Improvement in food resources for Animals for class 9 Biology Revision Notes

Animal Husbandry
Animal husbandry is the scientific management of animal livestock. It includes various aspects such as feeding, breeding and disease control. Animal based farming includes cattle, goat, sheep, poultry and fish farming.

Main elements of animal husbandry are:

  1. Proper feeding of animals.
  2. Providing fresh water and good shelter to animals.
  3. Proper health and protection against diseases.
  4. Proper breeding of animals. 

Advantages of animal husbandry:

  1. Increased milk production through cattle farming.
  2. Increased egg production through cattle farming.
  3. Improvement of quality of meat through fish farming, pig farming, goat farming etc.
  4. Proper utilization of animal waste.
  5. To produce more honey and bees wax through bee keeping.

 On the basis of utility animals have been categorized into following four types:

  1. Milch (milk-yielding) animals: e.g.- cow, buffalo, goat
  2. Meat and Egg-yielding animals: e.g.- goat, sheep, pig, fish, chicken, duck, etc
  3. Draught (working) animals: e.g.- horse, bullock, camel, donkey, mule, elephant
  4. Hair and skin: yielding animals; e.g.- sheep, goat, rabbit, cow, buffalo etc.

Cattle Farming

Cattle farming is done for two purposes:

  1. milk production
  2. Bullock labour (e.g.- tilling, irrigation, and carting).

 Breeds of cattle: Indigenous or Desi breed:

Milch breed: e.g. – Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Deoni etc.

Draught breed: e.g. – Nageri, Hallikar, Malvi etc.

Dual purpose breed: e.g. – Deoni, Sahibal, Kankrej, tharparkar, Dangi etc.


Breeds of Indian buffalo: e.g. – Murrah, Nagpuri, Mehsana,  Surti, Bhadawari, Nilli, Ravi etc.

Exotic breed of milch cow: eg- Holstein-Friesien(Holland), Jersey(Island of Jersey of England), Ayrshire (Scotland), Brown-Swiss(Switzerland), Red Dane(Denmark), etc.

Cross breeds of cow: eg- Karan-Swiss, Karan-Fries, Frieswal, Brown Swiss-Sahiwal, JerseySindhi, Ayrshire-Sahiwal, Karan-Swiss etc.

Feeding of cattle: The foods given to animals are called Feed. Feeding requires balanced ration in correct quantities to each animal proportionate to their body requirements and productive capacity. Both over feeding and under feeding should be avoided.

Feed constitutes two main components i.e. roughage & Concentrate. The animal feed is of two types: Roughage: contains large amount of fibres with low nutrition. Eg- hay, fodder, silage, legumes like barseem, lucrene, cowpea; etc. it also includes fodder grasses, like Napier grass, Guinea grass and Elephant grass.

Concentrate: They are rich in protein and other nutrients. It contains mixture of cereals, like maize, jowar, broken grass, rice polish, cotton seed, molasses, oilseed cake etc. The animal food requirement is divided into two categories:

  1. Maintenance requirement: which supports the basic function of the life.
  2. Milk: producing requirement: which increase the milk production.

 Cattle farming

Farm management practice:

A good animal shelter is also important aspects of animal husbandry. A good animal shelter should have following characteristics:-

  1. It should protect the animals from heat, cold, and rain and also from other animals.
  2. It should be clean, dry, airy, and well ventilated.
  3. It should have proper sunlight during the day.
  4. It should have proper arrangement for clean drinking water.
  5. It should be spacious so as to provide enough space for each animal to stay comfortably.
  6. It should have a sloping floor for the hygienic disposal of animal excreta.
  7. Regular brushing of animals to remove dirt and loose hair.

 Breed Improvement:

The breeding of cattle is done by two methods:-

  1. Natural breeding: It is further of two types:
  2. a) Random breeding: here pedigree bulls are kept along with grazing cows. b) Controlled cross breeding: in this type of breeding native cows are crossed with exotic bulls of superior quality in natural breeding.
  3. Artificial breeding: In this method, semen of bull of good breed is collected and stored at freezing temperature. The introduction of semen of high quality bull in the body (vagina) of healthy females by artificial means during heat period or oestrous (fertility) period is called artificial insemination. This method is comparatively better and economical and has following advantages:
  4. Several cows can be inseminated by semen of a single bull.
  5. It ensures progeny of good quality and also avoids the transportation of animals.
  6. Sperms can be stored for long at freezing temperature.

 Some common animal disease:  Bacterial: Anthrax, Tuberculosis, Rinderpest.

Viral: Rabies, Cowpox, Encephalitis, Foot & mouth disease.  Fungal: Ring worm.

Worms: Ascariasis.

Management practices for cattle include cleaning, sheltering and feeding. Cleaning involves
periodic washing to get rid of dirt and loose hair. Shelter facilities include well ventilated roof
sheds which protect cattle from rain, cold and sun. Animal feed includes roughage feed which is largely fibre, and concentrate feed which are low in fibre and contain relatively high levels of proteins and other nutrients.
Cattle suffer from a number of diseases. The diseases, besides causing death, reduce milk
production. Diseases in cattle are caused by both external and internal parasites. External
parasites live on the skin and cause skin diseases. Internal parasites affect the stomach and
intestinal parts. Vaccinations are given to farm animals against many major viral and bacterial diseases.

Poultry Farming:

Poultry is the branch of animal husbandry concerned with rearing of birds for eggs and meet. Egg laying birds are called LAYERS while meat-yielding birds are called BROILERS. It includes chickens (fowls), ducks, turkeys, pigeons etc. Among these fowls are most widely domesticated birds in India.

Poultry breeds: Indigenous: Assel-has four popular breed Peela, Yakub, Nurie, & Kajal, Ghagus, Basara, Chittagong

Exotic: White leghorn cock, White leghorn hen, Rhode island red hen, Cross bread: IBL-80, B-77, HH-260, etc.

Desired traits for improved varieties:

  1. Quality and quantity of chicks.
  2. Dwarf broiler parent for commercial chick production.
  3. Summer adaptability capacity / tolerance to high temperature.
  4. Low maintenance requirement.
  5. Reduction in size of egg laying birds. Care should be taken to avoid mortality and to maintain feathering & carcass quality.

To prevent poultry from diseases following measures should be taken.

  1. They should be kept in spacious, airy, and ventilated shelter.
  2. The shelter should be clean properly and regularly.
  3. Quick and hygienic disposal of excreta should be ensured.
  4. Disinfectant should be sprayed regularly.
  5. Animal should be vaccinated at regular interval to minimize it from common infection and disease.

Fish Farming (Pisciculture)

Pisciculture or fishery or fish farming involves the rearing and breeding of fish scientifically by man in ponds, tanks, etc.

Type of Fish Farming: On the basis of nature of source of fishes:

  1. Capture fisheries: fish caught directly from their natural resources.
  2. Culture fisheries: fish is cultivated in artificial water bodies called breeding ponds.

 On the basis of nature of water sources:

  1. Marine fisheries: It involves fish production in marine waters.
  2. Inland fisheries: It involves fish production in fresh water systems and brackish waters like estuaries and lagoons. Breeds of fishes: Indigenous breeds: – fresh water: katla, rohu, calbusa, mrigla. Salt water fish-chanos, mullets

Exotic breeds: – fresh water- common carp, mirror carp, Chinese carp, silver carp and grass carp

Marine Fisheries:

Important marine food fishes are –Pomphrets,Mackererls, tuna, sardines, Bombay duck, mullets, bhetki, pearl spots, etc. In addition sea weeds and shelfish (like prawns), oyster, etc . This is called Mariculture.

Composite Fish Culture (Polyculture): it is the method of fish farming in which many types of fishes are cultured together into a pond or water body.

Significance of Composite fish culture:

(i) All the zones of water body is exploited.

(ii) There will be no competition between different species because they have different habits e.g.- catla is a surface feeder, rohu is a column feeder, cirrhinus is a bottom feeder.

(iii) These fishes help in growth of each other. The fish capturing is now easier due to employing of modern technologies like echo-sounders and use of satellites which are used to locate the fish shoals.

To overcome good quality seed problem in fish farming hormonal stimulation technique is
introduced. This has ensured the supply of pure fish seed in desired quantities.

 Apiculture: Apiculture is the process of rearing of honey bees in the artificial hives, called apiaries, for the production of honey at commercial level. It requires low investment. Apiaries or bee farms are established for commercial production of honey. In addition to honey the beehives are a source of wax which is used in various medicinal preparations.

Species of honey bee: Indigenous species: Apis dorsata commonly called rock bee or giant bee, Apis indica commonly called Indian bee, Apis florae commonly called little bee etc

 

Exotic species: Apis mellifera commonly called Italian bee etc.


Bee Forage/Pasturage: it includes all those flowering plants which provide pollens and nectar to the honey bees. The pasturage is different from region to region and depends upon the geographical location. The quality and taste of honey depends upon the nature of flora from which the nectar is collected.

Castes in Honey Bee

The honey bees build a nest which is called as a bee-hive. A hive contains almost 10,000 to 60,000 bees. The bees live together in a colony and divide themselves into 3 different castes.

  • Queen bee: the fertile, functional female of all is the queen bee. It is the supreme bee in the colony.
  • Drone bees: they are the smaller male bees of the colony. Their main task is to maintain the hive.
  • Worker bees: they are the smallest in size but the most active members of the hive. They perform different functions such as collecting pollens and nectar, constructing the comb, cleaning the cells of the hive. 

 Why Italian bees are popular in bee farming?

  • They produce large amounts of honey.
  • They do not sting much.
  • The breeding period in Italian bees is long.

 Factors that determine the quality of honey

  • Along with the choice of selection of the bee species, the flowers decide the quality quantity and taste of the honey produced.
  • There should also be enough pasturage or availability of flowers to the bees so that they can collect enough nectar and pollen.
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