ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) · India · NTA for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) is a PhD, fellowship and lectureship exam run by NTA for ICAR, for candidates in India. Computer-based, 2 hours, 120 questions: Part A 20 (general agriculture, animal husbandry, current events), Part B 50 (core group), Part C 50 (specialised subject). +4 / -1, maximum 480.
Source: icar.org.in.
Checked against the exam body's published information. Formats and fees change; confirm the current edition there before you book.
Muscle structure and the sarcomere, post-mortem glycolysis and rigor phases, PSE and DFD, cold shortening and electrical stimulation, calpain-calpastatin ageing, myoglobin chemistry, curing chemistry and ingredients, meat emulsions, sausage casings, fermented products, by-product categories and rendering, gelatin types, wool fibre structure and Indian wool breeds, packaging atmospheres; short calculations of dressing percentage, pump rate and brine strength.
From live animal to packaged meat: abattoir design, stunning and slaughter, carcass fabrication, the conversion of muscle to meat, meat and poultry products, and by-products including wool.
Our 32 ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF questions in this subject: 0 easy, 8 medium, 24 hard, across 10 units.
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
These 10 were written to ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF and are not shown on any other exam's page.
The natural inhibitor of the calpain system whose higher activity is associated with tougher beef from Bos indicus cattle is:
A. Calpastatin
Calpastatin inhibits the calcium-activated calpains; higher calpastatin in Bos indicus muscle slows post-mortem tenderisation. Cathepsins are lysosomal proteases; desmin and titin are substrates, not inhibitors.
Cold shortening is most likely when:
A. Pre-rigor lamb or beef muscle, pH still above about 6.2, is chilled below about 10 degrees C
Cold shortening requires muscle that still has ATP (pre-rigor, high pH) and is chilled below about 10 degrees C, so calcium escapes the sarcoplasmic reticulum and the muscle contracts. Once rigor is complete, chilling or freezing does not cause shortening.
Why is anaerobic treatment commonly used before aerobic treatment for abattoir effluent?
D. It treats high-strength organic effluent cheaply and yields biogas; aerobic treatment then polishes it
Anaerobic processes reduce heavy BOD/COD loads without the energy cost of aeration and yield methane; aerobic processes then reduce residual load before discharge. Anaerobic treatment does not remove all nutrients or inactivate prions.
A pig abattoir wants to reduce both PSE and bruising. Which lairage practice is most appropriate?
A. Keep pigs in their original groups, give water and a short rest, and never mix unfamiliar pigs
Mixing causes fighting (bruising, glycogen depletion); acute stress just before stunning raises PSE; very long fasting causes DFD. Stable groups, water, rest and calm movement address all three.
During an audit of a cattle line using penetrating captive bolts, 6 of 150 animals needed a second shot. What is the first-shot failure rate?
C. 4 percent
Failure rate = 6 / 150 x 100 = 4 percent. 0.04 is the fraction, not the percentage; 6 percent treats the count as a percentage; 25 inverts the ratio (150 / 6). The auditor then looks for causes: bolt maintenance, cartridge strength, position, restraint and operator fatigue.
A cutting test on an 80 kg beef hindquarter yields 56 kg saleable boneless meat, 14 kg bone and 10 kg fat trim. What is the saleable meat yield?
A. 70.0 percent
Yield = saleable meat / hindquarter weight x 100 = 56/80 x 100 = 70 percent. Including fat trim gives 82.5; dividing by bone-free weight gives 84.8; 17.5 percent is the bone fraction.
A ham brine is injected at a 12 percent pump and must give 120 ppm ingoing sodium nitrite in the pumped product. How much sodium nitrite is needed per 100 kg of brine?
B. 112 g
Nitrite in brine = 120 x (112)/12 = 1120 ppm = 1120 mg/kg; for 100 kg brine = 112 g. Ignoring the added brine weight (x100/pump) gives 100 g; using the product target directly gives 12 g; 13.44 g is the nitrite in the 112 kg of pumped product (120 x 112 mg), not per 100 kg of brine. Legal nitrite limits vary by country and product.
A salami-type sausage has a dry, hard outer ring while its centre remains moist and soft. This defect is called case hardening and is caused by:
A. Drying too fast at too low a humidity
Fast surface drying seals the outer layer, trapping moisture inside. Drying rooms must control humidity so the surface loses water no faster than water moves out from the centre.
Broiler carcasses weigh 1.60 kg before immersion chilling and 1.68 kg after. What is the water uptake?
D. 5.0 percent
Uptake = (after - before) / before x 100 = 0.08/1.60 x 100 = 5.0 percent. Dividing by the chilled weight gives 4.76; 105.0 is the chilled weight as a percentage of the original. Many countries limit and require declaration of retained water.
Attributes such as halal certification, animal welfare standards and origin that consumers cannot verify by inspecting the meat are called:
D. Credence attributes
Search attributes are visible before purchase (colour, fat), experience attributes are judged on eating (tenderness), and credence attributes must be trusted, so they depend on certification and labelling.
This plan follows where our questions actually fall, so the time goes where the marks are likely to be. It is our reading of the syllabus, not the exam body's weighting.
Read the manual chapters for these first and do every worked question you can find on them.
Aim for one sitting per unit, then mixed questions across them.
Learn the definitions, classifications and standard numbers; these units are more often recalled than worked.
Come back to these after a first pass, untimed, and read every explanation, including for the options you rejected.
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