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 papersThe lesions of specific infectious diseases and poisonings, how to perform a post-mortem and dispatch samples, and the basics of clinical pathology.
In the exams: ICAR AICE-JRF core group 06; ICAR AIEEA-PG 13 (Pathology); ECFVG / NEB CPE necropsy section
How our questions for ASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO spread across the units of Special Pathology, Necropsy & Clinical Pathology. Difficulty: 31 easy, 31 medium, 10 hard.
| Pathology of bacterial diseases | 8 | |
| Pathology of viral diseases | 8 | |
| Histopathology | 7 | |
| Pathology of toxicoses | 7 | |
| Clinical haematology | 7 | |
| Diseases of laboratory animals | 7 | |
| Diseases of wild animals | 7 | |
| Post-mortem technique | 6 | |
| Collection and dispatch of samples | 6 | |
| Cytology | 5 | |
| Urinalysis | 4 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Samples for toxicological analysis should be sent:
C. Frozen in separate clean containers without preservative
Preservatives interfere with analysis and pooling allows cross-contamination. Freezing stops decomposition of many toxins; whole blood is refrigerated rather than frozen.
Further reading: WOAH Terrestrial Manual; King JM et al., The Necropsy Book
In routine tissue processing, the step that follows dehydration in graded alcohols is:
C. Clearing, for example in xylene
Order: fixation, dehydration, clearing, infiltration and embedding, sectioning, staining. Clearing replaces alcohol with a solvent miscible with paraffin; embedding cannot come first because alcohol and paraffin do not mix.
Further reading: Bancroft's Theory and Practice of Histological Techniques, 8th ed.
Which stain is most appropriate to demonstrate Lawsonia intracellularis in the apical cytoplasm of crypt enterocytes in porcine proliferative enteropathy?
D. Warthin-Starry silver stain
Warthin-Starry silver shows small curved bacteria such as Lawsonia and spirochaetes. Lawsonia is not acid-fast; immunohistochemistry is an alternative.
Further reading: Bancroft's Theory and Practice of Histological Techniques, 8th ed.
Petechial haemorrhages throughout the renal cortex ('turkey-egg kidney'), marginal splenic infarcts and button ulcers in the colon of a pig suggest:
B. Classical swine fever
These three lesions together are classical of classical swine fever, though African swine fever must be ruled out in the laboratory. Porcine parvovirus causes reproductive failure, and TGE causes villous atrophy without haemorrhage.
Further reading: Zachary JF, Pathologic Basis of Veterinary Disease, 7th ed.; Jubb, Kennedy and Palmer's Pathology of Domestic Animals, 6th ed.
In a dog, large intranuclear inclusion bodies in hepatocytes and endothelial cells with oedema of the gall bladder wall are typical of:
C. Infectious canine hepatitis (canine adenovirus 1)
CAdV-1 causes hepatic necrosis with intranuclear inclusions and gall bladder oedema. Distemper inclusions are found in epithelium of the bladder, bronchi and stomach and in glial cells.
Further reading: Zachary JF, Pathologic Basis of Veterinary Disease, 7th ed.; Jubb, Kennedy and Palmer's Pathology of Domestic Animals, 6th ed.
Vaginal cytology from a bitch shows nearly all epithelial cells as superficial, cornified cells with no neutrophils. This indicates:
B. Oestrus
Cornification peaks in oestrus. At the onset of dioestrus, intermediate and parabasal cells and neutrophils return abruptly; anoestrus shows mainly parabasal and intermediate cells.
Further reading: Raskin RE, Meyer DJ, Canine and Feline Cytology, 3rd ed.
Dilated bile ducts with hyperplastic epithelium full of coccidial oocysts in a rabbit liver indicate infection with:
D. Eimeria stiedae
E. stiedae is the hepatic coccidium of rabbits. E. tenella is a caecal coccidium of chickens.
Further reading: Fox JG et al., Laboratory Animal Medicine, 3rd ed.
Chronic respiratory disease of laboratory rats with bronchiectasis and lung abscesses is most commonly caused by:
D. Mycoplasma pulmonis
Murine respiratory mycoplasmosis causes rhinitis, otitis media and chronic bronchopneumonia with bronchiectasis. Viruses such as Sendai may worsen it. S. moniliformis is carried by rats and causes rat-bite fever in people.
Further reading: Fox JG et al., Laboratory Animal Medicine, 3rd ed.
Chronic wasting disease affects:
C. Deer, elk and moose
CWD is a prion disease of cervids. Scrapie is the prion disease of sheep and goats.
Further reading: Zachary JF, Pathologic Basis of Veterinary Disease, 7th ed.; WOAH wildlife disease information
A fungal pathogen of amphibian skin that disrupts electrolyte transport and has caused declines worldwide is:
A. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
B. dendrobatidis causes chytridiomycosis in amphibians. P. destructans causes white-nose syndrome in hibernating bats.
Further reading: Zachary JF, Pathologic Basis of Veterinary Disease, 7th ed.; WOAH wildlife disease information
Ten here, 72 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
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