Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a part of South-East Asia, is enriched with the presence of native breeds of livestock (cattle, pig, goat) and poultry. There are two native goat breeds, viz., Andaman local goat and Teressa goat in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. However, to date, the origin and genetic makeup of these two breeds have not been detailed. Therefore, the present study describes the genetic makeup of Andaman goats through analysis of mitochondrial D-loop sequence for sequence polymorphism, phylogeographical signaling and population expansion events. The genetic diversity of the Teressa goat was less compared to the Andaman local goat due to its sole presence on Teressa Island. Out of 38 well-defined haplotypes of Andaman goats, the majority of haplotypes belonged to haplogroup A followed by haplogroup B and haplogroup D. The result of mismatch distribution and neutrality tests indicated no population expansion event of haplogroup A and B. Finally, based on poor geographical signaling, we hypothesize that Andaman goats have been imported to these Islands either through multidirectional diffusion or unidirectional diffusion. We justify our hypothesis of multidirectional diffusion on the basis of observation of the haplotype and nucleotide diversity of Andaman goats. Simultaneously, the probability of unidirectional diffusion of goats in these islands from the Indian subcontinent in different spells of domestication events through maritime routes cannot be ignored.

The study was conducted to find out the anti-leech effect of 5 indigenously used plant species on Hirudinaria manillensis. Aqueous and methanolic extracts of Nicotiana spp., Zanthoxylum alatum, Solanum khasianum, Cucumis sativus and Lasia spinosa were prepared. The experiment was designed to evaluate 3 concentrations of aqueous (@5,000, 2,500 and 1,000 µg/ml) and methanolic extracts (@ 500, 100 and 50 µg/ml) of all the plants along with levamisole (83 µg/ml) as standard and distilled water as control. The leeches were treated with the determined concentration of extract/standard and the death time (min) was recorded up to 720 min. The aqueous extract of Nicotiana spp. and Z. alatum showed best anti-leech effect with mean death time ranging from 2.11±0.11 to 5.33±0.47 min and comparable result with the standard at 83 µg/ml concentration. The methanolic extracts of Z. alatum at all the concentrations and Nicotiana spp. and S. khasianum at 500 µg/ml showed no significantly different effect with levamisole standard. The methanolic extract of Z. alatum exhibited best hirudinicidal effect (10.56±2.69 min) against H. manillensis. Aqueous extract of S. khasianum and both aqueous and methanolic extracts C. sativus and spinosa showed no killing effect on H. manillensis at all the concentrations. It was concluded that among the 5 plant species, Nicotiana spp., Z. alatum and S. khasianum were effective against H. manillensis.