Innovations in Animal Health in the Scenario of Climate Change and Global Warming

Research 

• Up-gradation and management of natural resource base.
• Agro processing, value addition and improved marketing for enhancing profitability and employment opportunities.
• Feedback from the farmers with respect to problems in livestock rearing and related activities is encouraged and solutions given.
• Poultry Farming using Van Raja birds has been adopted. 
• Intervention/ Introduction of Pond fish culture.

Few Research Findings are given here as under;

1. Enterprise combination in a farming system resulted in higher nutritive output than cropping alone. Highest residue addition is possible with crop + livestock + farm pond with a higher nutrient.
2. Grasslands and forest grazing lands meet about 50 – 60% of the total fodder need in Himalayas. 
3. In the hilly area of J & K alfalfa is grown as main fodder crop during summer along with oats, barley or wheat straw for the livestock.
4. Organic livestock production needs to be promoted as immense potential, productivity unlikely to be affected, likely to be more profitable. It needs to be integrated with organic crop production. Research needs to be initiated on comparative; animal performance, animal health, animal production, recycling of nutrients (soil-plant-animal-milk), cost of production. Package of practices needs to be developed for organic dairy animal production
5. Freshly shorn sheep need protection. This is because it takes up to six weeks for the fleece to regrow sufficiently to provide effective insulation. Sheared sheep also require more food to maintain their body temperature during the winter.
6.  Nutrition can affect both; fertility and fecundity. Through its influence on; age at puberty, production of ova and spermatozoa, survival and growth of embryos and foetuses. Cattle reach puberty at a specific skeletal size, rather than at a fixed age or weight. Deficiencies of protein, vitamins and minerals affect reproduction indirectly, through their affects on the general health of animals, but a few have more specific effects on reproduction. Thus zinc deficiency in males reduces the production of spermatozoa, and Vitamin’ A deficiency causes congenital abnormalities if foetuses.
7. For mammals, net requirements for the growth of the foetus increase exponentially during gestation and are quantitatively significant in the last one-third of this period. Nutrients are also required for the growth of the foetal membranes uterus, mammary glands and (in some cases) the body reserves of the mother
8. The placenta has a key role in ensuring that the foetus receives optimal supplies of nutrients. But overfeeding in mid-pregnancy restricts the size of the placenta and hence reduces birthweight. Underfeeding in late pregnancy also reduces birth weight.
9. Nutrient deficiencies in pregnancy may affect either or both the mother and the foetus
10. Fed on the dried wild grasses and hay. Beside this in the lower areas dried tree leaves and loping of willow, mulberry and wild olive are also fed. During extreme winter the animals are also given crushed maize and at places even green pine tree leaves are also fed.