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Ankamali pig is a domesticated native variety of Kerala which is well known for its disease resistance, lean meat and adaptability to hot tropical environments. Recent breakthrough in genome sequencing technologies have created unparalleled prospects to characterize individual genomic landscapes and identifying mutations between and within populations. The current study aims to determine the genetic variations in Ankamali pigs using whole genome sequencing. The GATK HaplotypeCaller was used to identify the variants. There were over 26 million (26,604,589) single nucleotide variants (SNVs), including more than 21 million SNPs and over 5 million indels. In Ankamali pigs, the total genome length obtained was more than 2.5 billion with an average variant rate of one variant in every 94 bases. The significance of different variant rate on 18 chromosomes were analysed using the chi-square statistics. The variant rates in Sus scrofa chromosomes10 and 13 were significantly different (p

An experiment was carried out on Large White Yorkshire sows for a duration of 63 days at the Centre of Pig Production and Research, Mannuthy to elucidate the impact of higher feed energy levels through corn oil supplementation. Eighteen Large White Yorkshire pregnant sows were selected three weeks before the anticipated date of parturition and were divided into three uniform groups of six each and were allocated the treatments, T1{(Control ration (18% CP and 3280 kcal/kg ME as per ICAR, 2013)},T2{(Control ration +1 % Corn oil (w/w) (18 % CP and 3365 kcal ME/ kg feed)} and T3 {(Control ration + 2 % Corn oil (w/w) (18% CP and 3450 kcal ME/kg feed)}. The dry matter intake of the sows of the three groups was similar (p>0.05). At 42 days of lactation, the lactational loss in body weight of sows was statistically similar (p>0.05).

Postpartum infertility due to negative energy balance is a major problem among the high producing cows, incurring a huge economic loss. The present study was aimed to evaluate the effect of supplementation of bypass fat on the reproduction and production parameters of high yielding crossbred cows with or without postpartum hormonal induction of oestrus. The trial was conducted with four experimental groups of six cows each (GI – control, GII- 200 g bypass fat, GIII – 200 g bypass fat daily + Ovsynch protocol, GIV – Ovsynch protocol alone). The animals in GII and GIII were observed to be superior in milk production parameters viz. peak yield (P

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of dietary supplementation of lecithin on growth performance in Large White Yorkshire piglets fed high fat diet. Thirty two weaned piglets were randomly divided into three groups allotted to the three dietary treatments, T1- control ration (NRC, 1998), T2- control ration plus 5 per cent fat and T3- T2 plus 0.5 per cent lecithin. The total dry matter intake, fortnightly body weight of each individual animal were recorded. There was a significant improvement observed for pigs under supplemented group (T2 and T3) than that of control group (T1) with regards to all growth parameters studied such as total dry matter intake, total weight gain, average daily gain and feed conversion efficiency during the growing period

A study was undertaken to invstigate presence of HCH and DDT residues in bovine blood samples of Enmakaje panchayat o fKasargod district. Retrospective analysis of case sheets for last three years at the local veterinary dispensary was also carried out Whole blood samples were collected from 20 randomly selected cows for pesticide residue and haematological analysis. Collected samples were processed by various clean up procedures and analysed using Gas Chromatography for HCH and DDT residues. Residues of DDE and DDT were below detection limit (BDL) in all the analysed serum samples. The haematological values of cattle from study area remained within the normal range except differential leucocyte count which exhibited marked lymphocytopenia. In the present study, the level of pesticide residues in the serum samples in the study area was not enough to produce any visible health hazards in cattle.

An investigation on the feasibility and economics of feeding certain unconventional feed stuffs available in Kerala was carried out in desi pigs. The results indicated that cost of production in pigs can be considerably reduced by feeding the unconventional feed stuffs studied. The study also throws light into the possibility of developing a complete pig ration by utilising various unconventional feed stuffs available in Kerala.