Aim:The present study was conducted to ascertain the prevalence of ketosis in dairy cows in dairy herds, milksheds, and mixed population of milk cows selected randomly in milkshed areas of Odisha state, India.Materials and Methods:The investigation was conducted in 280 private dairy herds with variable herd size of 10-15 cows comprising crossbred Jersey cows (CBJ), crossbred Holstein Friesian (CHF) cows, and indigenous local breeds. The analysis of urine (Rothera’s test), milk (Ross test), and blood samples of 2760 test cows were conducted through qualitative assessment by Rothera’s test and Ross test, respectively, for the presence of ketone bodies to screen the ketotic animals. Cut-points have been decided based on β-hydroxybutyric acid level (≥1.2-1.4 mmol/L) in milk.Results:We noted positive cases of ketosis with a prevalence rate of 36.7% (1014/2760) entailing 27.2% in clinical ketosis and 9.6% in subclinical ketosis. The breed wise incident rate was recorded to be the highest (38.0%) in CBJs. The age-wise prevalence rate was found to be the highest (40.8%) in the age group of 5.5-6.5 years. The season wise prevalence rate in 5th calver was recorded to be the highest (38.6%) in summer season as compared to other seasons. The prevalence of ketosis was observed to be the highest at 56.7% on the first stage of lactation at the 1st month after 2 weeks. The incidence rates for clinical and subclinical ketosis were found to be 25.2%; 12.2%, 26.6%; 11.2% and 30.3%; 2.9% in CBJ, CHF and indigenous cows, respectively. The breed wise overall prevalence rate was recorded to be 38.0% in CBJ, 37.8% in CHF, and 33.2% in indigenous cows.Conclusion:Ketosis and subclinical ketosis is highly prevalent metabolic disorder and has severe effect on the production status of affected animal and needs to be prevented, rather than treated, by maintaining cows in good and healthy conditions. We have attempted to give great attention for diagnosis, management, and control of this disease during risk stage to prevent economic loss sustained by the dairy farmers of Eastern India.

Aim:The present study was conducted to investigate the important climatic variables affecting production and reproduction in a broiler breeder flock.Materials and Methods:The experiment was conducted for a period of 1 year on colored synthetic female line male and female poultry birds. 630 female progeny and 194 male progenies from 69 sires and 552 dams produced in four consecutive hatches at an interval of 10 days were used for the present study. Each of the seven, body weight and reproduction traits were regressed with nine environmental variables. Initially, the data were subjected to hatch effect and sire effect corrections through best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) method and, then, multiple linear regressions of environmental variables on each trait were applied.Result:The overall regression was significant (p<0.01) in all traits except 20 week age body weight of females. The R2 value ranged from 0.12 to 0.90 for the traits. Regression coefficient values (b values) for maximum temperature and minimum temperature were significant (p<0.05) on 5th week age body weight of males. Similarly, evaporation and morning relative humidity (RH) was significant (p<0.05) for 5th week age body weight of females. Almost all b values were significant (p<0.05) for egg production up to 40 week age. The b values representing rainfall, morning RH, afternoon RH, sunshine hours, and rainy days were significant (p<0.05) on bodyweight at 20 week age. All environmental variables except maximum temperature and minimum temperature were significant (p<0.05) on body weight of females at 20 weeks of age. Age at sexual maturity was regressed significantly (p<0.05) with evaporation, afternoon RH whereas, egg shape index was regressed significantly (p<0.05) with a maximum temperature, evaporation and afternoon RH.Conclusion:The result indicated that various environmental variables play a significant role in production and reproduction of breeder broiler poultry. Controlling these variables in adverse weathers may increase production.

The aim was to evaluate and compare the clinico-physiological, hemodynamic and hematobiochemical effects in response to different total intravenous anaesthesia techniques using xylazine or dexmedetomidine with propofol in canine patients. Materials and Methods:Under a prospective randomized blinded clinical study, 12 apparently healthy adult dogs (14.27±3.2 kg) divided into two groups (n=6). Animals were administered with xylazine (0.5 mg/kg body weight IV) in X group or, dexmedetomidine (10 μg/kg body weight IV) in D group and propofol (as IV bolus till the induction and continuous IV infusion for maintenance). Clinical reflexes, physiological, hemodynamic parameters, were recorded at 5-min intervals. Blood was collected at zero, 30 and 60 min after initial injection for hematobiochemical evaluation. Statistical analysis was performed using analysis of variance, Duncan's multiple range tests, paired -t-test and Kruskal-Wallis one-way test.Results: Animals showed quicker attenuation of all clinical reflexes in group D. Induction doses of propofol were 3.17±0.21 and 2.72±0.15 mg/kg and rate of infusion of propofol for maintenance of anaesthesia were 0.33±0.02 mg/kg/min and 0.35±0.02 mg/kg/min respectively in group X and D. Recovery was quicker in group D. There were no significant statistical differences in physiological, hemodynamic and hematobiochemical parameters in both the groups. There were no adverse effects after recovery. Conclusion:Both anesthetic protocols provided satisfactory immobilization, but dexmedetomidine-propofol combination may be preferred owing to slightly better degree of basal anaesthesia, lesser doses of propofol required for induction and maintenance of anaesthesia along with a lesser degree of respiratory depression. However, there was no clear preference for either of the protocol, and both appear suitable for canines.

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The mechanisms of relaxation to nitric oxide (NO)-independent soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) activator BAY 41-2272 [5-cyclopropyl-2-[1-(2-fluoro-benzyl)-1H-pyrazolo [3,4-b]pyridine-3-yl]pyrimidin-4-ylamine] were investigated in isolated ovine pulmonary artery. BAY 41-2272 (1 nM-10 M) produced concentration-dependent relaxation of endothelium-denuded pulmonary artery rings (pD 2 ϭ 6.82 Ϯ 0.16; E max ϭ 92.30 Ϯ 2.31%; n ϭ 8), precontracted with 1 M 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin). 1-H-[1,2,4]Oxadiazole[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ; 10 M), an inhibitor of sGC, partially inhibited (E max ϭ 57.10 Ϯ 3.10%; n ϭ 6) the relaxation response of BAY 41-2272. In comparison with ODQ, sodium pump inhibitor ouabain (1 M) produced a greater decrease in the vasodilator response of BAY 41-2272 (E max ϭ 20.17 Ϯ 4.55%; n ϭ 6). K ϩ -free solution also attenuated (E max ϭ 39.97 Ϯ 3.52%; n ϭ 6) BAY 41-2272-induced relaxation. ODQ (10 M) plus 1 M ouabain abolished the relaxant response of BAY 41-2272 (E max ϭ 12.09 Ϯ 3.76%, n ϭ 6 versus vehicle control dimethyl sulfoxide; E max ϭ 15.83 Ϯ 1.72%, n ϭ 6). 2,2Ј,pyrrolo [3,4-I] [1,6]benzodiazocine-10-carboxylic acid methyl ester (2 M), a specific inhibitor of protein kinase G had no effect on 10 M ODQ-insensitive relaxation evoked by BAY 41-2272. BAY 41-2272 (10 M) inhibited Ca 2ϩ -induced contractions in K ϩ -depolarized preparations. BAY 41-2272 (10 M) caused about a 14-fold increase in the intracellular cGMP over the basal level, which was completely inhibited by 10 M ODQ. BAY 41-2272 (0.1, 1.0, and 10 M) significantly (P Ͻ 0.05) increased ouabain-sensitive 86 Rb uptake in a concentration-dependent manner. BAY 41-2272 (10 M) also stimulated sarcolemmal Na ϩ -K ϩ -ATPase activity. However, 10 M ODQ had no significant effect on either basal or BAY 41-2272-stimulated 86 Rb uptake/Na ϩ -K ϩ -ATPase activities. In conclusion, this study provides the first evidence of sodium pump stimulation by BAY 41-2272 independent of cGMP as an additional mechanism to sGC activation in relaxation of ovine pulmonary artery.Endogenous nitric oxide (NO), derived from vascular endothelium is an important regulator of vascular functions. Thus, endothelial dysfunction is associated with several vascular disorders, such as atherosclerosis, systemic and pulmonary hypertension, and angina pectoris (Ignarro et al., 1999). Nitrovasodilators have been clinically used for the therapeutic management of NO deficiency-related conditions, such as angina pectoris and pulmonary hypertension (Sperling and Creager, 1999). However, there are certain disadvantages with NO donor-based therapy, which include development of tolerance after prolonged use (Parker, 1989), peroxinitrite formation that may lead to protein S-nitrosylation (Stamler, 1994), tyrosine nitration (Beckman et al., 1994), and the absence of clinically significant antiplatelet activity as with organic nitrates (Parker, 1989). Therefore, there has been search in the recent past for NO-independent sGC activators that could be used clinically for the treatment ...