Glossary
| Term | Explanation | Synonym / Example |
|---|---|---|
| Backyard poultry | Traditional poultry rearing generally undertaken by women of poor, marginalized house-holds. The birds are raised in a semi-scavenging system, for household nutrition and food, and supplementary income. Usually small flocks of one to ten desi/improved birds are raised in homestead areas or on farms close to homestead areas. | |
| Beam House | In leather processing, the beam house is a place where the initial wet operations of tanning or pre-tanning requiring soaking in water and solutions of alkali, are carried out. | |
| Bedding | Material scattered on the floor of a chicken coop to absorb moisture and manure. Commonly used material is straw, hay, rice husk, saw dust etc. | |
| Bio-security | Management measures taken to prevent disease causing agents from entering or leaving any place housing livestock. | |
| Biotic pressure | The tendency of a species or community to extend its range. | |
| Blue-tongue | Blue-tongue is a non-contagious vector borne viral disease affecting sheep. The virus is an arbovirus (Arbovirus is a term used to refer to a group of viruses that are transmitted by arthropod vectors such as fleas, ticks and spiders) that naturally infects domestic animals and is transmitted by several species of Culicoides (biting midges). The insect vectors of the blue-tongue virus breed in moist conditions in a variety of habitats, particularly damp, muddy areas and in faecal and plant matter. | |
| Booster | Vaccination that follows the first in a series. | |
| Breed | A group of organisms having common ancestors and certain distinguishable characteristics, especially a group within a species developed by artificial selection and maintained by controlled propagation. | |
| Broiler | A young meat-type chicken, usually 7-8 weeks of age, of either sex, usually weighing between 1 1/2 to 2 Kg. | |
| Broody | The maternal instinct causing a female to sit or want to hatch eggs. |
