Glossary
| Term | Explanation | Synonym / Example |
|---|---|---|
| Confined Production System | It refers to rearing conditions maintained for parent stock, which comprises hygienic and secure housing, provision of balanced feed, regular vaccination and monitoring of health conditions and productivity parameters. | |
| Intensive rearing | This is almost exclusively dependent on stall feeding of livestock with agriculture residue, cultivated fodder and high value feeds. | |
| Extensive rearing | Rearing systems under which livestock are grazed on open pasture lands and village common lands, with minor supplementation of feed. Usually livestock rearers combine open grazing rearing systems with stall-feeding, depending on the availability of fodder from the commons. | |
| Inbreeding | Reproduction from the mating of two genetically related parents is referred to as inbreeding. Inbreeding increases the chances of offspring being affected by recessive or deleterious traits, and decreases fitness of a population, which is called inbreeding depression. (Source – Wikipedia) | |
| Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) | Also known as prion (an infectious agent composed of mis-folded proteins in contrast to all other known infectious agents like virus, bacteria, fungus etc.) diseases, are a group of progressive conditions that affect the brain and nervous system of many animals, including humans. Mental and physical abilities deteriorate and myriad tiny holes appear in the cortex causing it to appear like a sponge (hence the term 'spongiform') when brain tissue obtained at autopsy is examined under a microscope. The disorders cause impairment of brain function, including memory changes, personality changes and problems with movement that worsen over time. (Source – Wikipedia) | |
| Cryoconservation/cryopreservation | This is a process where cells or whole tissues (frozen semen or embryos) are preserved by cooling to sub-zero temperatures (typically 77 K or −196 °C (the boiling point of liquid nitrogen). At these low temperatures, any biological activity, including bio-chemical reactions that would lead to cell death, are effectively stopped. (Source – Wikipedia) | |
| Bushveld | Pronounced as bushfelt, this term originates from the Afrikaans word ‘bosveld’, which is composed of the words ‘bos’ meaning ‘bush’, and 'veld’ meaning ‘field’. It has become a generic term to refer to the wild, open and unpopulated spaces of Sub-Saharan Africa, though nowadays it is more specifically used to refer to game reserves. (Source – The Safari Guide) | |
| Trypanotolerance | The ability of a few livestock breeds to survive, produce and reproduce in tsetse-trypanosome infected areas where other breeds cannot, without recourse to the use of chemical drugs.(Source - International Trypanotolerance Centre, The Gambia, West Africa) | |
| Hogget | A young sheep of either sex from about 9 to 18 months of age (until it cuts two teeth). | |
| Nucleus flock | It is not cost effective to include all animals in a breeding programme, on account of measurement and recording costs, and the difficulties of proper control. The solution is to concentrate effort on a few elite breeding animals, referred to as a nucleus flock. Nucleus flocks are ‘closed’ if only animals from the nucleus flock can contribute to genetic improvement of the nucleus population, and, are ‘open’ if sufficiently competitive animals from the general population are introduced into the nucleus. Open nucleus flocks have less inbreeding, and can benefit from the superior genetic potential of animals from the larger population, thereby yielding faster genetic progress. |
