India has the largest population of dairy cattle in the world at over 48 million animals, yet there has been little formal assessment of their welfare reported. Through observations of dairy cows on 38 farms in Kerala, India, we aimed to investigate the welfare of these animals and the practicality of animal-based assessments within common farming systems. Substantial welfare challenges were identified. All cows were close-tied (less than 1 m length) via a halter that pierced the nasal septum when housed, which was for the entire day (50% of farms) or part thereof. When outside access was available, it was also usually restricted by close-tying, longline tether, or hobbling. Ad libitum water was only available on 22% of farms and food access was also restricted (mean of 4.3 h/day). Future work should focus on encouraging dairy farmers in India to improve the welfare of their dairy cattle by: ceasing to tie and tether cattle (or at least providing tied and tethered cattle with exercise opportunities); providing unlimited access to drinking water and a readier supply of food (especially quality green forage/fodder); cleaning housing more frequently; providing strategies to prevent heat stress; breeding cattle suited to environmental conditions and with increased resistance to heat stress; and carrying out welfare assessments more regularly using a validated protocol and rectifying the causes of poor welfare. Such changes could substantially improve the welfare of tens of millions of cattle.

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Chlorella vulgaris hydro-alcoholic extract on blood biochemistry and immune organs characteristics in broiler chicken. A total of 128 Vencobb 400, day-old broiler chicks were randomly assigned into four treatment groups having four replicates with eight birds per replicate. A basal diet was formulated in accordance with BIS recommendation and hydro-alcoholic extract of Chlorella vulgaris was added at an inclusion level of 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 per cent respectively to the basal diet to form 4 different treatment diets. After 42 days of experimental feeding trial, one bird from each replicate was sacrificed to study blood biochemical parameters and immune organs status. The results of the present study indicated that the birds fed with 0.4 percent C. vulgaris extract in their diet showed significantly higher WBC (P<0.001), RBC (P<0.01) and hemoglobin (P<0.05) count compared to other treatments while total protein, albumin, globulin and A:G ratios were found similar among the treatment groups. In the case of immune organ status, the bursal yield was significantly (P<0.05) higher for birds fed with 0.1 and 0.2 percent supplementation than other groups while the weight of thymus and spleen were similar between the treatment groups.