Alok Kumar Yadav

Composition and medicinal properties of camel milk: A Review

Many research findings proved that camel milk is closer to human milk than any other milk. Camel milk is different from other ruminant milk, having low cholesterol, low sugar, high minerals (sodium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc and magnesium), high vitamin C. Camel milk is unique from other ruminants milk in terms of composition as well as claimed health effects. Camel milk has potential therapeutic characteristics, such as anti-hypertensive, anti-diabetic and anti-carcinogenic. It is often easily digested by lactose-intolerant individuals. On the other hand, camel milk also has ability to reduce the elevated level of bilirubin, globulin and granulocytes. Camel milk failed to show any effect towards improving the level of hemoglobin and leukocytes, and decreasing the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Camel milk proteins contained satisfactory balance of essential amino acids. It contains disease-fighting immunoglobulins which are small in size, allowing penetration of antigens and boosting the effectiveness of the immune system. This review focused on the medicinal properties of camel milk which will be more useful to generate value added product.

Transgenic animal technology: Recent advances and applications: A Review

Transgenic animal technologies are one of the fastest growing techniques in the biotechnology areas. It is used to incorporate exogenous genes into the animal genome by genetic engineering technology so that these genes can be inherited and expressed by offspring. Two fundamental determinants of the success of any transgenic exploitation of a livestock species are the transport of DNA across the plasma membrane of the recipient cell, and the transport of that DNA across the nuclear membrane to gain access to the chromosomes. A variety of transgenic technologies are available like microinjection method, chemical method mediated transgenesis, somatic cell nuclear transfer, restriction enzyme-mediated integration, retrovirus-mediated gene transfer, sperm mediated gene transfer and embryonic stem cell mediated method etc. Use of transgenic animals will provide solutions for drug research, xenotransplantation, disease resistance and tissue repair etc. This review focuses on various methods of transgenesis and its application.

Effect of Exogenous Thyroxine Supplementation to Reduce the Incidence of Hypothermia in Dairy Calves

Higher serum lipids concentration in blood is the major cause of hypothermia due to lesser utilization of lipids by the buffalo calves for generation of body heat (thermogenesis). A study of effect of exogenous thyroxine supplementation on hormonal status in murrah buffalo and crossbreed cow calves has been evaluated. The study was conducted on 12 healthy buffalo calves and 12 cow calves at Livestock Farm (calf unit), Adhartal, N.D.V.S.U., Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. Oral supplementation of thyroxine (0.167 mg/kg body weight), in powder form mixed along with 5 gram jaggery on 15 day interval starting from age of 16-days, 31-days and 46-days. The findings lead to these conclusions that thyroxine supplementation was found mobilisation of lipids and high density lipoprotein cholesterol for heat production to maintain homeostasis. The increased thyroxine level in buffalo calves helped to maintain their body temperature and increased basal metabolic rate, thus helped in their survival and reduced mortality.

Nutrigenomics: concept, advances and applications

The interface between the nutritional environment and cellular/genetic processes is referred to as Nutritional genomics or Nutrigenomics. It seeks to understand the effects of diet on an individuals genes and health. Nutrigenomics seeks to provide a genetic understanding for how common dietary chemicals (i.e., nutrition) affect the balance between health and disease by altering the expression or structure of an individuals genetic makeup. It is the science that examines the response of individuals to food compounds using post-genomic and related technologies (e.g. genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics etc.). Nutritional genetics is considered as the combination of nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics. Nutrigenomics is establishing the effects of ingested nutrients and other food components on gene expression and gene regulation. It will also determine the individual nutritional requirements based on the genetic makeup of the person (personalized diet) as well as the association between diet and chronic diseases which will help to understand the etiologic aspects of chronic diseases such as cancer, type-2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVS). Nutrigenetics on the other hand identifies how the genetic makeup of a particular individual co-ordinates his or her response to various dietary nutrients. It also reveals why and how people respond differently to the same nutrient. The long-term aim of nutrigenomics is to understand how the whole body responds to real foods using an integrated approach termed systems biology. The huge advantage in this approach is that the studies can examine people (i.e. populations, sub-populations - based on genes or disease and individuals), food, life-stage and life-style without preconceived ideas. Nutrigenomic approaches will enhance researcher abilities to maintain animal health, optimize animal performance and improve milk and meat quality.