Necropsy of gastrointestinal tract of 125 freerange chickens from a subtropical and humid zone of northwestern India revealed four nematode spp. (Ascaridia galli, Heterakis gallinarum, Capillaria spp. and Cheilospirura hamulosa) and four cestode spp. (Raillietina cesticillus, Raillietina echinobothrida, Raillietina tetragona and Amoebotaenia cuneata) The overall prevalence of the helminth parasites was 72.0%. Amongst various helminth species encountered in the region, A. galli emerged out as the most prevalent, followed by H. gallinarum, R. cesticillus and R. echinobothrida. The impact of helminthic infections on body weight gain in growing chickens was investigated. One hundred growing chickens, aged 40 days were randomly assigned to two groups (treated and untreated controls) of 50 birds each. The birds in treated group were given fenbendazole at 7.5 mg per kg body weight in drinking water, while the birds in other group served as untreated controls. At the end of the 90 days of the field trial, the mean body weight gain of untreated controls was 1232.2 ± 7.28 g (13.7 g/day) compared with 1617.6 ± 5.43 g (18.0 g/day) in the treated group. It was associated with a significantly (P \ 0.05) higher mean worm burden (32.92 ± 6.12) in untreated controls than the treated group (2.46 ± 1.14). The prevalences of helminthic species and their impact on body weight gain in growing backyard chickens have been discussed.

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1. The effects of selenium and vitamin E supplementation on some immune parameters were investigated in broilers. 2. Broiler chicks were fed on maize-soybean diets with different concentrations of vitamin E (0-200 mg/kg) and selenium (0-0.2 mg/kg diet) either alone or in combinations from 1 to 42 d of age. 3. Chicks were immunised against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vaccine at 21 d of age and haemagglutination inhibition (HI) titres were determined after 10 d. 4. Chicks receiving supplements of 200 mg vitamin E/kg and 0.2 mg selenium/kg produced significantly higher HI antibody titres. This was associated with an increased serum concentration of total immunoglobulins and circulatory immune complexes. 5. The chicks given 200 mg vitamin E/kg and 0.2 mg selenium/kg had significantly heavier spleen and bursa. 6. These results suggested that vitamin E and selenium have synergistic effects on immune responses.

The nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) contribute to multidrug resistance (MDR) in tumor chemotherapy. The essential phenomenon of oncogenic activation of NF-κB in cancer-initiating cells showing MDR resulting from increased IL-6 expression is still unclear. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been the objective of intensive study. The aim of this study was to investigate the selective and potential efficacy of BRM270 against stem-like cancer-initiating cells (SLCICs) via the molecular mechanisms of its anticancer effects. Co-regulation of NF-κB and Cdk6 might be new arena to mitigate tumorigenesis. In the present study phyto-drug based approach provides a new avenue in understanding the amelioration and regulatory mechanisms in CSCs. In the present study, an in vivo tumor metastasis model of osteosarcoma was established by injecting Cal72 and SaOS-2 SLCICs into the right lower flank of nude mice. Later the development of tumor was analyzed by LICOR Biosciences (Pearl image analyzer). Significant suppression of activation of NF-κB and LPS-induced gene expression and apoptosis by BRM270 was confirmed by FACS, western blotting and qPCR. Further, both p65 and Cdk6 were significantly (P<0.05) overexpressed in BRM270 non-treated Cal72 SLCICs compared to treated group. BRM270 directly dephosphorylated RelA and selectively inhibited NF-κB transcriptional activity, resulting in decreased expression of interleukin-6, a cytokine implicated in cancer metastasis. BRM270-mediated cell shrinkage, pyknosis, karyorrhexis and programmed cell death (PCD) were observed by Hoechst 33342 staining while flow cytometry analysis showed significant (P<0.05) decrease in cell population from G0-G1 phases. These findings suggest that activation of the oncogenic Cdk6-NF-κB pathway, resulting from increased IL-6 expression, plays a central role in CD133 expressing SLCICs augmented MDR and neoplasia. This study proposes targeting of NF-κB, and Cdk6 with IL-6 as potential targets for PCD and treatment of chemotherapeutic resistance of CSCs to design novel therapies for their elimination.

Aim: The present study was conducted to assess the awareness, knowledge, and risks of zoonotic diseases among livestock farmers in Punjab.Materials and Methods: 250 livestock farmers were selected randomly and interviewed with a pretested questionnaire, which contained both open and close ended questions on different aspects of zoonotic diseases, i.e., awareness, knowledge, risks, etc. Knowledge scorecard was developed, and each correct answer was awarded one mark, and each incorrect answer was given zero mark. Respondents were categorized into low (mean − ½ standard deviation [SD]), moderate (mean ± ½ SD), and high knowledge (Mean + ½ SD) category based on the mean and SD. The information about independent variables viz., age, education, and herd size were collected with the help of structured schedule and scales. The data were analyzed by ANOVA, and results were prepared to assess awareness, knowledge, and risks of zoonotic diseases and its relation with independent variables.Results: Majority of the respondents had age up to 40 years (70%), had their qualification from primary to higher secondary level (77.6%), and had their herd size up to 10 animals (79.6%). About 51.2% and 54.0% respondents had the history of abortion and retained placenta, respectively, at their farms. The respondents not only disposed off the infected placenta (35.6%), aborted fetus (39.6%), or feces (56.4%) from a diarrheic animal but also gave intrauterine medication (23.2%) bare-handedly. About 3.6-69.6% respondents consumed uncooked or unpasteurized animal products. About 84.8%, 46.0%, 32.8%, 4.61%, and 92.4% of livestock farmers were aware of zoonotic nature of rabies, brucellosis, tuberculosis, anthrax, and bird flu, respectively. The 55.6%, 67.2%, 52.0%, 64.0%, and 51.2% respondents were aware of the transmission of zoonotic diseases to human being through contaminated milk, meat, air, feed, or through contact with infected animals, respectively. The transmission of rabies through dog bite (98.4%), need of post-exposure vaccination (96.8%), and annual vaccination of dogs (78%) were well-known facts but only 47.2% livestock owners were aware of the occurrence of abortion due to brucellosis and availability of prophylactic vaccine (67.6%) against it as a preventive measure. About 69.2% respondents belonged to low to medium knowledge level categories, whereas 30.8% respondents had high knowledge (p<0.05) regarding different aspects of zoonotic diseases. Age, education, and herd size had no significant effect on the knowledge level and awareness of farmers toward zoonotic diseases. Conclusion:Therefore, from the present study, it may be concluded that there is a need to create awareness and improve knowledge of livestock farmers toward zoonotic diseases for its effective containment in Punjab.

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Pork is a major source of animal protein for humans. The subcutaneous, intermuscular and the intramuscular fat are the factors responsible for meat quality. RNA-seq is rapidly adopted for the profiling of the transcriptomes in the studies related to gene regulation. The discovery of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between adult animals of Jeju Native Pig (JNP) and Berkshire breeds are of particular interest for the current study. RNA-seq was used to investigate the transcriptome profiling in the fat tissue. Sequence reads were obtained from Ilumina HiSeq2000 and mapped to the pig genome using Tophat2. Total 153 DEGs were identified and 71 among the annotated genes, have BLAST matches in the non- redundant database. Metabolic, immune response and protein binding are enriched pathways in the fat tissue. In our study, biological adhesion, cellular, developmental and multicellular organismal processes in fat were up-regulated in JNP as compare to Berkshire. Multicellular organismal process, developmental process, embryonic morphogenesis and skeletal system development were the most significantly enriched terms in fat of JNP and Berkshire breeds (p = 1.17E-04, 0.044, 3.47E-04 and 4.48E-04 respectively). COL10A1, COL11A2, PDK4 and PNPLA3 genes responsible for skeletal system morphogenesis and body growth were down regulated in JNP. This study is the first statistical analysis for the detection of DEGs from RNA-seq data generated from fat tissue sample. This analysis can be used as stepping stone to understand the difference in the genetic mechanisms that might influence the identification of novel transcripts, sequence polymorphisms, isoforms and noncoding RNAs.

Tumor initiating cancer stem-like cells (TICSCs) have recently become the object of intensive study. Human-Lipocalin-2 (hLCN2) acts as a biomarker for cancers. The aim of the present study was to explore new insights regarding the potential role of LCN2 in inducing epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) by transfecting LCN2 into CD133+-A549-TICSCs and its cross-talk with the NF-κB signaling pathway in adenocarcinoma of the lung. Furthermore, EMT was confirmed by transcriptomic analysis, immunoblotting and immunocyto/histochemical analyses. Tumorigenesis and metastasis were confirmed by molecular therapeutics tracer 2DG infrared optical probe in BALB/cSIc-nude mice. It was observed that the CD133+-expressing-LCN2-A549 TICSCs population increased in adenocarcinoma of the lung compared to the normal lung tissue. The expressions of genes involved in stemness, adhesion, motility and drug efflux was higher in these cells than in their non-LCN2 expressing counterparts. The present study revealed that elevated expression of LCN2 significantly induced metastasis via EMT. Overexpression of LCN2 significantly increased stemness and tumor metastasis by modulating NF-κB cellular signaling. BRM270, a novel inhibitor of NF-κB plays a significant role in the EMT reversal. BRM270, a naturaceutical induces cell shrinkage, karyorrhexis and programmed cell death (PCD) which were observed by Hoechst 33342 staining while flow cytometry analysis showed significant (P<0.05) decrease in cell population from G0–G1 phases. Also, 2DG guided in vivo model revealed that BRRM270 significantly (P<0.0003) reduced tumor metastasis and increased percent survival in real-time with complete resection. An elaborate study on the novel concept with respect to linking of naturaceutics as selective and potential anticancer agent that eliminates the elevated LCN2 induced EMT and tumor dissemination through cooperation with the NF-κB signaling as the baseline data for the planning of new therapeutic strategies was conducted for the first time. Our results also illustrate a molecular mechanistic approach for 2DG-guided molecular imaging-based cancer therapy using BRM270 as a novel cancer therapeutic drug to enhance the effect of doxorubicin (Dox)-resistant LCN2 induced metastasis of solid tumors in nude mice.