Rajvir Singh

Magnitude of Pesticidal Contamination in Winter Vegetables from Hisar, Haryana

Monitoring of 80 winter vegetable samples during 1997–1998 for pesticidal contamination was carried out on GC-ECD and GC-NPD systems with capillary columns following multiresidueanalytical technique. The tested samples were found 100%contaminated with low but measurable amounts of pesticideresidues. Among the four major chemical groups, residue levels oforganophosphorous insecticides were highest followed bycarbamates, synthetic pyrethroids and organochlorines. About 32%of the samples showed contamination with organophosphorous andcarbamate insecticides above their respective MRL values. On thebasis of observations made in these studies, it is suggested thatmore extensive monitoring studies covering all vegetable cropsfrom different agro-climatic regions of the state be carried outto know exact level of pesticidal contamination, which may serveas basis for future policy on chemical use.

Effects of hemicastration and castration on foam production and its relationship with fertility in male Japanese quail

Healthy heavy body weight strain of adult male Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix Japonica) of the same age were used in this study to observe the effect of hemicastration and castration on the frequency of foam discharges from cloacal gland and other related parameters. The quails were housed in individual cages and divided into four groups: control (intact birds), sham-operated control (intact birds with incision), hemicastrated, and castrated groups of birds. Hemicastration and castration were carried out surgically at 10 and 13 weeks of age, respectively. Subsequently, 3 weeks after castration birds were examined for different parameters. Hemicastration caused a significant (P < 0.05) drop in the foam discharge frequency, weight of the foam, and the level of testosterone in the plasma, whereas in castrated group these variables were observed nil or negligible as compared to both of the controls. A suppressive effect of hemicastration was also noticed on the body weight, area of the cloacal gland, as well as percent fertility. Castration induced the drastic regression of the cloacal gland and a significant reduction (P < 0.05) of the body weight was also noted as compared to other groups. Frequencies of foam discharges were twice the number in daytime (06:00-18:00 h) than night, irrespective of the groups. In another study, the effect of characteristics of foam or foam glands on fertility was examined in 77 male birds paired with females. Several characteristics of foam and foam glands were examined for infertility, such as light yellow foam, dark yellow foam, smaller area of foam gland (below 225 mm2), hardness of foam gland and certain unknown factors that contributed 0.23, 0.68, 5.23, 2.27 and 3.64% infertility, respectively. An overall 12.1% birds were found to be infertile. This data indicated that smaller sizes of foam glands might reflect the poorest fertilizing ability of the male birds. From this study, it may be concluded that the cloacal gland may be considered as an external indicator of testicular function of the birds. Characteristics of the cloacal gland or foam or both may be used as a simple and effective tool to predict the fertilizing ability of an individual male in view of the very small semen ejaculate that is very difficult to collect and evaluate for fertility.

Residues of fluoroquinolone drugs in the cloacal gland and other tissues of Japanese quail

1. In this study we investigated the residues of fluoroquinolone drugs (ciprofloxacin and pefloxacin) in the cloacal gland (a site of foam synthesis) and other tissues such as breast muscle, testes, brain, kidney and plasma. 2. Fifty-four healthy male Japanese quail were selected at random from a flock, maintained under uniform husbandry conditions and divided into three groups, each of 18 birds. Group I (control) received 1 ml vehicle (normal saline 0·9% (w/v) NaCl) daily for 12 d through the intraperitoneal route. Birds of groups II and III received ciprofloxacin and pefloxacin by the same route at the rate of 10 and 12 mg/kg body weight, respectively, every day for a similar period. 3. Birds from each group were killed, at 1, 5 and 10 d after the cessation of treatment, to collect the cloacal gland together with other tissues that were analysed for residual drugs. 4. Cloacal gland retained the maximum drug residues of ciprofloxacin (60%) and pefloxacin (80%) on d 10 compared with that on d 1 after drug withdrawal. The drug residues were found 60 and 80% in ciprofloxacin and pefloxacin groups, respectively, in the cloacal gland tissue even on d 10 after withdrawal of the treatment. 5. In the ciprofloxacin-treated group, all tissues except cloacal gland contained very small amounts of the drug residues on d 10 after treatment ended. In the pefloxacin group the cloacal gland, breast muscle and kidney retained a fairly high amount of drug even on d 10 after treatment ceased. No residues of pefloxacin were detectable in testes and brain throughout. 6. In conclusion, the cloacal gland in Japanese quail acted as the largest sink for the fluoroquinolone drugs. Ciprofloxacin was more widely distributed in different tissues and persisted for a shorter period than pefloxacin.

Analyses of Crossbreeding Parameters for Juvenile Body Weight in Broiler Chicken

Abstract Nath, M., Singh, B.P., Saxena, V.K. and Singh, R.V. 2007. Analyses of crossbreeding parameters for juvenile body weight in broiler chicken. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 32: 101–106. A complete diallel experiment involving four parent broiler lines namely CSML, WSML, CSFL and NNL was conducted to estimate crossbreeding parameters for body weight at different age groups. Body weight data on 1451 birds of 16 genetic groups at 2, 4, 5 and 6 weeks body weight were recorded. Purebred effect (PE), general combining ability (GCA), maternal ability (MA), specific combining ability (SCA) and sex linked effect (SLE) were highly significant for body weights at all age groups. NNL had the highest body weight and showed the highest estimates of PE and GCA while the CSFL showed the highest MA in all age groups. The results showed that relative rankings of estimates of most of the crossbreeding parameters for different lines did not change over time. Further, positive estimates of PE and GCA of lines and SCA and SLE of crosses showed increasing trend from 2 to 6-week, while positive estimates of MA of lines recorded decreasing trend with increased age. In general, results indicated that both additive and non-additive genetic effects are important for body weight traits and therefore estimation of crossbreeding parameters would help in identifying the lines that would combine well for production of high yielding commercial broilers.