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During the years 2010–2018, avipoxvirus (APV) outbreaks were observed in the domestic chickens and pigeons present in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. Based on typical pox lesions, followed by molecular techniques, the overall morbidity was found to be 18%–19.23% and 16.92%–23% in chickens and pigeons, respectively. The cutaneous forms of the disease were observed with varied rates of mortality, being 47.36%–52.77% in chickens and 39.13%–92% in pigeons. PCR amplification targeting the viral P4b core protein‐coding gene and the DNA polymerase gene confirmed the presence of APV strains in 10 birds. Subsequent phylogenetic analysis of these two genes confirmed that the circulating strains were members of APV clade A. The subclade analysis revealed the introduction of A1 and A3 subclades in Indian chickens and pigeons, respectively. This study is the first molecular record of APVs circulating in eastern Indian birds (Odisha) and involves the first use of the polymerase gene to reveal the circulating clades of Indian APVs.

Aim:The objective of this study was to examine the carrier status of theileriosis among apparently healthy cross-bred jersey cattle population of Odisha using conventional blood smear examination and polymerase chain reaction (PCR).Materials and Methods:A total of 34 apparently healthy cross-bred Jersey lactating cows were considered in this study. Blood samples were subjected to microscopic examination after staining with Giemsa stain and PCR based molecular diagnosis using two sets of primer, i.e., N516/N517 and TorF1/TorF2 specific for Theileria annulata and Theileria orientalis, respectively.Results:Examination of blood samples revealed presence of theileria parasites to a magnitude of 20.59% for T. annulata, 8.82% for T. orientalis, and 2.94% for both.Conclusion:Molecular diagnosis was found to be much more sensitive than conventional method for diagnosis of theileriosis. T. annulata was found to be the predominant species affecting the exotic cattle. T. orientalis was detected in apparently healthy cows.

Rice is the most essential source of calories for humans among the cereals and over half of the world's population is fed on rice. As part of a complete food systems approach, biofortification is an effective technique for nutrition enrichment which refers to the development of micronutrient-rich diet by utilising traditional breeding practises and sophisticated biotechnological tools. To enhance the profile of rice grain for biofortification-related properties, researchers must first understand the genetics of critical biofortification characteristics. Significant increases in micronutrients like iron and zinc, as well as many other important minerals and provitamins are acquired in rice grain using the biofortification strategies. Most indica and japonica rice types have been biofortified over the world, giving them the titles of high iron rice, low phytate rice, high zinc rice, and high carotenoid rice or golden rice. Some of the recent approaches towards rice biofortification, as well as their effects, have been explored in this article.

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The study of gene action and combining ability have been conducted in 28 F1 cross combinations along with eight parents in 8x8 half-diallel scheme following Griffing’s Approach for 14 morphoeconomic traits including seed yield and oil content in sesame. The general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) component of variation were significant for parents and crosses respectively for all characters except internode length for GCA indicating role of both additive and nonadditive gene action. However, higher proportion of SCA variance (?2 sca) than GCA variance (?2 gca) revealed preponderance of non-additive gene action for all characters except capsule length and capsule width under study. Further, variance due to dominance played a significant role than additive variance in all traits except capsule width and 100-seed weight. Nirmala is considered as the best general combiner owing to its higher estimate of gca effects for yield per plant, for days to maturity, plant height, branches per plant, capsules per plant, seeds per capsule, capsule length and 100-seed weight. Among cross combinations; Rama × GT-10, AT-382 × Krishna, AT-382 × Nirmala, Krishna × Nirmala, Krishna × Uma, Nirmala × Prachi and Prachi × Uma showed significantly higher sca effect for seed yield per plant in the desired direction indicating their merit for recovery of transgressive segregants for higher productivity following reciprocal recurrent selection.