The present investigation was carried out to study dairy animal housing practices followed by dairy animal owners in the Anand district of middle Gujarat region. The data were collected from randomly selected 120 dairy animal owners interviewed personally with a well-prepared questionnaire. The study revealed that all the respondents provided housing shelter with the all-time placement of their animals in the house. Majority of respondents (74.17%) constructed animal sheds nearby their own house followed by 25.83% were at a distance from farmer's house. It was found that 64.17% of animal houses were oriented in east-west while 35.83% respondents had houses in a north-south orientation. The respondents provided pucca floor (63.33%) and galvanized iron sheets as a roofing material (49.17%) in their animal sheds, whereas 34.17% farmers had no provision of the wall in their animal sheds. The vast majority of respondents (85.00%) had the provision of good ventilation in their animal sheds and 72.50 % of the respondents had the provision of artificial light in their animal houses. Majority of dairy animal owners (72.50%) kept distance between manure pits and their animal sheds and 66.67 % respondents had provision and practice to protect animals from extreme weather. About 1/5th respondents used a curtain to reduce cold and very few owners (5.00%) provided bedding material to their animals. It was concluded that dairy animal owners of Anand district possess better knowledge regarding animal housing management and follow different practices of scientific animal husbandry.
The present study was conducted to assess the effect of roof on body weight and feed intake of sheared and non-sheared sheep under stall feeding system in the hot dry season. Adult dry indigenous sheep (24) were distributed randomly into two treatment groups, i.e., T1: asbestos roof and T2: agro - net roof. Each treatment comprised of six sheared and six non-sheared animals. Sheep were provided with total mixed ration in morning, afternoon and night individually. The bodyweight of sheared (31.87 ± 2.14, 31.96 ± 1.55 kg) and non-sheared (32.16 ± 1.59, 32.42 ± 1.42 kg) animals was comparable between roof treatments. The experimental animals reared under agro-net roofed shelter consumed significantly (p less than 0.05) more dry matter and nutrients as compared to animals reared under asbestos roofed shelter. Dry matter and nutrient intake of sheared sheep were significantly (p less than 0.05) higher as compared to non-sheared sheep under agronet and asbestos roofed shelter. The results indicated that the sheep can be reared comfortably under agronet roof without affecting feed and nutrient intake.
Small ruminants are an integral part of farming systems in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. These areas are characterized by fluctuating precipitation, water scarcity and unpredictable weather. Irregular rainfall of these areas leads to limited availability of water (Iniguez, 2005). Under water stress conditions, the transfer function of the kidney is altered (Kataria et al., 2007) which consequently increases the levels of urea and creatinine in blood (Igbokwe, 1993 andJaber et al., 2004).Water restriction in warm environment leads to increased haemoglobin level due to haemoconcentration (Li et al., 2000). The study (Casamassima et al., 2008) carried out on water-restricted Comisana sheep revealed a significant increase of some blood metabolites like sodium, creatinine, urea and potassium. In this attempt, the present work was undertaken to investigate the selected
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