th day and 21st day after initial dosing. There was gradual decrease in WBC count, RBC count, Hb, HCT, MCV, MCH, MCHC, gradual increase in albumin, gradual decrease in total protein, glucose values, gradual decrease in relative weights of the  testes, epididymis, prostate and seminal vesicles as well as increase in liver weight with increase in dose of DBP in group II, III and IV as compared to control group at different intervals of sacrifice. Grossly reductions in the size of testes were observed only in rats that belonged to high dose group IV on 21st day. The plasticizer DBP was found to produce histopathological lesions in male reproductive organs as well as in liver in dose dependent manner after oral administration. The finding suggested that DBP can cause toxicity  lesions in male reproductive organs especially in testes and epididymis at the dose rate of 500 to 2000 mg/kg body weight in wistar rats.

Diet of mud crab S.tranquebarica consists of crustaceans, mollusks, fish remains, detritus, debris and undigested flesh. Quantitative analysis of the gut contents contributed 53.18% crustaceans, 24.69% molluscan remains, 16.91% fish remains and 3.02% & 1.23% of detritus and debris respectively. The study indicated that this species is primarily predators of sessile and slow moving benthic macro invertebrates. The presence of detritus, debris and undigested flesh items in the stomachs suggested that the crabs are detritivorous consuming fresh and decaying flesh of all kinds. The sex wise and size wise of diet in these crabs may be largely due to relative abundance of prey species in the habitat or related to change in cheliped strength and foraging behaviour.

The squat lobster, Munidopsis cylindrophthalma (Alcock, 1894) was recorded for the first time from the Indian main land coast while investigating the biodiversity of the squat lobster of Gulf of Mannar during April, 2013. One specimen of the said species was collected as an incidental by-catch in the deep sea trawl fisheries off Thoothukudi coast of Gulf of Mannar, between 08º 35’ 22.5" N lat. 78º 27’ 40.9" E long and 08º 31’ 91.2" N lat. 78º 25’ 32.7"E long at a depth of 305-310 m. The present records show its extended distribution from Gulf of Mannar to east of Andamans and further to South China Sea. 

This study on the employment and income of fishermen in the nonmechanized fishing craft categories of Pudukkottai District, Tamil Nadu was carried out with the specific objectives of estimation of costs per fishing trip, seasonal employment and identification of the factors determining quantity of fish catch. The sample size was 90 fishermen respondents equally distributed among canoe, vallam and FRP boat operating villages. Descriptive analyses were used to estimate the items of costs and returns, pattern of employment and levels of net income per fishing trip for different fishing seasons. The average annual fishing days of employment was 243, 138 and 136 for canoe, vallam and FRP boat categories, respectively. The overall mean gross income per fishing trip was r. 1843.42, r.2444.77 and r. 2116.97 for canoe, vallam and FRP boat categories, respectively.

The study was conducted to find out polymorphism at various growth hormone (bGH) and growth hormone receptor loci (bGHR) by using PCRRFLP technique. Fifty two blood samples of Mehsana buffalo were collected from Livestock Research Station, Sardarkrushinagar Agricultural University, Gujarat. The DNA samples were subjected to PCR amplification using bGH and bGHR specific primers. The PCR products of GH1 (436 bp), GH2 (891bp), GH3 (441bp) and GHR1 (approx 640 bp) loci were digested with Alu 1, Msp 1, Hae III and Mae II restriction enzymes respectively and only AA, CC, FF and RR genotypes were respectively found in Mehsana buffalo. All the bGH and bGHR loci studied were monomorphic.

The present investigation was carried out on 25,499 weekly test day milk yield records of first lactation pertaining to 593 Sahiwal cows spread over 49 years located at National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India. The comparison of three lactation curve models viz, quadratic model, gamma type function and mixed log function was made in the present investigation. Mixed log function described the best fit with highest coefficient of determination (97.9%) with lowest value of root mean square error (0.025 kg) value. The peak yield of 8.08 kg in 8thweek of lactation was observed by mixed log function. The closeness of the curves of mixed log function and gamma type function with the observed lactation curve was of the same order of magnitude. The least coefficient of determination (77.8%) was observed in quadratic model with maximum root mean square error (0.081 kg). The gamma type function when compared to mixed log function, explained low peak yield and it is recommended that this function can give best fit for the low yielding cows.