Dr.

Bhaskar Ganguly
Ph.D., M.V.Sc., B.V.Sc. & A.H.

KEY AREAS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Data collection
Archiving of Information
Computer-assisted Disease Diagnosis
Livestock Product Management
Bio-informatics/ Computational modeling
Extension/ Teaching Aid
Organizational Aid
Laboratory Aid

1. Data collection
Livestock census
Total national livestock population is >> 1 billion (= ?)
Approx. 0.5 billion (excluding poultry)
Large number of livestock are reared in inaccessible
areas

A much needed data collection system!

Disease reporting e.g. National Animal Disease

Reporting System (NADRS)
contd

National Animal Disease Reporting System

(NADRS)

contd

2. Archiving of Information
Diseases and Pathogens, Therapies, Case
reports, Traditional Medicine, Biological
sequences, Bio-molecular attributes, Geospatial data, Literature, etc.
Omics (Genome; Proteome; Lipome;
Glycome; Metabolome; Interactome; Organspecific -omes, for example, Mammome,
Hepatome, etc.)

China has come up with a system that utilizes

satellite based information on migratory waterfowl for the prediction and monitoring of Bird
Flu.

3. Computer-assisted Disease Diagnosis

Lack of sufficient number of primary
veterinary service providers
Specialized veterinary support is often not
available
Rushing to the library or searching a text-book
is seldom an option.
A second opinion may be valuable!

E.g. CONSULTANT (Cornell University)

A Computer-assisted Veterinary Diagnosis Program free
to access on the WWW
Based on old database (1998)

Need for a stand-alone Indian Program!

4. Livestock Product Management

Who told u
it was a
hen?

Which hen laid the

egg that I had for
breakfast today?

Impossible to answer for an average Indian consumer

Knowing whether the animal was healthy/ sick/ under
medication is just as impossible
Urgent need for a system that tracks a product from
source through processing till it reaches the
consumer

Nanobarcode devices are under trial; once

injected these would remain in the circulation
and appear in the product (milk, meat, egg,
wool).
The consumers can trace the nano-code back to
the origin and also determine the course
through which the product reaches them.
Removing the nano-devices from the product
before consumption is a challenge for the
consumer, as is reading them.

5. Bio-informatics/
Computational modeling
Bio-molecular information, structure, function
Phylogenetics (establishing biological relationship
on the basis of sequence information)
Molecular interactions, molecular models,
metabolic models, toxicological models, drug
design
Whole organism models, pathogenesis models,
epidemiological/ population models

Several freeware are available for the different

purposes. The best performing programs are often
priced and prohibitively costly.
Schrodinger suite for protein modeling (and a host
of other applications) is available to academia at
95% rebate and yet costs more than INR 5,00,000
per annum.
HepaSim, a commercial software that simulates
liver metabolism, costs as much as USD 80,000 per
annum.

Catania mouse model is a free-to-access virtual

mouse hosted on the WWW by the European
Network for Computational Immunology/
ImmunoGrid.
The model has been successfully used in cancer
studies and showed to perform as well as the
Oncomouse (a genetically engineered strain that
lacks immunity to cancers).

6. Extension/ Teaching Aid

Smart teaching resources

Interactive,
virtual
classrooms
laboratories
Online training modules

and

7. Organizational Aid
Management is the art of getting things done!
Data Management
Personnel Management
Process Management
Quality Management

8. Laboratory Aid
Experimental Design e.g. primer design
Instrumentation
WHO, in an attempt to reduce mercury usage, has
recommended phasing out of mercury thermometers
and sphygmomanometers
Boom
in
the
digital
thermometer
and
sphygmomanometer industry

Automation
Imaging and Visualization Aid
Quality Management