ASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO (Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board) · India · Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersCamel, yak, mithun, donkey and mule, ducks and quail, and the pastoral and transhumant systems that keep them, plus wildlife management.
In the exams: Indian state PSC Veterinary Officer exams (e.g. RPSC: camel); ICAR AICE-JRF core group 05
How our questions for ASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO spread across the units of Livestock Production Management III: Species of Regional Interest. Difficulty: 39 easy, 51 medium, 23 hard.
| Camel management | 23 | |
| Wildlife management | 16 | |
| Transhumant production systems | 15 | |
| Donkey and mule management | 13 | |
| Yak management | 12 | |
| Pastoral production systems | 12 | |
| Mithun management | 9 | |
| Quail production | 7 | |
| Duck production | 6 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
The hump of the dromedary is chiefly a store of:
A. Fat that serves as an energy reserve
The hump is adipose tissue. Oxidising fat does produce metabolic water, but the hump is not a water tank; its size is a practical indicator of body condition.
In a traditional herd, a she-camel's gestation is 390 days and she conceives again 330 days after calving. Her calving interval in months (30.4 days per month) is about:
B. 24 months
Calving interval = gestation + calving-to-conception interval = 390 + 330 = 720 days = 23.7 months, about two years. Using gestation alone (13 months) ignores the open period, and adding a second gestation double-counts (1110 days, 37 months); 11 months is the 330-day open period alone.
Artificial insemination has spread far more slowly in camels than in cattle. The main biological reason is that camel semen:
C. Has a viscous, gel-like seminal plasma that hampers handling, dilution and freezing
The viscous seminal plasma of camelids makes it hard to separate, dilute and evaluate sperm, which complicates AI and cryopreservation; the need to induce ovulation adds a second hurdle. Camel breeding is in the cool season, not summer.
Neonatal isoerythrolysis is more common in mule foals than in horse foals because:
A. The foal inherits a donkey red-cell antigen that the mare forms antibodies against
Mares carrying mule foals can be sensitised to a donkey-specific red-cell antigen ('donkey factor'); antibodies in colostrum then destroy the foal's red cells after suckling. In a mule pregnancy the dam is a mare, not a jenny.
Mules are favoured over horses for military pack work in mountains. Which set of traits explains this?
D. Hybrid vigour with sure-footedness, endurance on poor feed and a calm, cautious temperament
Mules combine donkey hardiness, sure-footedness and caution with horse size and strength (heterosis). They are infertile, so units cannot breed replacements, and they are not faster than horses on the flat.
1000 quail eggs are set. Fertility is 85% and hatchability of fertile eggs is 80%. Hatchability on total eggs set is:
B. 68%
Chicks = 1000 x 0.85 x 0.8 = 680; on total set = 680/1000 = 68%. 80% is hatch of fertile eggs (HOF), a different index; 82.5% averages fertility and hatchability instead of multiplying them.
A sheep flock returning from alpine summer pastures has many animals with bottle jaw, weight loss and anaemia, and the summer grazing included wet, marshy meadows with snails. The most likely problem and the matching management step are:
D. Fasciolosis from snail habitat; flukicide on return and fencing off wet ground
Bottle jaw, anaemia and wasting after grazing snail-infested wet meadows point to Fasciola. Treatment after return (confirm the flukicide and dose against the label and your national formulary) and avoiding snail habitat break the cycle. Sudden concentrate feeding would worsen enterotoxaemia risk rather than prevent it.
Using Chapman's modification, N = (M + 1)(C + 1)/(R + 1) - 1, estimate the population when M = 40, C = 50 and R = 10.
C. 189
(41 x 51)/11 - 1 = 190.09 - 1 = 189.09, about 189. 200 is the uncorrected Lincoln-Petersen estimate; forgetting to subtract 1 gives 190; dividing by R instead of R + 1 gives 2091/10 - 1 = 208.
Gyps vulture populations in South Asia collapsed mainly because of:
B. Residues of the veterinary NSAID diclofenac in livestock carcasses
Vultures feeding on carcasses of cattle treated with diclofenac died of renal failure. India banned veterinary diclofenac in 2006; meloxicam is the vulture-safe alternative. Lead poisoning is a major issue for condors and eagles elsewhere.
In a biosphere reserve under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere programme, the three zones from inside outward are:
D. Core, buffer and transition
The strictly protected core is surrounded by a buffer zone with compatible uses, and an outer transition zone where settlements and sustainable development occur.
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