Cows in shelters in India suffer from chronic stress: Study
Hyderabad: Chronic stress due to health and management issues like old age, improper flooring and cleanliness, besides others, plague cows kept in various shelters in the country, according to a study.
The findings were arrived at after analysing hair samples of 549 non-lactating cows aged 11 years, from 54 shelters across India, which showed high cortisol levels.
The researchers studied the correlation between hair cortisol levels in these cows with their living conditions in cow shelters.
Cortisol, a lipid-based hormone, is known to be released under physiological stress conditions. Because of the hair sebum's affinity for lipids, the circulating cortisol gets accumulated in the hair shaft over time.
The three member team comprised Dr G Umapathy and Dr Vinod Kumar at the CSIR- Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB),Hyderabad, Dr Arvind Sharma at Himachal Veterinary University in India, and Prof Clive Phillips University at Queensland, Australia.
"The results of the study suggest that cows in these shelters suffer chronic stress due to health and management issues such as old age, low quality feeding practices, less area/cow,improper flooring and cleanliness.
This study has been published in the journal Animals," a release from CCMB said.
The findings open up possibilities of animal welfare based reforms in designing animal shelters and managing them scientifically, it said, adding these issues are important for a country like India with the policy of retiring abandoned and non-lactating cows in shelters without clear welfare policies.
CCMB said using hair cortisol levels as a marker for stress levels in animals is increasingly used in veterinary research as the method is painless and more reliable than other available techniques in measuring long term stress.
It said checking for physiological stress levels in animals usually involves checking for hormones in blood, saliva, urine or faeces. But procuring these samples can be "invasive", making them difficult for studying animals on field, the release said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
FIR filed after e-commerce platform linked tech firm alleges SMS spoofing fraud
Bengaluru (PTI): An FIR has been registered against unknown people for allegedly sending fraudulent messages in the name of an e-commerce platform with promises of cash rewards, further disrupting its operations, police said on Wednesday.
The offence is said to have taken place between April 23 and April 27, they said.
A representative of city-based technology company Hiveloop Technology Pvt Ltd (HTPL), part of the Udaan group (eB2B platform), has lodged a complaint alleging a large-scale SMS spoofing fraud following which a detailed investigation has been initiated into the matter, a senior police officer said.
According to the FIR, HTPL is a registered entity on the TRAI-mandated DLT platform, which permits only pre-approved SMS templates and whitelisted URLs to be sent through authorised sender IDs.
The issue came to light on April 23, when HTPL received alerts from buyers about fraudulent SMS messages appearing to originate from the company's sender ID "UDAANN". The messages reportedly contained Bitly links and falsely claimed a credit of Rs 10,001, urging recipients to withdraw money, it said.
On April 27, at around 12:49 pm, the DLT platform blacklisted HTPL's SMS templates, citing their alleged use in sending fraudulent messages. Within minutes, the company's sender ID was also blacklisted. Airtel's DLT system subsequently confirmed the action and shared details of the fraudulent messages that were circulated in HTPL's name without its knowledge or consent, the FIR stated.
Following this, the company's messaging operations were affected, and even legitimate communications such as one-time passwords to buyers began failing. Later, the DLT operator suspended HTPL's entire account following complaints raised on TRAI's Chakshu platform, bringing all SMS services of the company to a halt, it further stated.
HTPL has stated that neither it nor its authorised vendors sent the fraudulent messages. The links embedded in the messages reportedly redirected users to an online betting website, the FIR stated.
The company has claimed that the incident has resulted in a complete breakdown of SMS-based services, including buyer authentication, order updates and promotional communication, leading to significant financial losses.
At least 13 victims have been identified so far, with the possibility of more affected users. Victims were allegedly directed to an online betting platform, raising concerns of potential financial fraud, the FIR added.
