The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown for a long period have created a significant adverse impact on different sectors, including that of the agriculture and other allied sub-sectors in India and several other countries. The present review aimed to depict the impact of this pandemic and the lockdown on the livestock and poultry sectors in the country, which has been one of the fastest-growing sectors in recent years. Inadequacy of country-wide information has been a major bottleneck for having a thorough understanding of the impact of the prolonged lockdown on different sub-sectors of livestock and poultry. In the present case, an in-depth analysis of the subject has been made through the collation of available published materials and information collected through public contacts. The pandemic and the associated lockdown has not only caused enormous distress to the millions of poor and marginal farmers for saving their crops and/or livestock and thereby assuring their livelihoods but also impacted the overall poultry, dairy, and other livestock production systems and associated value chains, nutrition and health care, and labor availability. The paper highlights various dimensions of the impacts, namely, reduction in demand of different commodities, wastage of the produce due to the closure of transport and market chains, distress sale of the produce, and labor shortage and revival strategies taken by the government and associated enterprises. The present impact study although gives a picture about the overall present scenario, a systematic study through the collection of primary data from all over the country is suggested, which will provide a holistic view of the impact on each of the sub-sectors and the associated value chains.

SUMMARY The ever-increasing demand for meat and egg has placed the poultry sector as a priority farming avenue for both small-scale backyard farming by rural farmers and commercial enterprises. The elevated temperature over the years has been affecting poultry production systems through reduced growth and egg production all over the world. At a time when heat stress is perceived as a universal issue, and with climate change predicted to have a further significant impact on global temperature increase, the adverse impact on the poultry sector is expected to intensify further. An extensive review is made to discuss the impact of such heat stress on feed intake and feed conversion efficiency, poultry growth and production, egg production, physiology, reproduction, immunity and disease incidence. Advanced biotechnology tools can be used to identify suitable molecular markers and design worthy breeding programmes, which may lead to the development of heat tolerance strains in poultry. Further, suitable mitigation strategies have also been suggested for reducing the impact of such stress conditions on the poultry for minimising the economic loss of poultry growers.

Transboundary animal diseases (TADs) pose a serious threat to the sustainability and economic viability of the existing animal agriculture ecosystem in south Asia. The rapid spread of African swine fever and lumpy skin diseases in south Asia must be considered a wake-up call to prevent the entry, spread, and establishment of new exotic TADs, as south Asia has the highest density of livestock populations, and it will have a huge socioeconomic impact. Regional cooperation for the prevention and control of TADs is necessary, but rational decisions should be made to initiate even sub-regional cooperation in the present geopolitical situation. Cross-border collaboration for surveillance, early warnings, and animal movement control should be encouraged on a bilateral or multilateral basis as many countries share a porous border. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), peste des petits ruminants (PPR), and avian influenza (AI) have been identified as regional priority TADs, and many regional and country initiatives have been undertaken in the last two decades that need to be translated into action. The incursion of exotic TADs into south Asia has compelled us to rethink overall policies and strategies for prevention and control of TADs. This paper took into consideration six emerging and endemic TADs of viral origin to suggest a future course of action.

Biobanks of cryopreserved gametes and embryos of domestic animals have been utilized to spread desired genotypes and to conserve the animal germplasm of endangered breeds. In principle, somatic cells can be used for the same purposes, and for reviving of animals, the somatic cells must be suitable for animal cloning techniques, such as somatic cell nuclear transfer. In the present study, we derived and cryopreserved somatic cells from three breeds of riverine and swamp-like type buffaloes and established a somatic cell bank. In total, 350 cryovials of 14 different individual animals (25 cryovials per animal) were cryopreserved and informative data such as breed value, origin, and others were documented. Immunostaining of the established cells against vimentin and cytokeratin suggested a commitment to the fibroblast lineage. In addition, microsatellite analysis was performed and documented for unambiguous parentage verification of clones in the future. Subsequently, the cryopreserved cells were tested for their suitability as nuclear donors (n = 7) using handmade cloning, and the reconstructed embryos were cultured in vitro. The cleavage rates (95.99% ± 2.17% vs. 82.18% ± 2.50%) and blastocyst rates (37.73% ± 1.54% vs. 24.31% ± 1.78%) were higher (p < 0.05) for riverine buffalo cells than that of swamp-like buffalo cells, whereas the total cell numbers of blastocysts (258.16 ± 36.25 vs. 198.16 ± 36.25, respectively) were similar. In conclusion, we demonstrated the feasibility of biobanking of buffalo somatic cells, and that the cryopreserved cells can be used to produce cloned embryos. This study encourages the development of somatic cell biobanks of domestic livestock, including endangered breeds of buffalo, to preserve valuable genotypes for future revitalization by animal cloning techniques.

Despite the substantial contribution donkeys make to the livelihood of the world’s poorest populations, the existence of donkeys has received little notice worldwide. This article reviews the value of donkeys in a variety of sectors, including agriculture, construction industry, and mining, as well as their role in empowering women and achieving sustainable development goals. However, donkeys and mules are not given enough credit or attention in terms of developing strategies regarding their role in reducing poverty. There is a dearth of information and statistics on their impact across industries, the factors contributing to the donkey population dropping, the socioeconomic status of the dependent communities, and related animal and human welfare issues.

In order to meet the high demand for eggs, poultry producers are using certain feed strategies, which can increase production, but may indirectly cause metabolic and other stress in the birds. To overcome these issues, natural plant extracts and ingredients, such as turmeric, can be added to the diet. The inclusion of turmeric, which has various beneficial properties, at levels of 0.75% and 1% in the diets can improve feed intake and significantly reduce cholesterol in broilers. Cholesterol in eggs has been shown to decrease by 16, 24 and 25% (P<0.05) when layers were fed 1, 2 and 4% turmeric in feed, respectively. Birds fed a high carbohydrate ration and supplemented with turmeric powder for 30 days prior to sexual maturity had 20% more egg production as compared to a control group. Lactobacillus spp. counts were significantly higher (P<0.01) in chickens fed 1% turmeric supplemented feed compared to unsupplemented birds. Hence, this review includes the effect of feeding turmeric on feed intake, feed conversion ratio, nutrient digestibility, biochemical parameters, egg production, egg qualities, intestinal morphology, gut bacteria and the genetic expression of toll-like receptors.