The World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned on specific respiratory symptoms for suspecting an individual of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Meanwhile, many suspects are reporting dysfunctions of smell and taste. This study aimed to investigate the percentage of positive COVID-19 who had associated loss of sensation as detected by psychophysical testing. Eight hundred and thirty two suspects were enrolled. At the time of sampling for testing COVID-19 status, olfactory dysfunction (OD) and gustatory dysfunction (GD) tested using odorants like coffee and camphor and solutions of sweet and salty solvants, respectively. The strength of the association between test results of these sensory losses and COVID-19 positivity was assessed by calculating sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values. The responses in positive and negative individuals presented as age-adjusted odds ratio with 95% CI. Seventy six (9.1%) [95% CI: 7.4%-11.3%] of 832 suspects were tested positive for COVID-19. Paediatric cases of age between 2 and 10 years could not reply appropriately, hence OD in 134 and GD in 118 could not be tested. Anosmia or hyposmia was present in 62 (81.6%) and ageusia in 64 (84.2%) of the total 76 confirmed cases. The OD and GD dysfunctions were significantly higher among confirmed COVID-19 cases compared to negative subjects [ Adj OR (95% CI): Smell 3.22 (1.77-5.88); taste 3.05 (1.61-5.76), p \ 0.001]. In this study, testing of smell and taste dysfunctions had higher sensitivity in identifying recent-onset loss of sensations in COVID-19 cases. Hence, it may be used as a simple and cost-effective screening test.

A study was conducted to assess production performance, feed efficiency and their correlation in lactating Kankrej cows at organized farm. The variables such as average dry matter intake, milk yield, milk composition and feed efficiency were evaluated in 49 lactating Kankrej cows over a period of 30 days. The mean dry matter intake was 9.71±0.08 kg/d. The average milk yield and energy corrected milk were 12.45±0.35 kg/d and 14.27±0.47 kg/d, respectively. Feed efficiency was 1.48±0.05 in Kankrej cows, and it was significantly affected by average milk yield and energy corrected milk. The average milk yield and energy corrected milk were highly correlated with feed efficiency. Pearson’s square correlation coefficient was 0.96 between feed efficiency and energy corrected milk.

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The present investigation was undertaken to study the effect of non-genetic factors, viz., service period (SP), dry period (DP) and gestation period (GP) on various milk production traits in Kankrej cattle. 1235 lactation records (2nd-7th) of 475 Kankrej cows, progeny of 75 bulls that were maintained at University Livestock Research Station, Sardarkrushinagar (Gujarat), calved during 1980-2014, were studied. The effects of service period (111.64 ± 52.55 days) and dry period (143.17±28.78 days) on total lactation milk yield (2089.45±582.38 kg),305 days milk yield (2045.66±531.92 kg) and lactation length (282.90±49.46 days) were highly significant (pis less than 0.01), while the effect of gestation period (288.86±7.14 days) was non-significant on all these production traits. Cows which took more time to conceive after parturition produced more milk with longer lactation length