MADRAS VETERINARY COLLEGE

DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

Genesis

The Department of Animal Biotechnology was started in the year 1989. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) recognized the department as a "Centre of Excellence in Veterinary Biotechnology and Immunology" in the year 1999. It is the first Animal Biotechnology Department in this country that was awarded the ISO 2001:9000 for Quality Management Systems through the British Standards Institute, UK. The Department has been awarded second term in “Niche Area Scheme of Excellence in Avian Biotechnology” to conduct research on "Improved and expanded vaccines and Immunological understanding of avian viruses" by ICAR. Since 1989 the dept has completed nearly 78 externally funded schemes from various funding agencies like, DBT, DST, DRDO, ICAR, TANII, SLURB, NADP.

The department has an excellent track record in publications and placement with its post graduate students finding positions within India and globally.The department has been granted with 6 Patents and commercialized 17 technologies to various agencies, developed 4 vaccines.
The Rabies Diagnostic Laboratory of Department of Animal Biotechnology is an ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited Laboratory to carry out testing for rabies antigen by florescent antibody assay and Antibody titration by virus neutralization assay. . Recently, the department is supported by DST- FIST Grant in the field of “Animal Health, Food Safety and Production” since 2021.

Objectives

To provide education and training in all spheres of Biotechnology
To carryout research in various areas of biotechnology to ultimately improve animal health, production and productivity
To disseminate the research technologies developed, to veterinarians, research scientist, students, entrepreneurs and commercial establishments.

Education

The Department offers following Post Graduate (PG) courses

M.V.Sc & Ph.D in Animal Biotechnology from 1993 and 1996 respectively.
M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biotechnology from 2016.
PG diploma in Advanced Reproductive Biotechnology in Animal Model (Distance learning mode) from 2014
PG Diploma in Molecular Biotechniques (PGDMBT)

Research

Research Projects Completed (since 2016 with fund layout of more than 30 lakhs)

S.No	Title	Funding agency	Total outlay (Rs. in Lakhs)
1	Bioplastic production by using slaughter house waste	Govt of Tamilnadu, Part II scheme- innovative	37.36
2	Improved and expanded vaccines and immunological understanding of avian Viruses	ICAR, New Delhi	2.51
3	National Hub for Healthcare Instrumentation	Department of Science and Technology	70.82
4	A novel protection system for delivery of immunomodulatory probiotic bacteria in chicken	DBT, New Delhi,	37.73
5	Hybrid Magnetic Nanoparticle Aptamer Bio-sensor for On-Farm Early Pregnancy Diagnosis in Cattle”	Nanomission, DST, New Delhi	40.50
6	Selective Isolation of Sex Specific Spermatozoa in Bovines using Novel Biomarkers Identified through an Integrated Proteomic and Genomic Approach”	DBT, New Delhi	45.79

On-going Research Projects

S. No.	Title	Funding agency	Total outlay (Rs. in Lakhs)
1.	Level I in the Broad Subject Area on “Animal Health, Food Safety and Production”	DST-FIST New Delhi.	300.00
2.	Augmenting reproductive and production potential through adoption of assisted reproductive techniques using sexed semen in dairy cattle (Embryo transfer of fresh and frozen embryos produced using sexing semen under field conditions)	NADP	75.71
3.	Ultra-Sensitive and Highly Specific Padlock Probe Assay for Point-of-Care Ante Mortem Rabies Diagnosis	DBT	41.91
4.	Surveillance, Molecular Characterization and Development of Vaccine Candidate for Porcine Parvovirus	NLM	45.29
5.	Developing Immune Complex Vaccine for Protection against Infectious Bursal Disease in the presence of Maternally Derived Antibodies	DBT	22.55
6.	Genetic Characterization and Vaccine Delivery System for Rabies in Animals	ICMR	47.79
7.	Isolation, Lineage Characterization and Pathogenicity Testing of Street Rabies Virus	Reliance Life Sciences	16.68

Services Offered

I. Human Resources Development Programmes in the field of life science

S. No.	Training Programme	Number of days/ months		Fees (Excl.GST)/ Participant & Intake Strength
1.	HRD level I	5 days		Rs.8,000/- per trainee 2-5 trainees at one time as and when required
2.	HRD level II	II a	28 days	Rs.13,000/- per trainee Up to 40 students at one time as and when required
		II b	21 days	Rs.10,000/- per trainee Up to 20 students at one time as and when required
		II c	14 days	Rs.7,500/- per trainee Up to 20 students at one time as and when required
3.	HRD level III	III a	3 months	Rs.20,000/- per trainee Up to 30 students at one time
		III b	> 3 - 6 months	Rs.30,000/- per trainee Up to 10 students at one time as and when required
		III c	> 6 - 9 months	Rs.40,000/- per trainee Up to 10 students at one time as and when required
		III d	> 9 - 12 months	Rs.50,000/- per trainee Up to 10 students at one time as and when required

II. Human Resource Development Training Programmes in the field of Assisted Reproductive Biotechnology

S. No.	Training Programme	Number of days	Fees (Excl. GST)/ Participant
1	National level training programme on “In vitro fertilization of farm animal oocytes and co-culture” for 21 days for Veterinarians, Medical Professionals and life science graduates seeking a career in embryology	21 days	Rs.55,000
2	National level training programme on “Intra cytoplasmic sperm injection of farm animal oocytes” for two weeks for Veterinarians, Medical Professionals and life science graduates seeking a career in embryology	14 days	Rs.80,000

III. Short-Term IVF training programmes

S. No.	Training Programme	Number of days	Fee/ Participant (Excl.GST)
1.	Module I: In vitro embryo production - Handling of female gamete	5 days	Rs.5,000
2.	Module II: In vitro embryo production - Handling of male gamete	5 days	Rs.5,000
3.	Module III: In vitro embryo production - Handling of female and male gametes (combined)	10 days	Rs.5,000

IV. Biotechnological services offered on cost basis

Biotechnology Service offered	Cost Per Sample (Excl. GST)
Rabies antibody detection in serum from animals by FAVN	Rs. 1695
Rabies antigen detection by DFAT	Rs. 55
Diagnosis by PCR	Rs. 750
Diagnosis by Reverse Transcriptase PCR	Rs. 750
Real time quantitative PCR	Rs. 1000
Genotyping of avian viruses by PCR-RFLP	Rs. 3000
Nucleic acid and protein quantification	Rs. 100
Agarose Gel Electrophoresis	Rs. 250
Gel documentation AGE& SDS-PAGE	Rs. 250
Supply of a cell line flask	Rs. 750
Usage of cell culture facility (Cytotoxic experiments)	Rs. 1500
Photomicrography	Rs. 100
Detection of Infectious bronchitis virus by reverse transcription PCR and its genotyping by sequencing	Rs. 2200
Polymerase Chain Reaction for Detection of Antigen Receptor Rearrangement (PARR) assay for detection of B or T- cell lymphoma in animals	Rs. 2300
ELISA reader	Rs. 200
Raman imaging atomic force microscope	Rs. 2000
Zeta potential	Rs. 500
Particle size analyzer	Rs. 500
Standard Plate Count (Aerobic)	Rs. 500
Cell adhesion property analysis	Rs. 1500
Bile salt tolerance analysis	Rs. 200
Testing the contamination of E.coli, Staphylococcus sp., Yeast and Mold	Rs. 400
Bacterial species identification by PCR and sequencing	Rs. 2000
Cyclic Voltametry	Rs. 100

V. Other Services (newly introduced)

Diagnostic testing services for feline diseases (Feline Panleukopenia Virus (FPV) and Feline Calcivirus (FCV)
Diagnostic and Genotyping services for porcine diseases (Porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) and Porcine parvovirus (PPV)
Microbial Air Quality Assessment in Veterinary Hospitals and Operation theatres
Testing services for Raman Spectroscopy, Gas Chromatography and Potentiostat

Facilities

The department has six well established laboratories with instruments such as Thermalcycler, Spectrophotometer, nanodrop, AFM, Raman spectrophotometer, ELISA reader, Gel Documentation, CO2 Incubator, Fermentor, Real time PCR, Flow cytometer, Gas liquid chromatography, Potentiostat, and Fluorescent microscope.

Patents

Name of the invention	Year	Patent Number
A test strip for quantitative detection of antibodies to PPRV	04.10.2010	243290
Nano-biomarker coupled Newcastle disease vaccine (NDV)	22.10.2020	349908
A novel method to diagnose small ruminants with potential resistance to bluetongue	11.12.2020	353468
Anin-vitromolecular method for identifying gender in emu	22.10.2020	349823
Chicken Anaemia Virus (CAV)Antibody Detection Kit	22.09.2020	347388
ABT miniencapsulator	24.09.2020	347623

commercialized Products

S. No.	Name of the Technology Developed	Product / Technology Transferred to industries/ Field Use
1.	LeptoMultiEp-IgM ELISA for serodiagnosis of Leptospirosis using novel recombinant multiepitopic antigen technology	M/s. Genomix Biotech, Hyderabad
2.	EndoMetB PB-A probiotic consortium for use as a bovine uterine supplement in mild and moderate bovine endometritis	M/s. Genomix Biotech, Hyderabad.
3.	ABT-CHOICE - for antibiotic selection for mastitis treatment	M/S Immunoshop, Hyderabad
4.	Emu Sexing Kit	VR3 Emu Farms and Hatcheries, Puducherry
5.	TANUCHEK, a field based test kit for quantification of somatic cell counts in milk and used for early detection of mastitis	Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, Government of Tamil Nadu and TRPVB, TANUVAS
6.	PPRV truncated nucleoprotein antigen	Indian Immunologicals, Hyderabad
7.	Leptospira LipL41 clone	Indian Immunologicals, Hyderabad
8.	Immunology Teaching kits	M/s. Medox Biotech, Chennai
9.	PPRV Blocking ELISA kit	Indian Immunologicals, Hyderabad
10.	Leptospira Latex Agglutination kit	M/s. Medox Biotech, Chennai
11.	ABT Detect, a screening assay kit for detection of antibiotic residues in meat/milk	TRPVB, TANUVAS
12.	Aural Spray for Dog to reduce the odour	TRPVB, TANUVAS

Diagnostic kits & Vaccines Developed

Nanoparticle Biomarker coupled Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vaccine.
Live cell culture adapted PPR vaccine from a goat strain.
Inactivated cell culture-adapted Newcastle disease vaccine.
TANUVAS Infectious bronchitis vaccine for poultry
Multiple PCR for detection and differentiating of M. tuberculosis and M. bovis and M. orygis

Faculty

Dr. M.Parthiban, Professor and Head
Dr. A.Raja, Professor
Dr. S.Meignanalakshmi, Professor
Dr. S.Parthiban, Assistant Professor
Dr. J.Vijay Anand, Assistant Professor
Dr. P.Raja, Assistant Professor

The Professor and Head,
Department of Animal Biotechnology,
Faculty of Basic Sciences, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai – 600 007.
Phone: +91-44-25369301
E-mail: hodabtmvc@tanuvas.org.in