HCS optional syllabus animal husbandry and veterinary science

HCS optional syllabus animal husbandry and veterinary science

HCS Syllabus: Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science HCS Mains Optional Syllabus

HPSC HCS mains optional Subject Syllabus

Part-I
1. Animal Nutrition

Energy sources, energy metabolism and requirements for maintenance and production of milk, meat, eggs. Evaluation of feeds as sources of energy. Sources of protein metabolism and synthesis, protein quantity and quality in relation to requirements. Energy protein ratios in ration. Sources, functions and requirements of minerals in animal diet. Inter relationship of the basic mineral nutrients including trace elements. Vitamins, hormones and
growth stimulating substances. Their sources, functions, requirements and inter relationship with minerals.

Advances in Ruminant Nutrition (Dairy Cattle) – Nutrients and their metabolism with reference to milk production and its composition. Nutrient requirements for calves, heifers, dry and milking cows and buffaloes. Limitations of various feeding systems.

Advance in Non-Ruminant Nutrition (Poultry) – Nutrients and their metabolism with reference to poultry, meat and egg production. Nutrients requirements and feed formulation and broilers at different ages.

Advances in Applied Animal Nutrition–A critical review and evaluation of feeding experiments, digestibility and balance studies. Feeding standards and measures of feed energy. Nutrition requirements for growth, maintenance and production. Balanced rations.

2. Animal Physiology 

Prenatal and postnatal growth, maturation, growth curves measures of growth, factors affecting growth, conformation, body composition, meat quality.

Current status of hormonal control of mammary development, milk secretion and milk ejection. Male and female reproduction organs, their components and functions. Digestive organs and their functions.

Physiological relations and their regulation; mechanisms of adaption, environmental factors and regulatory mechanism involved in animal behaviour, methods of controlling climatic stress.

Components of semen, composition of spermatozoae, chemical and physical properties of ejaculated semen, factors affecting semen in vivo and in vitro. Factors affecting semen production and quality preservation. Detection
of oestrus and time of insemination for better conception.

3. Livestock Production and Management

Comparision of dairy farming in India with advanced countries. Dairying under mixed farming and as a specialised farming, economic dairy farming. Starting of a dairy farm and factors for success of a dairy entrepreneur. Capital and land requirement, organisation of the dairy farm. Procurement of goods, opportunities in dairy farming, factors determining the efficiency of dairy animal. Herd recording, budgeting, cost of milk production, pricing policy. Personnel management. Feeding and management of animals under drought, flood and other natural calamities.

4. Genetics and Animal Breeding

Mitosis and Meiosis. Mendelian inheritance. Deviations to Mendelian genetics. Expression of genes. Linkage and crossing over. Sex determination, sex influenced and sex limited characters. Blood groups and polymorphism. Chromosome abberations. Gene and its structure. DNA as a genetic material. Genetic code and protein synthesis. Recombinant DNA technology. Mutations, types of mutations, methods for detecting mutations and mutation rate.

Population genetics as applied to animal breeding. Quantitative Vs. qualitative traits. Hardy Weinberg Law. Population Vs. individual. Gene and genotypic frequency. Forces changing gene frequency. Random drift and small population. Theory of path coefficient. Inbreeding, methods of estimating inbreeding coefficient, systems of inbreeding. Effective population size. Breeding value, estimation of breeding value, dominance and epistatic deviation. Partitioning of variation. Genotype × environment correlation and genotype × environment interaction.

Heritability, repeatability and genetic and phenotypic correlations, their methods of estimation and precision of estimates. Aids to selection and their relative merits. Individual, pedigree, family and within family selection. Progeny testing. Methods of selection. Construction of selection indices and their uses. Comparative evaluation of genetic gains through various selection methods. Indirect selection and Correlated response. Inbreeding, upgrading, cross-breeding and synthesis of breeds. Crossing of inbred lines for commercial production. Selection for general and specific combining ability.

                                                                                           Part-II

1. Health and Hygiene

Structure of cell, organells and inclusions. Cell division. Cell types. Tissues and their classification. Embryonic and adult tissues. Embryology of vertebrates with special reference to aves and domestic mammals. Gametogenesis, fertilization, germ layers, foetal membranes and placentation; types of placenta in domestic mammals.

Physiology of blood and its circulation–blood constituents; properties and functions; coagulation of blood; haemorrhagic disorders; anticoagulants; blood groups; circulation; physiology of heart. Respiration–mechanism of respiration; transport and exchange of gases; neural control of respiration. Exeretion–structure and function of kidney; formation of urine. Endocrine glands–functional disorders; their symptoms and diagnosis; synthesis of hormones; mechanism and control of secretion.

General knowledge of pharmacology and therapeutics drugs. Celluar level pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetice. Modem concepts of anaesthesia and dissociative anaesthetics. Autocoide. Antimicrobials and principles of chemotherapy in microbial injections. Use of hormones in therapeutics. Chemotherapy of parasitic infections.

Veterinary hygiene with reference to water, air and habitation. Assessment of pollution of water, air and soil. Importance of climate in animal health. Effect of environment on animal function and performance. Housing requirements for specific categories of domestic animals viz. pregnant cows and sows, milking cows, broiler birds.
Stress, strain and productivity in relation to animal habitation.

2. Animal Diseases

Pathogenesis, symptoms, post mortem lesions, diagnosis, and control of infection diseases of cattle, pigs and poultry, horses, sheep and goats. Etiology, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment of production of cattle, pig and poultry. Deficiency diseases of domestic animals and birds. Diagnosis and treatment of non-specific condition like impaction, bloat, diarrhoea, indigestion, dehydration, stroke, poisoning. Diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders. Principles and methods of immunisation of animals against specific diseases–hard immunity, disease free zones– ?zero‘ disease concept– chemoprophylaxis. Immunity and immunoregulation in animals – role of cytokines in protection of animals from diseases as well as role of immune response in allergic and auto immune diseases. Diagnosis and treatment of immunological of disorders and diseases of animals. Anaesthesia–local, regional and general. Pre-anesthetic medication.

3. Veterinary Public Health

Zoonoses–classification, definition, role of animals and birds in prevalence and transmission of zoonotic diseases, occupational zoonotic diseases.

Epidemiology–principle, definition of epidemiological terms, application of epidemiological measures in the study of diseases and disease control. Epidemiological features of air, water and food borne infections.

Veterinary Jurisprudence–rules and regulations for improvement of animal quality and prevention of animal diseases. State and control rules for prevention of animal and animal product borne diseases, S.P.C.A., veterolegal cases, certificates. Duties and role of veterinarian in slaughter house to provide meat that is product under ideal hygienic conditions. By-products from a slaughter houses and their economic utilization.

4. Milk and Milk Products Technology 

Milk Technology–Organization of rural milk procurement collection and transport of raw milk. Quality, testing and grading raw milk. Quality storage grades of whole milk. Skimmed milk and cream. Processing, packaging, storing, distributing, marketing defects and their control and nutritive properties of the following milks : pasteurized, standardized, toned, double toned, sterilized, homogenized, reconstituted, recombined and flavoured milks. Preparation of cultured milks, cultures and their management, yoghurt, Dahi, Lassi and Srikhand. Preparation of flavoured and sterilized milks. Legal standards. Sanitation requirement for clean and safe milk and for the milk plant equipment.

Milk Products Technology–Selection of raw materials, assembling, production, processing, storing, distributing and marketing of milk products.

5. Meat Hygiene

Ante mortem care and management of food animals, stunning, slaughter and dressing operations. Battoir requirements and designs. Meat inspection procedures and judgement of carcass meat cuts. Grading of carcass meat cuts. Duties and functions of veterinarians in wholesome meat production.

6. Extension

Basic philosophy, objectives, concept and principles of extension. Different methods adopted to educate farmers under rural conditions. Generation of technology, its transfer and feedback. Problems of constraints in transfer of technology. Animal husbandry programmes for rural development.