<div><strong>Background:</strong> Yogurt is one of the most popular fermented dairy products worldwide which has great consumer acceptability due to its health benefits other than its basic nutrition. Yogurt is a rich source of calcium in bio-available form and also acts as a probiotic carrier food. Yogurt is reported to be beneficial for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) that includes gastrointestinal disorders. Because of these known health benefits of yogurt, consumer demand for yogurt and yogurt related products has been increased and became the fastest growing dairy category in the global market. Notably, India ranks first in psyllium husk (isabgol) production and is the sole supplier of seeds and husk in the international market. Among medicinal plants, psyllium is the first ranked foreign exchange earner for the country. India is the largest producer and the main supplier of seed and husk to the world market. The psyllium is high in soluble fibre content with detoxing effect over digestive system makes it a very apt nutraceutical.<br />
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<strong>Methods:</strong> The present investigation indicates utilization of acid modified psyllium husk for the preparation of probiotic frozen yogurt. The prepared probiotic frozen yogurt was analyzed for sensorial, physicochemical and microbial quality parameters. Probiotic frozen yogurt was prepared from 1 liter buffalo milk, 10 gm sugar and 0.5 gm of acid modified psyllium husk (0.60% HCl in the ethanol solvent with ratio of 1:7). The probiotic culture (10<sup>7</sup>, 10<sup>8</sup>, 10<sup>9</sup> cfu/gm) containing equal proportions of <em>Lactobacillus acidophilus</em> and <em>Lactobacillus plantarum</em> were added in encapsulated form. It was then stored at refrigerated conditions at 4&deg;C for 8 hours.<br />
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<strong>Result:</strong> The organoleptic evaluation of probiotic frozen yogurt was carried out. As per the score of 9-point hedonic scale, probiotic frozen yogurt prepared with 10 per cent encapsulated probiotic culture (10<sup>9</sup> cfu/gm and 5 per cent each of <em>Lactobacillus acidophilus</em> and <em>Lactobacillus plantarum</em>) and 0.5 gm of acid modified psyllium husk had shown maximum consumer acceptability (8.7) among all samples.</div>


<p>Studies on Development of Fibre Rich Probiotic Frozen Yogurt</p>


<div>Nowadays there has been a significant interest in the development of innovative functional food products conferring customized benefits to the consumers <em>viz</em>., physical and mental well-being, dental health, gastro-intestinal functions, <em>etc</em>. Among the dairy products with live cultures, probiotic ice cream and fermented frozen desserts such as frozen yoghurt are the emerging functional foods. Ice creams and frozen yoghurt are food products showing potential for use as probiotic vehicles and are highly popular with the consumers. The problem to be tackled relates to the loss of viability of probiotic cells in frozen dairy desserts which can occur during product formulation, processing, freezing and storage. The development of probiotic frozen dairy desserts containing live probiotic bacteria necessitates certain technological interventions. The means used to attain higher survivability of probiotic cells in such frozen products include use of selected probiotic strains, use of prebiotics along with probiotics, encapsulation of probiotic cells, use of cryoprotectants, <em>etc</em>.</div>


<p>​Ice Cream and Frozen Yoghurt - A Suitable Carrier for Probiotics: A Review</p>


<p>The present study was conducted to evaluate the in vivo fertility of frozen thawed boar semen. Twenty ejaculates collected from six mature boars were frozen in a programmable freezer. After freezing the semen was evaluated for different sperm quality parameters. Twenty five sows were inseminated artificially utilizing frozen thawed semen. The percentage of sperm motility, live sperm, live intact acrosome, plasma membrane intact sperm, HOST-reacted sperm, live sperm with high mitochondrial membrane potential, lipid peroxidised sperm and DNA-damaged sperm of frozen semen utilised for AI were 56.25 &plusmn; 0.96, 63.75 &plusmn; 1.47, 59.88 &plusmn; 1.09, 41.08 &plusmn; 1.01, 40.31 &plusmn; 1.02, 86.23 &plusmn; 1.29, 9.28 &plusmn; 0.83 and 4.20 &plusmn; 0.29 respectively. The farrowing rate was 44.00 per cent and the mean litter size at birth was 5.91 &plusmn; 0.69. It could be concluded that the freezing and insemination protocol of boar semen used in the present study resulted in moderate fertility of frozen boar semen and it would help in further improvement and utilization of frozen boar semen for AI in India.</p>


<p>First report on in vivo fertility trial of frozen thawed boar semen in India#</p>


<div><strong>Background: </strong>Artificial insemination is an important applicable tool in increasing productivity by genetic exploitation through the male line. But farmers or breeders adoption require to be known the detailed cost structure and the nature of the cost function of the new technology. In this paper, therefore an attempt is made to develop a cost structure for frozen semen dose and a representative artificial breeding program in ewes.<br />
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<strong>Methods: </strong>Semen was frozen twice-weekly for a period of a month following traditional box-freezing. Variable and fixed costs associated with the ram management, semen collection, processing and freezing were estimated and used in frozen semen production cost calculation. Cost items estimated as per cost assumption model and used for artificial insemination cost calculation.<br />
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<strong>Result:</strong> The mean production cost of a frozen semen straw was estimated as Tk. 41.66 where ram maintenance cost, semen processing and preservation cost and staff cost shared the maximum expenses were to be 53.69, 12.93 and 33.38%, respectively. The average performance cost of artificial insemination incurred in the study was approximately Tk. 217.31, there in the semen dose, AI pipette and hormone cost covered the top areas of expenses to be 38.34, 23.00 and 19.33%, respectively. The cost estimate of the current study will be of more informative for breeders, stakeholders and researchers in sheep breeding technology.</div>


<div>Developing a Cost Structure of Frozen Semen Production and Performance of Artificial Insemination for Sheep Breeding Program</div>


<p>Sixty semen ejaculates from 10 mature bulls, 5 each of Jafarabadi and Mehsana breed, were studied for sperm motility and velocity parameters of fresh and frozen-thawed spermatozoa using computer assisted sperm analyzer (CASA). The mean values of motile and progressively motile spermatozoa observed in fresh semen of Jafarabadi and Mehsana bulls (79.77&plusmn;1.62 and 61.80&plusmn;1.85, and 78.90&plusmn;1.22 and 61.37&plusmn;1.58%) were highly significantly (Pand medium motile sperm (%) increased, while beat-cross frequency (Hz), straightness (%), linearity (%), sperm area (&micro;m2) and rapidly motile sperm (%) decreased significantly in post-thawed sperms when compared with the fresh sperm of both Jafarabadi and Mehsana bulls. The initial motility and live sperm per cent were significantly correlated with CASA traits of fresh and frozen-thawed semen, and all the sperm motility and velocity traits of fresh and frozen-thawed semen assessed by CASA were significantly interrelated among both the breeds. The interrelationships were stronger in Mehsana bulls as compared to Jafarabadi bulls.</p>


<p>Computer assisted sperm analysis of fresh and frozen-thawed buffalo semen and their interrelationship</p>


<div style="text-align: justify;">A study was undertaken on semen of three mature bulls each of Gir, Surti and Murrah breed to evaluate the comparative motion characteristics and kinematics of their fresh and frozen-thawed spermatozoa by Biovis CASA. The ejaculates (n= 24/breed) having &gt;75% initial motility were diluted @ 80 million sperm/ml using TFYG extender and were assessed. Amongst motility traits, the total motile, rapid progressive motile and slow progressive motile spermatozoa percentage decreased significantly by 23.08 - 30.09, 43.57 - 55.18, 9.12 - 22.75 %, respectively, (p&lt;0.01), while non-progressive motile sperm (4.78 - 21.48%) and immotile sperm (164.38 - 178.38 %) percentage increased significantly (p&lt;0.01) in frozen-thawed semen compared to that of fresh semen. The post-thaw quality of semen of all three breeds was in acceptable range. The mean values of sperm velocity/kinematic parameters observed in frozen-thawed semen of Gir, Surti and Murrah bulls, based on total motile sperms, viz., average path velocity, &nbsp;curvilinear velocity, straight line velocity, linearity, straightness, beat-cross frequency, amplitude of lateral head displacement, dancing frequency and dancing mean decreased significantly by 13.70 - 17.79; 9.76 - 12.95; 13.28 - 21.90; 7.28 - 9.68; 4.36 - 7.79; 15.56 - 25.15; 8.78 - 10.50; 6.16 - 18.67 and 12.98 - 15.96 %, respectively, as compared to that of their fresh semen samples. However, wobbling index remained almost same for both fresh and frozen semen. All motility traits differed but none of kinematics/velocity traits differed significantly between breeds/species. The values of all velocity parameters for progressive motile sperms were higher than total motile sperms in all three breeds. The effect of freezing-thawing on velocity and kinematic attributes was much less compared to absolute sperm motility, and both the fresh and frozen-thawed sperms behaved identically with respect to their velocity and kinematics. The rapid progressive motile sperm in both fresh (r=0.41 to 0.92) and frozen-thawed (r=044 to 0.88) semen had significant correlations with most of their velocity traits, and the later were significantly and positively or negatively inter-related among each other in semen of all three breeds. It was therefore concluded that cryopreservation process significantly reduces the motility and kinematics attributes of bovine spermatozoa and, CASA analysis of fresh semen for motility and velocity traits could predict the post-thawed sperm motility and velocity/ kinematics of spermatozoa.</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Comparative Evaluation of Motility and Kinematics of Fresh Versus Frozen-Thawed Spermatozoa of Cattle and Buffalo Bull by CASA</div>

<div><strong>Background:&nbsp;</strong>Due to their highly perishable nature, vegetables possess a higher chance of deterioration and damage after harvesting. Freezing is a potential preservation technique used to reduce the deterioration and increase the shelf life of vegetables by preventing the wastage of substantial quantities of tomatoes in Sri Lanka.<br />
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<strong>Methods:&nbsp;</strong>In this research calcium chloride (2.4% w/w) pretreated <em>Thilina</em> and RIDA F1 tomato variety pieces were analyzed drip loss, pH, color, hardness, cutting shearing strength, ascorbic acid content and sensory parameters under air blast freezing (-30&deg;C, 3 ms<sup>-1</sup> air velocity) and conventional freezing (-18&deg;C) conditions.&nbsp; &nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Result:&nbsp;</strong>The L* values of colour, pH and ascorbic acid content were shown significant differences (p&lt;0.05) but a*, b* values, driploss%, cutting and shearing strength didn&rsquo;t show any significant differences (p&lt;0.05) during different freezing conditions. The magnitude of color change (∆E) is higher (p&lt;0.05) in conventional freezing treatment than in air-blast freezing. The preference among the panelists is significantly (p&lt;0.05) higher for blast frozen tomato samples than conventional frozen samples concerning color, odor, texture and overall quality parameters. According to the statistical analysis, air blast freezing preserve better physiochemical and sensory parameters of Thilina and RIDA F1 tomato varieties.</div>


<p>Determination of the Effect of Freezing Methods on the Quality of Frozen Tomato Pieces</p>


<div><strong>Background:</strong> The evaluation of bull fertility essentially involves semen analysis and conception rates among inseminated females. The conventional evaluation is relatively imprecise, time consuming and subjected to individual variations, while computer assisted sperm analysis (CASA) is a quite faster, precise and objective tool to identify differences in sperm motility and velocity/kinematics attributes and avoids subjective errors. The present study was planned to evaluate and compare the CASA traits of fresh and frozen-thawed semen of Gir and Murrah bulls in Tris extender without and with different antioxidant additives by adopting Biovis CASA.<br />
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<strong>Methods: </strong>The semen ejaculates with &gt;75% initial motility from 3 Gir and 3 Murrah bulls were split-diluted at 100 million sperm per ml using Tris-citrate-fructose-yolk-glycerol (TFYG) extender without (control) and with three antioxidant additives, <em>viz</em>., Mifepriston (10 &micro;g/ml), Sericin (5 mg/ml) and Taurine (4 mg/ml), were filled in French mini straws and frozen in liquid nitrogen vapour using a programmable biofreezer. The freshly diluted and frozen-thawed semen samples were assessed for sperm motion characteristics, velocity/kinematics using Biovis CASA.&nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Result:</strong> The mean percentages of total motile spermatozoa, irrespective of additives, in freshly diluted and frozen-thawed semen were 85.50&plusmn;0.92 and 48.76&plusmn;1.69 for Gir bulls and 85.03&plusmn;0.72 and 52.61&plusmn;1.46 for Murrah bulls, respectively. The mean total motile as well as rapid and slow progressive motile sperm percentage were significantly enhanced by fortification of TFYG extender with Mifepristone than in control extender, while values for Sericin and Taurine were intermediary and statistically similar to Mifepristone. The per cent decline in total motile sperm due to freezing-thawing was more or less same in both the breeds for all the extender additives, being lowest in Mifepristone supplemented extender in cattle (32.27 vs 48.81%) and buffalo (31.27 vs 43.14%) semen. The rapid and slow progressive motile sperm also followed the same pattern. The values of VAP and VCL were significantly (p&lt;0.05) higher and VSL lower in Murrah than Gir breed at post-thaw stage. The overall mean linearity (%), straightness (%), beat-cross frequency (hz), lateral head displacement (&micro;m), wobbling index (%), dancing velocity (&micro;m<sup>2</sup>/s) and dancing mean (&micro;m<sup>2</sup>/s) of sperm were higher in Murrahs than in Gir semen with significant (p&lt;0.01) difference at post-thaw stage. The fortification of extender with Mifepristone improved all these traits at post-thaw stage compared to other additives and control TFYG extender. The per cent decline in these traits due to freezing stress was much lower in buffalo sperm than the cattle sperm particularly with Mifepristone fortification. It was concluded that freezing-thawing stress adversely affected the motion and kinematics of both cattle and buffalo sperm and that Tris extender fortified with antioxidant additives, particularly Mifepristone @ 10 &micro;g/ml, protected sperm from adverse effect of dilution and cryopreservation with improved post-thaw sperm quality.</div>


<div>Fortification of Tris Extender with Mifepristone, Sericin and Taurine Improves Velocity and Kinematics of Fresh and Frozen-thawed Bovine Spermatozoa&nbsp;</div>


<div style="text-align: justify;">Study was conducted to compare the semen quality and fertility of liquid stored semen for three days and frozen-thawed semen in the north-eastern region of India. For liquid semen, the semen ejaculates were extended in Beltsville Thawing Solution (BTS) extender and preserved at 17&deg;C for three days. For cryopreservation, semen was diluted Lactose-egg yolk-glycerol extender and frozen in straw using programmable freezer with freezing rate of 40&deg;C/min from -6 to -140&deg;C. The preserved evaluated for sperm motility, viability, plasma membrane integrity and fertility. The results revealed that the liquid stored semen has maintained the sperm motility and viability up to day 3 without significant reduction. Similarly the plasma membrane integrity did not differ significantly up to day 2, but it was significantly (P&lt;0.05) reduced on days 3 in liquid stored semen. After freezing and thawing, the mean sperm motility, viability and plasma membrane integrity were 58.25 &plusmn; 2.96%, 64.75 &plusmn; 2.47% and 47.06 &plusmn; 2.02%, respectively. These parameters were significantly (P&lt;0.01) lower as compared to the liquid stored semen from day 0 to day 3. After insemination with liquid semen, the farrowing rate was 77.7%, 80.76%, 73.07% and 69.8%, respectively from day 0, day1, day 2 and day 3. The pregnancy rate, farrowing rate and litter size did not differ significantly among different days of liquid storage. These parameters were significantly (P&lt;0.01) lower in frozen semen as compare to that of liquid stored semen. The study concluded that the liquid semen stored up to three days is more efficient than frozen-thawed semen in terms of preserving sperm quality and fertility.</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Semen quality and fertility of liquid stored and frozen-thawed semen in crossbred pigs of North-Eastern India</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background:</strong> The consumption of frozen meat from beef cattle has increased largely in Middle Eastern nations, especially in many Iraqi cities since it is a major source of protein which is necessary for the growth and maintenance of good health. In view of the fact that there are no available original data on the nutritional value and content of metals in the meat of beef cattle sold in Ranya city (northern Iraq), a study was undertaken in order to determine these levels in imported frozen and local fresh beef cattle meat, with emphasis on toxicological aspects.<br /><strong>Methods: </strong>A total of 10 samples of different types of beef cattle meat were collected from different markets in Ranya city and classified into two groups: fresh boneless meat of local beef (Iraqi cattle) and imported frozen boneless beef meat of Brazilian origin.<br /><strong>Result: </strong>The results clearly reveal no differences in the concentration of studied heavy metals between fresh and imported frozen beef cattle meat. Nevertheless, iron concentrations in imported frozen meat samples were higher than the recommended tolerable levels by Food and Agriculture Organization. No proximate analyses, except fat and ash content, differed between meat samples. Fat and ash concentration were significantly higher (p&lt;0.05) in fresh beef cattle meat compared to frozen beef cattle meat. The study concludes that while comparing local fresh and imported frozen beef cattle meat, only fat and ash content showed significant differences whereas other nutritional properties showed minor differences (p&gt;0.05).</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Chemical Compositions and Heavy Metal Contents of Local Fresh and Imported Frozen Beef Cattle Meat Available in Ranya Markets</div>