India is a subtropical country, wherein the climate is of variable type. A shelter is required both in summer as well as in winter to counter the various vagaries of adverse climate and to provide a comfortable environment to the animals. The principle functions of any system of housing for dairy cattle are: (1) Provision of health sustaining and comfortable environment to different categories ...

Seroprevalence of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infection was studied in replacement dairy heifers. Blood samples were collected from 80 pregnant heifers raised in 8 dairy farms in Saraburi province, the central part of Thailand and serum samples were tested for antibodies against BLV infection using commercially available ELISA test kits. The results revealed that 26 (32.5%) pregnant heifers wer...

Reproductive performance is one of the important factors for determining the economics of livestock production. Factors leading to sub fertility or infertility can broadly be classified as hereditary, physiological, nutritional, manage mental, environmental, pathological, psychological, immunological incompatibility and immune-deficiency syndromes. Keeping these factors in mind, a multifaceted ...

Relative effects of Beef Quality Assurance (BQA)-related defects in market beef and dairy cows and bulls on selling price at auction was evaluated during 2008. The presence and severity of 23 BQA-related traits were determined during sales in Idaho, California, and Utah. Overall, 18,949 unique lots consisting of 23,479 animals were assessed during 125 dairy sales and 79 beef sales. Mean sale pr...

Introduction Maintaining consumers trust is essential to ensure the future of the dairy industry. Production of high quality milk from healthy, well cared for animals is the goal of most dairy farmers. However, as fewer and fewer consumers are familiar with dairy farming, they have become more skeptical about the ability of farmers to properly care for farm animals. Public attention about the w...

BACKGROUND Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) infections in cattle are generally challenging to detect and cost-effective test strategies are consequently difficult to identify. MAP-specific antibody ELISAs for milk and serum are relatively inexpensive, but their utility is influenced by a number of factors such as herd size, herd composition and diagnostic sensitivity. The sensi...