The diseases in poultry cause huge losses in the form of mortality in acute infections or as substandard performance due to chronic illness. Biosecurity and vaccination are considered as two important primary strategies for disease prevention in poultry. On the other hand, breeding for disease resistance is an alternate strategy to combat the damages of diseases. Although, attempts were initiated to develop disease resistant poultry by breeding almost a century before, this branch of science renewed the interest among scientists because of catastrophic emerging and reemerging diseases like Avian influenza. It has proven over a period of time that poultry  exhibits genetic resistance to viral diseases like avian leukosis complex, Marek’s disease, avian influenza and Newcastle disease, bacterial disease like salmonellosis and may parasitic infestations. The key genes responsible for resistance to specific diseases have also been demonstrated. The breeding attempts for developing disease resistant poultry has yielded positive results with varying degree of success. The advent of sophisticated molecular methods like genomic selection using highdensity SNP chips, RNA-seq technique and identification of key marker genes and transgenesis could complement the conventional breeding methods to a larger extent in developing disease resistant poultry.

An attempt was made to document the management practices of the backyard goat production in Cauvery Delta zone of Tamil Nadu. The primary data were collected by interviewing 180 backyard goat farmers selected by multi-stage random sampling using pre-tested interview schedule and analyzed through descriptive statistics. About 46.11 per cent of the respondents kept their animals under open system of housing and floor of the goat shed was mud type in 96.67 per cent of the sampled farmers. All the farmers stored manure in an open place. Majority of goat farmers raise their goats solely on browsing and grazing stubble of field crops, natural pasture and tree leaves. Majority of farmers did not possess their own breeding buck but they use community buck for breeding purpose. Middlemen (57.22 per cent) played a major role in marketing of goat in all categories of flocks, followed by butcher (36.11 per cent). Only one-fifth of flock owners dewormed their flocks yearly twice. None of the sample respondents vaccinated their goat against infectious diseases. Goats were marketed round the year (87.78 per cent) and about 12 per cent marketed their goats on special occasions. The major reasons for marketing was found to be the want of money to overcome financial problem (61.07 mean score) in case of bucks / male kids and culling due to old age (66.00 mean score) in case of breeding does. Majority of the sample backyard goat farmers did not follow scientific  management practices at their farm level, which warrants intensive extension programmes. Implementation of best management practices among backyard goat farmers in Cauvery Delta zone of Tamil Nadu would improve the profitability.