Dermatophytosis is a disease of global significance caused by pathogenic keratinolytic fungi called dermatophytes in both animals and humans. The recent taxonomy of dermatophytes classifies them into six pathogenic genera, namely Microsporum, Trichophyton, Epidermophyton, Nannizzia, Lophophyton and Arthroderma. It is because of the delayed diagnostic nature and low accuracy of dermatophyte detection by conventional methods that paved the path for the evolution of molecular diagnostic techniques, which provide the accurate and rapid diagnosis of dermatophytosis for an appropriate, timely antifungal therapy that prevents the nonspecific over‐the‐counter self‐medication. This review focuses on the importance of rapid and accurate diagnosis of dermatophytosis, limitations of conventional methods, selection of targets in diagnosis, and factors affecting sensitivity and specificity of various molecular diagnostic technologies in the diagnosis of dermatophytosis. Generally, all the molecular techniques have a significant edge over the conventional methods of culture and microscopy in the dermatophytosis diagnosis. However, in mycology laboratory, the suitability of any molecular diagnostic technique in the diagnosis of dermatophytosis is driven by the requirement of time, economy, complexity, the range of species spectrum detected and the scale of diagnostic output required. Thus, various choices involved in the pursuit of a diagnosis of dermatophytosis are determined by the available conditions and the facilities in the laboratory.

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The outbreak of COVID‐19 as a pandemic has shaken the global health system and economy by their roots. This epidemic is still spreading and showing no signs of decreasing trend. Vaccination could be the only effective and economical means to control this pandemic. A number of research institutions and pharmaceutical companies have plunged into the race of vaccine development against COVID‐19 which are in various stages of development. An intriguing fact of coronavirus infections is that in every decade of 21 st century there is a new major coronavirus epidemic viz . SARS in 2002, MERS in 2012, and now COVID‐19; and such epidemics are expected in future too. Since, maximum biological characteristics of SARS‐CoV‐2 are still obscure, the scientists are relying on the information available on SARS‐CoV and to some extent on MERS‐CoV for designing and development of COVID‐19 vaccines. But there is a need of vigorous testing for immunogenicity, safety, efficacy, and level of protection conferred in the hosts. This review focuses on the challenges and prospects of vaccine development against COVID‐19. It highlights seriousness, bottlenecks in vaccine development, possible vaccine candidates, different vaccine strategies, safety evaluation issues, and vaccine production process pertaining to COVID‐19 based on the knowledge acquired on SARS and MERS vaccine development in the past.

The present study investigated the effects of Lactobacillus acidophilus (LBA) and mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS) supplementation on the production performance, serum biochemistry, antioxidant profile, health indices, meat quality, and lipid oxidative stability of broiler chicken. A total of 252 commercial broiler chickens at 1 d old of uniform body weight were randomly allocated to 6 maize-soybean-based dietary treatments: T 1 (control diet), T 2 ( antibiotic bacitracin methylene di-salicylate [BMD] at 20 mg/kg diet), T 3 (MOS at 0.1% + LBA at 10 6 CFU/g feed), T 4 (MOS at 0.1% + LBA at 10 7 CFU/g feed), T 5 (MOS at 0.2% + LBA at 10 6 CFU/g feed), and T 6 (MOS at 0.2% + LBA at 10 7 CFU/g feed). Each treatment was assigned to 6 replicates of 7 birds. The samples for meat quality and serum biochemistry analysis were taken from 12 birds per treatment (2 birds/replicate). The results revealed better ( P < 0.01) growth performance and production efficiency of birds fed either T 5 or T 6 diet compared to control or BMD supplemented diet and BMD-supplemented birds superseded the control birds. Higher ( P < 0.01) serum and liver antioxidant enzyme activities, meat antioxidant capacity (2, 2-azinobis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid [ABTS] and 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl [DPPH] assays], serum total protein, high-density lipoproteins (HDL) cholesterol ( P < 0.05), and globulin levels ( P < 0.01) were observed in birds fed either T 5 or T 6 diet compared to control or BMD supplemented birds, whereas, lower lipid oxidation ( P < 0.01), cardiac risk ratio, atherogenic coefficient, atherogenic index of plasma, serum glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol levels ( P < 0.01), and serum albumin-to-globulin ratio ( P < 0.05) were observed in the chickens. The pH of meat from birds fed T 4 , T 5 or T 6 diet was lower ( P < 0.01) compared to control and other treatments. The extract release volume (ERV), water holding capacity (WHC), and protein content of meat were higher ( P < 0.05) in birds fed either T 5 or T 6 diet compared to control or BMD supplemented birds. Thus, it was concluded that the supplementation of 0.2% MOS along with LBA at 10 6 CFU/g is optimum for better growth performance, serum biochemistry, antioxidant profile, health indices, meat quality, and lipid oxidative stability of broiler chickens.

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