This chapter describes the history, taxonomy (morphological and molecular), centre of origin, spread of culture, and evolution of the cultivated forms of lentil. Lentils were domesticated, in the Near East or, more accurately, in the foothills of the mountains of southern Turkey and northern Syria. The raw materials were populations of orientalis, but primitive farmers could also have used some other species of the genus, whose similarity has been shown in this chapter, in mixed populations rather than in pure strands. But orientalis and odemensis forms are the most likely candidates to have been companion weeds of the cultigen. However, molecular marker analyses have indicated that the genetic variability within cultivated lentils is relatively low, which supports the idea that microsperma and macrosperma morphotypes are simple variants for quantitative traits resulting from disruptive selection. It is difficult to establish how much the wild relatives have contributed to the cultigen gene pool.

Domesticated fowls, pigeons and turkey birds were screened for avipoxvirus infection from different areas in Jammu region. Based on typical pox lesions the overall occurrence in fowl was found to be 18.52%, 17.03% in pigeons and 57.14% in turkeys. Mortality recorded in chicks was 41.96%, 45.36% in squabs, 100% in poults, and 20.00% in adult turkeys. Both cutaneous and diphtheritic forms of the disease was observed of which the latter was particularly prevalent in young birds. One sample of putative fowlpox virus (FWPV) from skin lesions of a fowl, and two samples of putative pigeonpox virus (PGPV) from skin and diphtheritic lesions each were inoculated on chorio-allantoic membrane (CAM) of 10-12 days old chicken embryonated eggs. A confirmatory diagnosis was made by PCR amplification of a highly conserved P4b gene locus detected in tissue samples from skin, diphtheritic membrane and virus inoculated CAM yielding a predicted 578 bp product. Phylogenetic analysis based on the same P4b gene locus revealed FWPV and turkeypox virus (TKPV) to be 99% related and belonging to clade 1, while PGPV was found to belong to clade 2. All three isolates illustrate considerable heterogeneity within the conserved P4b gene locus. The study indicates that the closely related FWPV and TKPV isolates may have the potential of cross infection between fowls and turkeys and therefore cross transmission studies are suggested.

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