The present investigation was conducted to find out the effect of different analgesic drugs in sheep. A series of 30 analgesic trials (caudal epidural analgesia) were conducted in sheep with 2% lignocaine hydrochloride (LH), 2% lignocaine hydrochloride with adrenaline (LHA) and 0.5% bupivacaine hydrochloride (BH) in Veterinary Clinic, BAU, Mymensingh during January to April 2007. Analgesic injection was administered into low epidural space in 3 groups (A, B and C), each consisting of 10 apparently healthy sheep aged between 1 and 1.5 years. Effects of analgesic drugs on heart rate, respiration rate and rectal temperature were monitored. Heart rates significantly decreased but respiration rates decreased nonsignificantly and rectal temperature non significantly increased during low epidural analgesia with 0.5% BH. Heart rates and respiration rates increased significantly when 2% LH and 2% LHA were used. LH (2%) showed rapid spreading and was also free from any side effect. Duration of analgesia was prolonged with 2% LH compared to other analgesic drugs. Peak point of analgesia was more with 2% LHA as compare to other analgesic drugs. There was no significant difference between 0.5% BH and 2% LHA in terms of their analgesic effect. Drowsiness, tympany and shivering were observed when 0.5% BH was used. It appears from the present study that 2% LH was more effective in low epidural analgesia.

Behavioral laterality is widely found among vertebrates, but has been little studied in aquatic invertebrates. We examined behavioral laterality in attacks on prey shrimp by the cuttlefish, Sepia lycidas, and correlated this to their morphological asymmetry. Behavioral tests in the laboratory revealed significant individual bias for turning either clockwise or counterclockwise toward prey, suggesting behavioral dimorphism in foraging behavior. Morphological bias was examined by measuring the curvature of the cuttlebone; in some the cuttlebone was convex to the right (righty), while in others, the cuttlebone was convex to the left (lefty). The frequency distributions of an index of cuttlebone asymmetry were bimodal, indicating that populations were composed of two types of individuals: "righty" and "lefty." Moreover, an individual's laterality in foraging behavior corresponded with the asymmetry of its cuttlebone, with righty individuals tending to turn counterclockwise and lefty ones in the opposite direction. These results indicate that cuttlefish exhibit behavioral dimorphism and morphological antisymmetry in natural populations. The presence of two types of lateral morph in cuttlefish provides new information on the relationship between antisymmetric morphologies and the evolution of individual laterality in behavioral responses in cephalopods. The implications of these findings for the interpretation of ecological meaning and maintenance mechanisms of laterality in cuttlefish are also discussed.

The study was conducted to know the cyclic changes in gonadal maturation and to investigate the developmental stages of oocytes and testicular germ cells of an air-breathing fish, Channa striata. Fish were sampled monthly from lentic and lotic environments of three geographical locations of Bangladesh from December to November and the histological analysis of their gonad was done to evaluate the objectives. The highest mean GSI was 5.95 ± 0.20 for female in July and 0.14 ± 0.01 for male also in July showing that the gonadal development reached its peak during this month. The highest mean oocyte diameter was 1257.50 ± 24.17 μm observed in July implying that the oocyte reached maturity in this month. Histological study of ovary revealed the evidence of early yolk granule stage and late yolk granule stage from April to July. In case of male four stages of spermatogenesis were distinguished and spermatozoa were highly abundant in June and July. So the monthly pooled values of GSI and the analysis of gonadal histology indicated that the peak breeding season of C. striata occurred in July in the lentic and lotic environments. Samples collected from lentic and lotic habitats are suggestive of no difference in the development of the gonad. The results of the present study will be useful for selective breeding programme, conservation and sustainable fishery management of C. striata in its natural habitat.

Retention of fetal membrane (RFM) in dairy cows is a common complication after parturition due to failure of the separation of villi of fetal cotyledon from crypts of maternal caruncles and affects on reproductive cycle. The present study was conducted in 594 cows of 15 different dairy farms of Sylhet district. The data was collected by direct interviewing of the farmers in a prescribed questionnaires data sheet and data record from the register of the contracted farms. The overall incidence of retained placenta was 17.51 %.The cross bred dairy cows had higher incidence (14.14%) of RFM compared to local one (3.04%) and differ significantly (p <0 .05). The parity and age of the animals had substantial effect on retention of fetal membrane in dairy cows. The incidence of RFM had notably increased from 1st parity (10.04 %) to 7th parity (57.14 %) and the highest observation was found at more than 7 years and lowest at the age below 3 years of age. The season, sex of calves, body condition of the animals and level of vitamin AD3E before parturition had significant effect on incidence of RFM in dairy cows. The RFM affected cows were treated either with intra muscular injection of oxytocin or herbal drug Eutoklin and manually removing the retained membrane. RFM affected post partum first estrus, service per conception, day’s open and calving interval significantly on parturated cows compared to normal delivered cows. Younger healthy cows, supply of balanced diet, sufficient daily exercise; comfortable calving areas should be maintained to reduce the incidence of RFM.International Journal of Natural Sciences (2015), 5(2) 93-97

An investigation was carried out in the Matshaya Rani (fish queen) Fish sanctuary to evaluate the hydrographic status, natural food and SIS (small indigenous species) abundance in the old Brahmaputra River near the BAU campus. There were three treatment sites-inside sanctuary, upstream and downstream of the sanctuary named as treatments T 1 , T 2 and T 3 , respectively. A number of water quality parameters such as temperature ( ) were recorded and were found within the suitable range for natural food and SIS in different treatments. Among all the water quality parameters, only water transparency and depth showed significant difference (P < 0.05) among the treatments. Forty three genera of phytoplankton belonging to Bacillariophyceae (10), Chlorophyceae (22), Cyanophyceae (8), and Euglenophyceae (3) and nine genera of zooplankton were identified belonging to Rotifera (4) and Crustacea (5) in all the treatments. None of plankton group except Cyanophyceae and Rotifera showed significant difference (p < 0.05) among the treatments. Thirty two species of SIS under ten groups were found in different treatments. The highest number of species was found in treatment T 1 (30) followed by T 2 (25) and T 3 (24). The catfishes, loaches and minnows dominated among thirty two species caught from the sampling sites. The highest numbers of species were found in April and May and the least species were found the month of January. Significant inter month and inter site variation (P < 0.05) in numerical abundance of fish observed in the study area. Notable endangered fishes, Kanchan puti-(Puntius conchonius), Balichata (Acanthocobitis botia), Indian torrent catfish-Amblyceps mangois and Chaka-(Chaca chaca) species were only found in Matshaya Rani Fish sanctuary. The natural food abundance and SIS diversity were significantly more in the inside of Matshaya Rani Fish sanctuary than both the upstream and downstream of the sanctuary.