National Veterinary Examination (獣医師国家試験) · Japan · Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), with the Veterinary Affairs Council
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersBreeds, housing, feeding, breeding and record keeping for cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats: the husbandry a field veterinarian advises on every day.
In the exams: Nepal NLEV Animal Husbandry 15 items (its largest block); PRC Zootechnics 12%; ICAR AICE-JRF core group 05; ICAR AIEEA-PG 14 (LPM); RPSC Part A (breeds and home tracts of Rajasthan); TNPSC LPM 20
How our questions for National Veterinary Examination spread across the units of Livestock Production Management I: General Principles and Ruminants. Difficulty: 19 easy, 20 medium, 3 hard.
| Care of calves and heifers | 5 | |
| Clean milk production | 5 | |
| Feeding management | 4 | |
| Reproduction management | 4 | |
| Care of pregnant and lactating animals | 4 | |
| Breeds and home tracts of cattle and buffalo | 3 | |
| Housing and shelter management | 3 | |
| Breeding management | 3 | |
| Identification methods | 3 | |
| Dentition and ageing | 3 | |
| Breeds and home tracts of sheep and goats | 2 | |
| Farm records | 2 | |
| Livestock economics | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
A buffalo breed with 50 chromosomes, jet-black coat and short, tightly curled horns, used in the Philippines to upgrade the native carabao, is:
D. Murrah
Murrah, a river buffalo (2n = 50) from Haryana, has tightly curled horns and has been imported to cross with the carabao, a swamp buffalo (2n = 48). Jaffarabadi has heavy drooping horns; Nili-Ravi has white markings and wall eyes.
Further reading: Sastry & Thomas, Livestock Production Management; ICAR Handbook of Animal Husbandry
Which goat breed originated in Switzerland and is often called the queen of dairy goats?
B. Saanen
Saanen, white and from Switzerland, is the highest-yielding dairy goat. Boer is a South African meat goat, Angora a Turkish mohair goat, and Anglo-Nubian an English dual-purpose breed.
Further reading: Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds
The Dorper sheep of South Africa was developed from which parent breeds?
B. Dorset Horn and Blackhead Persian
The Dorper is a hair-meat breed from Dorset Horn x Blackhead Persian. Merino x long-wool (Lincoln or Leicester) gave the Corriedale.
Further reading: Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds
In hot tropical climates, the long axis of a cattle shed is usually oriented:
C. East-west
An east-west long axis lets the morning and evening sun fall on the short end walls, so the roof shades the floor for most of the day. North-south orientation exposes the long sides to low-angle sun.
Further reading: Sastry & Thomas, Livestock Production Management; ICAR Handbook of Animal Husbandry
Why do buffalo need shade and a wallow or sprinklers more urgently than cattle in hot summers?
D. They have dark skin and relatively few sweat glands
Dark skin absorbs radiant heat and the buffalo's sparse sweat glands limit evaporative cooling, so it depends on wallowing and shade. Buffalo can pant, and their body temperature and rumen fermentation are not the key differences.
Further reading: Sastry & Thomas, Livestock Production Management; ICAR Handbook of Animal Husbandry
A farmer has 120 ewes and plans one mature ram per 40 ewes. How many working rams are needed, excluding any spare?
B. 3
Rams = 120 / 40 = 3. Adding a spare would make 4, but the question asks for working rams, and 2 subtracts a spare instead; 40 is the ratio, not the number.
Further reading: Sastry & Thomas, Livestock Production Management; ICAR Handbook of Animal Husbandry
Why is artificial insemination preferred over natural service in controlling bovine trichomoniasis and campylobacteriosis?
B. Both are venereal diseases spread by infected bulls at coitus
Tritrichomonas foetus and Campylobacter fetus venerealis are carried in the bull's prepuce and transmitted at mating; AI with semen from tested bulls breaks the cycle. They are not tick- or colostrum-borne, and cryoprotectants do not kill them.
Further reading: Noakes et al., Veterinary Reproduction and Obstetrics
Using Shaeffer's formula, estimate the body weight of a cow with body length 60 inches and heart girth 70 inches.
B. About 980 lb
Weight (lb) = L x G2 / 300 = 60 x 4,900 / 300 = 294,000 / 300 = 980 lb (about 445 kg). 1,400 lb comes from 70 x 60 / 3, a garbled formula; 14 lb forgets to square the girth (60 x 70 / 300); 196 lb divides by 1,500 instead of 300.
Further reading: Sastry & Thomas (Shaeffer's formula)
Newborn calves depend on colostrum for antibodies because:
C. The ruminant placenta does not transfer immunoglobulins to the fetus
The synepitheliochorial placenta of ruminants blocks transfer of immunoglobulins, so the newborn is agammaglobulinaemic and relies on colostral antibodies absorbed by the gut in the first hours of life.
Further reading: Noakes et al.; calf-rearing texts
Immediately after birth, the navel of a calf is dipped in tincture of iodine to:
B. Prevent navel infection and joint ill
Disinfecting and drying the navel reduces omphalitis and the joint ill that can follow. Tying, not iodine, controls haemorrhage; iodine on the navel is not a nutritional source.
Further reading: Calf-rearing texts
Ten here, 42 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to National Veterinary Examination 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.
Free for ten days, then one subscription of US$10 a month. We would rather say so here than have you find it later.
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