🐄 OPTIONAL — ANIMAL HUSBANDRY & VETERINARY SCIENCE

Papers: VI & VII · 500 marks. GS overlap: MODERATE — GS-III (animal husbandry, dairy, food security, livestock economy). Best for: B.V.Sc./veterinary graduates and animal science backgrounds.

⚠️ Verify against the current UPSC notification at upsc.gov.in.

PAPER I

1. Animal Nutrition: (a) Energy sources — energy, basic concepts, partition of food energy within the animal, direct and indirect calorimetry, carbon-nitrogen balance and comparative slaughter methods; systems for expressing energy value of foods in ruminants, pigs and poultry; energy requirements for maintenance, growth, pregnancy, lactation, egg, wool, and meat production. (b) Measures of food energy and their uses; conservation of energy. (c) Trends in protein nutrition — sources of protein, protein quality, protein requirements. (d) Minerals — sources, functions, requirements and their relationship of major and critical elements. (e) Vitamins, hormones and growth stimulating substances — sources, functions, requirements and inter-relationship with minerals. (f) Advances in ruminant nutrition — digestion and metabolism of nutrients; feed technology and feed evaluation. (g) Non-ruminant nutrition — poultry and swine nutrition.
2. Animal Physiology: (a) Growth and animal production — prenatal and postnatal growth, maturation, growth curves, measures of growth, factors affecting growth, conformation, body composition, meat quality. (b) Milk production, reproduction and digestion — current status of hormonal control of mammary development, milk secretion and milk ejection; male and female reproductive organs, their components and functions; digestive organs and their functions. (c) Environmental physiology — physiological relations and their regulation; mechanisms of adaptation, environmental factors and regulatory mechanisms involved in animal behaviour, methods of controlling climatic stress.
3. Animal Reproduction: semen quality — preservation and artificial insemination; components of semen, composition of spermatozoa, chemical and physical properties of ejaculated semen, factors affecting semen in vivo and in vitro; factors affecting semen production and quality, preservation, composition of diluents, sperm concentration, transport of diluted semen; deep freezing techniques in cows, sheep, goats, swine and poultry; detection of oestrus and time of insemination for better conception; anoestrus and repeat breeding.
4. Livestock Production and Management: (a) Commercial dairy farming — comparison 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, capital and land requirement, organisation of the dairy farm; opportunities in dairy farming, factors determining the efficiency of dairy animal; herd recording, budgeting, cost of milk production, pricing policy; personnel management; developing dairy farm layout; selection of site, disposal of animal waste. (b) Feeding practices — feeding regimes for young stock and bulls, heifers and breeding animals; new trends in feeding young and adult stock; feeding records. (c) Commercial meat, egg and wool production — development of practices in sheep and goat, swine, rabbit and poultry farming.

PAPER II

1. Anatomy, Pharmacology and Hygiene: histology and histological techniques; paraffin embedding technique of tissue processing and H.E. staining; cytology — structure of cell, organells and inclusions, cell division; cell types, tissues and their classification; embryology — vertebrate embryo; gametogenesis, fertilization, germ layers, foetal membranes and placentation; types of placenta in domestic animals; organogenesis; germ layer derivatives, endodermal, mesodermal and ectodermal derivatives; bovine anatomy — regional anatomy — paranasal sinuses of ox, surface anatomy of salivary glands, regional anatomy of infraorbital, maxillary, mandibuloalveolar, mental and cornual nerve block; regional anatomy of paravertebral nerves, pudendal nerve, median, ulnar and radial nerves, tibial, fibular and digital nerves; splanchnology — comparative features of the digestive, respiratory, urinary and reproductive systems; anatomy of fowl — musculo-skeletal system, functional anatomy in relation to respiration and flying, digestion and egg production. (b) Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology — cellular level of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics; drugs acting on fluids and electrolyte balance; drugs acting on Autonomic nervous system; modern concepts of anaesthesia and dissociative anaesthetics; autacoids; antimicrobials and principles of chemotherapy in microbial infections; use of hormones in therapeutics; chemotherapy of parasitic infections; drug and economic considerations; toxicity due to insecticides, plant poisons, metals, non-metals, zootoxins and mycotoxins. (c) 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; relationship between industrialisation and animal agriculture; animal 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: etiology, epidemiology, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and control of infectious diseases of cattle, sheep and goat, horses, pigs and poultry; etiology, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment of production diseases of cattle, horse, pig and poultry; deficiency diseases of domestic animals and birds; diagnosis and treatment of common ailments of pet animals; principles and methods of immunization of animals against specific diseases, herd immunity, disease-free zones, 'zero' disease concept, chemoprophylaxis; anaesthesia — local, regional and general; preanaesthetic medication; surgical conditions — dislocation and fracture; ruminal impaction; abomasal displacement; caesarian operations; rumenotomy; castration; diagnosis and treatment of common diseases of the reproductive system.
3. Veterinary Public Health: zoonoses — classification, definition, role of animals and birds in prevalence and transmission of zoonotic diseases; occupational zoonotic diseases; epidemiology — principles, 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 central rules for prevention of animal and animal product-borne diseases; SPCA; veterolegal cases; certificates; materials and methods of collection of samples for veterolegal investigation.
4. Milk and Milk Products Technology: market milk — quality, testing and grading of raw milk; processing, packaging, storing, distribution, marketing, defects and their control; preparation of the following milk products — cultured milks, cheese, condensed, evaporated, dried milk and baby food; ice cream and kulfi; butter, ghee, khoya, channa, cheese and shrikhand. Meat Hygiene and Technology — ante-mortem care and management of food animals, stunning, slaughter and dressing operations; post-mortem examination procedures and judgment; abnormalities and their disposal standards; grading of carcass meat cuts; adulteration of meat and detection; regulatory provisions in meat trade and industry.

BOOKLIST

STRATEGY

• Diagrams are essential — anatomy, reproductive systems, processing flow charts.
• Link to current schemes: Rashtriya Gokul Mission, National Livestock Mission, dairy cooperatives, white revolution.
• Paper II is disease-heavy — organise by system and prepare comparison tables.
• Use Indian livestock statistics in applied answers.
• Solve 15 years of PYQs.

Pros: modest competition; good GS-III overlap on livestock/food; practical relevance in rural administration. Cons: requires veterinary background; very technical; limited resources for UPSC-specific preparation.