Effects of environmental enrichment on behavioural changes were studied in five captive sloth bears kept in confined enclosure at Zoological Park, Chennai, India. Behavioural categories like active, passive, and abnormal behaviours were taken for the study. The activity budget was recorded as a single animal scan. The detailed baseline data of 150 hours, over a period of 30 days, were collected. At baseline, bears exhibited passive and more abnormal behaviours. Similarly, after application of the environmental tools like honey-log, underground food pipes, and wobbling box in the enclosure, the data were collected for 150 hours (30 days). Increased active behaviours and decreased abnormal behaviours were observed and showed highly significant changes in the abnormal behaviour as a whole when compared to the baseline level. During the postenrichment period, the data that were collected for 150 hours (30 days) showed no significant differences statistically between the behavioural categories. But certain level of difference was evident from the percentage of abnormal behaviours exhibited by individual bears. Among the enrichment devices, honey-log was the most preferred enrichment tool as revealed by the percentage of time spent by individual animal. The results show that application of enrichment tool continuously may bring long term effect in stereotypic behaviour.

A study was carried out to determine the prevalence of haemoparasites in cattle in Cauvery delta region over a period of one year. A total of 228 giemsa stained blood smears were screened for the presence of haemoprotozoa, out of which 34 animals were found to be positive. An overall prevalence of haemoparasites in the sampled cattle were 14.9%, among this Anaplasma sp (8.3%), Babesia sp (3.95%), Theileria sp (2.19%) and Trypanosoma sp (0.44%) as single or mixed blood parasitic infections. In this study Anaplasmosis (14%) was highly prevalent during the winter season and Babesiosis (13.73%) was highly prevalent during summer months followed by Anaplasmosis (9.8%) and Theileriosis (7.8%), the lowest prevalence of Trypanosomiasis was observed during the rainy season. The seasonal variation in prevalence of haemoprotozoan disease might be due to influence of climatic factors on density of vector population in that geographical area. Haemogram revealed decreased level of haemoglobulin, packed cell volume and total erythrocyte count. The serum biochemistry revealed elevated level of liver enzyme Asparate transaminase enzyme. All haemoparasitaemic animals were treated with specific drugs and recovered successfully.

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The study was carried out in the herd of mithun maintained at Jharnapani farm, NRC on Mithun, Nagaland. In total 64 (n=64) mithun of which, are divided in to four groups such as heifer (4), oestrus cows (4), pregnant cows (4) and non pregnant cows (4) for four strains namely Arunachalee (16), Mizoram ( 16), Nagaland ( 16) and Manipur ( 16) based on per rectal examination and farm records and were clinically normal. The blood samples were examined for the biochemical and heamatological profiles. Significant (p<0.05) difference was observed in ESR (mm/Hr) in pregnant and non pregnant stage between the different strains of mithun and also significant (p<0.05) difference was observed between the different stages of reproduction in Mizoram and Manipur strains. Results of bio-chemical parameters revealed that glucose concentration was showed a significant (p<0.05) different between the different strains in non pregnant stage of mithun. Other biochemical and haematological parameters were not significant different between the strains and between the different stages of reproduction.

The present study was conducted to define the physiological responses of captive sloth bears immobilized with ketamine hydrochloride and xylazine hydrochloride and to determine and compare the values of hematology and serum biochemical parameters between sexes. A total of 15 sloth bears were immobilized using combination of ketamine hydrochloride and xylazine hydrochloride drugs at the dose rate of 5.0 milligram (mg) per kg body weight and 2.0 mg per kg body weight, respectively. The use of combination of these drugs was found satisfactory for the chemical immobilization of captive sloth bears. There were no significant differences observed in induction time and recovery time and physiological parameters such as heart rate, respiratory rate, and rectal temperature between sexes. Health related parameters comprising hematological values like packed cell volume (PCV), hemoglobin (Hb), red blood cell count (RBC), erythrocyte indices, and so forth and biochemical values like total protein, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, alkaline amino-transferase (ALT), aspartate amino-transferase (AST), and so forth were estimated in 11 (5 males and 6 females) apparently healthy bears. Comparison between sexes revealed significant difference in PCV (P < 0.05) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) (P < 0.05). The study might help to evaluate health profiles of sloth bears for appropriate line treatment.

This research correlates the effect of climatic factors on bluetongue epidemiology in sheep of delta districts in Tamilnadu based on merteriological data collected from 2014 to 2016. There were a total of eighty two villages of delta districts were affected with Blue tongue virus (BTV). We used multiple linear regression analysis to assess the effect of climatic factors on the prevalence of bluetongue. Our results showed that maximum temperature, rain fall and relative humidity positively correlates with the number of BTV epidemic in sheep flocks. These findings suggest that the risk of BTV infections in sheep increased in warm and humid environments. Moreover, climatic factors can be used to forecast the possible epidemic in this area and other regions characterized by similar climatic conditions.

Data on Production diseases assessment in Indian dairy cattle is less. The objective of this study was to assess the Non-esterified fatty acids level in three different small holder farms of Cauvery Delta region of Tamilnadu. Sixty cross bred dairy cattle were selected at different levels of lactation in the three farms. Serum samples were analyzed for non esterified fatty acids (NEFA). Mean ± standard deviations of the values were arrived and the data were statistically analyzed. NEFA values of early, mid, late lactation, Far off dry and close up dry cows were 0.39±0.09, 0.24±0.03, 0.19±0.03, 0.18±0.03 and 0.23±0.03mmol/L, respectively. No significant variations were recorded in between the farms. Cows at early lactation had higher NEFA concentrations where as lowest concentrations was observed in Far off Dry cows.