African swine fever: Forgotten contagion
Viruses, it seems, are at war with life forms. While the world is struggling with the novel coronavirus, another one has been killing pigs, …
Cockpit
In early December 2007, the country prided itself on providing the world with a road map to check the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5NI.…
‘Ethnoveterinary medicines can be used as preventives and curatives’
Down To Earth spoke to MNB Nair from the Center for Ethno-Veterinary Science and Practice, The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences …
A $996-million plan to eradicate deadly sheep and goat plague
At least 300 million families are likely to benefit by wiping out Peste des Petits Ruminants
Cowering behind lies
PETER B STONE presents an objective re-examination of the recent scare over the mad cow disease in Europe
Salt of the earth
IODINE DEFICIENCY DISORDERS IN LIVESTOCK: ECOLOGY AND ECONOMICS·Chandrakant S Pandav and A R Rao·Oxford University Press, New Delhi&…
For the first time, Delhi govt plans to start bird hospitals
The proposal is part of the Animal Health and Welfare Policy 2018, recently discussed in a government meeting
Caught by the horns
The closure of the Idgah abattoir gets under the skins of meat eaters in the Capital, who have turned into unwilling vegetarians
New viral disease targets sheep in India
A contagious disease, similar to rinderpest and first observed in the Ivory Coast in 1940, has surfaced among sheep and goats in south India
African swine fever: Ripple effect across the world
Small farms in Asia are the worst hit by the outbreak, while global pork and feed markets fluctuate with fall and rise in China’s pig numbers
Bird flu monitoring panel says containment measures in place
Zoos are being screened regularly for any dead bird and preventive medication is given to their staff
Cancer cells are getting transmitted from one marine species to another
Infectious cancer cells found in carpet shell clam were traced back to a completely different species
Ruminant ramifications
Beef, the staple food of the British, finds itself out of favour as a ban on its sale sweeps across UK and also the European Union
The killer unveiled
Scientists find out how anthrax kills. It may not be very long before we have an antidote to the dreaded bacterium
Undetected window
India cannot eradicate tuberculosis unless it treats the infection in cattle. The country accounts for 23 per cent of the global TB burden
In Karnataka, 258 cows may be culled to prevent spread of disease
Brucellosis, also known as ‘contagious abortion', is an infection transmitted from animals to humans
Home remedy
A local remedy for controlling a parasitic disease works wonders for sheepbreeders in the Peruvian highlands
Researchers find new gene providing resistance to last-resort antibiotic
The finding comes eight months after the first-ever gene responsible for resistance to colistin, a last-resort drug for multi-drug-resistant …
Fowl Play
Is an avian flu pandemic imminent? As panic sends the world into a flutter, the Indian response still struggles to take wing, discover padmaparna …
Tales of cruelty and compassion from a home for destitute animals
All Creatures Great and Small, a shelter set up by humanist and social worker Anjali Gopalan, is a sanctuary for a disparate group of animals
Hangul conservation takes backseat in Kashmir
The state has barely 200 Hanguls or Kashmiri Red Stags left, but it does not seem to be alarming enough for the government, whose conservation …
Foot in mouth disease
Only a sea change in farming techniques will help save the European agricultural sector from disasters like the foot-and-mouth disease
Migratory birds expert Taej Mundkur on bird flu
Taej Mundkur, an expert on migratory birds, tells Padmaparna Ghosh that bird flu spreads through respiratory route , and not just the faecal route.…
Understanding the bug
Book>> The Viral Storm • by Nathan D Wolfe • Penguin • Rs 450
Lean pastures
Drought and a viral disease strike Jaisalmer’s livestock. Kurush Canteenwala finds out how the herders are coping