ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) · India · NTA for ICAR
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
ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD), core group 05 - Livestock Production Management
Adaptation physiology (camel water economy and heterothermy, yak hypoxia tolerance), hybrid fertility and chromosome numbers, pastoral range ecology and carrying capacity, wildlife population estimation and the economics of regional species.
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Livestock Production Management III: Species of Regional Interest. Difficulty: 0 easy, 20 medium, 16 hard.
| Wildlife management | 8 | |
| Pastoral production systems | 7 | |
| Camel management | 6 | |
| Transhumant production systems | 5 | |
| Yak management | 4 | |
| Mithun management | 2 | |
| Donkey and mule management | 2 | |
| Duck production | 1 | |
| Quail production | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Which statement about the camelid stomach is correct?
A. It has three compartments with glandular sacs in the first two and no separate omasum
Camelids have a three-compartment stomach (C1, C2, C3) with glandular saccules in C1 and C2 and true gastric glands only in the distal C3, so they are called pseudo-ruminants. They ruminate, but there is no omasum and no four-chamber arrangement.
Ovulation in the female dromedary occurs:
C. After mating, induced by an ovulation-inducing factor in seminal plasma
Camelids are induced ovulators: ovulation follows mating and is triggered by an ovulation-inducing factor in seminal plasma identified as beta-nerve growth factor. They show follicular waves, not a spontaneous oestrous cycle with a luteal phase, so the 21-day cattle model does not apply.
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.
A 170 kg donkey pulls a cart with a sustained draught force equal to 12% of its body weight, walking at 0.8 m/s. Taking g = 9.81 m/s^2, its working power is about:
A. 160 W
Force = 0.12 x 170 x 9.81 = 200 N. Power = force x speed = 200 x 0.8 = 160 W (about 0.21 hp). Forgetting g gives 16; 200 is the force in newtons, not power; 250 divides force by speed instead of multiplying.
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.
Which pair correctly matches the type of transhumance with an example?
A. Vertical: Alpine summer pastures; horizontal: Sahel herds following the rains
Vertical (altitudinal) transhumance moves stock up and down mountains, as in the Alps and Himalaya. Horizontal transhumance crosses plains, as in the Sahel and Rajasthan.
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.
A logistically growing antelope population has carrying capacity K = 1000 and intrinsic rate of increase r = 0.4 per year. The maximum sustainable yield and the population size at which it is obtained are:
B. 100 per year at 500 animals
MSY = rK/4 = 0.4 x 1000 / 4 = 100 per year, taken when N = K/2 = 500. At N = K growth is zero, so no yield is sustainable there; 400 at 1000 is rK, forgetting the /4 and taking yield at K.
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