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.
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Kangana Ranaut shown black flags in Himachal's Lahaul and Spiti, BJP files complaint with CEO
Shimla, May 20: Actor Kangana Ranaut, BJP candidate from the Mandi parliamentary constituency, was shown black flags by local people and Congress workers at Kaza in Lahaul and Spiti on Monday.
The Himachal Pradesh BJP filed a complaint with the state chief electoral officer (CEO) demanding transfer of election officials and an investigation into the incident as both the BJP and the Congress were given permission to hold rallies adjacent to each other.
The Congress workers raised anti-Kangana slogans - "Kangana, go back, Kangana Vangana nahi chalegi". They were apparently enraged over her remarks on Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in April last year.
Ranaut had tweeted a meme featuring the Dalai Lama that said, "The Dalai Lama receives a warm welcome at the White house". The photoshopped picture in the tweet showed the Dalai Lama sticking his tongue out with US President Joe Biden with a comment - Both of them have the same illness, definitely they could be friends.
Following this, a group of Buddhists staged a dharna outside her office in Mumbai.
Later she apologised saying she didn't mean to hurt anyone, and it was a harmless joke about Biden being friends with the Dalai Lama.
Leader of the Opposition in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Jai Ram Thakur, who had accompanied Ranaut to Kaza to campaign for the BJP, on Monday alleged that the Congress workers tried to disturb the meeting of the BJP and pelted stones on their carcade while they were returning.
Talking to reporters, he said, "It is unfortunate that for the first time, permission was given to hold a parallel rally at the venue to the Congress where prior permission was already granted to the BJP to hold the rally.
Efforts were made to disturb our rally and the Congress workers raised shameful slogans, stopped our carcade and pelted stones, injuring one person."
Thakur added that they go for campaigning all over the state but such things have happened for the first time, which shows "frustration" of the Congress and they would take up the issue with the Election Commission.
Later, in a complaint filed with the Himachal Pradesh CEO, BJP state office secretary Parmod Kumar Thakur said the Congress workers allegedly tried to illegally restrain the political procession and even pelted stones and demanded an investigation into the incident.
"The district administration granted permission for organising a political meeting to the Congress adjacent to the place already scheduled to hold a political meeting of the BJP at Kaza under undue influence of the state government in utter violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC)", he said.
In the complaint, the BJP demanded the immediate transfer of election officials from Lahaul and Spiti and said giving permission to both the parties at the same location at the same time was a "big lapse" on the part of the Election Commission "in spite of the fact that permission to the BJP was provided first and the officers involved in this act are biased against the BJP, and free and fair elections are doubtful under the circumstances."
Lahaul and Spiti SP Mayank Chowdhary told PTI that workers of both the BJP and the ruling Congress came face to face but there was no clash and no person was injured. However, one worker sprained his leg, he added.
Bhishan Shashni, Congress election coordinator for Lahaul and Spiti claimed that the Congress workers were peacefully protesting but a large number of people, who were hurt by Ranaut's remarks about the Tibetan spiritual leader, joined the protest.
Earlier, Congress candidate from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat Vikramaditya Singh had asked why Ranaut did not visit Spiti and returned from Reckong Peo alleging that she was afraid she would be shown black flags for her remarks against the Dalai Lama.
