What is Animal Breeding?

What is Animal Breeding?

Animal husbandary

Animal husbandary is the management of animal livestock which includes various aspects such as animal’s feeding, breeding & disease control. Good animal husbandary practices are needed to meet out the growing demand of milk, eggs, meat etc.

Cattle Farming

1. Cattle faring is also called ‘Cattle Husbandry’.
2. In our country cattle husbandry is done for two purposes for milk and drought labour for agricultural work.
3. The milk producing females are called milch animals.
4. Those used for farm labour are called drought animals.

Poultry

Poultry provides the best source of animal protein and fats. An egg laying poultry is called egger or layer and the poultry reared for obtaining meat is called chicken or broiler.

Poultry Breeds :
1. Indigenous Breeds :
Aseel or Indian game bird is one of the indigenous breed of fowl. It is most popular breed of India and selected for poultry farming.There occur only four popular varieties of Aseel, namely :

1. Peela (golden red),
2. Yakub (black and red)
3. Nurie (white)
4. Kajal (black)

2. Exotic Breeds :
Though there are present numerous exotic breeds of fowl, but the following two are most popularly used in India.

1. White leghorn
2. Rhode island red
3. Cross breed

Poultry Diseases :
The poultry birds suffer from various diseases caused by virus (Fowl pox, Ranikhet), bacteria (Tuberculosis, Cholera, Diarrhoea), fungi (Aspergillosis), parasite (worms, mites, lice), etc.

Fish Production

1. Capture fishing i.e., obtaining fishes from natural resources.
2. Culture fishery i.e., fish farming.
3. The fishes which are obtained from island water bodies such as ponds, lakes, rivers and streams are called fresh water fishes Ex- labeo, while those obtained from sea are called marine fish Ex – Harpodon (Bombay duck), Mackerel, bhetki, pomfret, Tuna, sardine.

Composite Fish Farming :

• The intensive fish farming can be done in composite fish culture systems.
• In such a system, a combination of five or six fish species are grown in a single fish pond.
• For example catla are surface feeders, Rohu feed in the middle zone of the pond, and common carps are bottom feeders and Grass carps feed on the weeds. Such farming increases the fish yield.

Bee Keeping

Apiculture-Care and Management of Honeybees :

• Human beings obtain many commercial products from insects like honeybees. This is known as Apiculture.
• Honey has great importance for human beings because of its medicinal value, specially in disorders related to digestion, dysentery, vomiting and liver ailments.
• Bee farms or apiaries are established for commercial production of honey.
• Different varieties of bee are used for commercial production of honey.

The Local Varieties of Bees :
Apis cerana indica (commonly known as Indian bee). A. dorsata (the rock bee) and A.florae (little bee).

Exotic Variety : A. mellifera (Italian bee)
Lac Culture :
Human beings obtain commercial products from lac insects. Lac is secreted as a protective covering mostly by the females. The encrustation is scraped  and processed to obtain lac. Lac is a resinous secretion of Laccifer lacca or lac insect which feeds on the sap of a number of forest trees

Seri Culture :
If commercial product like silk are obtained from silkworms. Silk is fibrous secretion which is secreted by caterpillar over it during coccon formation. Common silk is Mulberry silk. Mullberry silk is obtained from Bombyx mori which feeds on leaves of Mulberry (Morus alba). Mulberry specially grown for silkworm is called Moriculture.

Pearl Culture :
Pearl is produced by members of phyllum mollusca. Pearl producing Indian variety is Pinctada vulgaris. Father of Pearl Industry is Kokichi Mikimoto.