Best Strategy for Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science Optional for UPSC Aspirants

January 7, 2023

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Best Strategy for Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science Optional for UPSC Aspirants

Animal husbandry is the management and care of farm animals by humans. Veterinary Science is the science of diagnosing, treating and curing diseases in birds and animals. It covers the study of animal physiology, treatment and prevention of diseases among animals. It is one of the optional subjects offered by the UPSC for the civil services mains exam. It is a specialised subject and ideally should be pursued only by candidates who have a degree in the subject. Although not a popular subject like geography, pub ad or anthropology, animal husbandry and vet science is a good option for candidates with a background in this subject. Read on to know more about the AHVS optional – how to prepare for the exam, which resources to go through, past performance of the optional, tips to improve the score, and more.

Who Should Go for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science?

Animal husbandry is the administration and care of livestock by people, where hereditary characteristics and conduct, viewed as invaluable to people, are additionally created. The term can allude to the act of specifically rearing and raising domesticated animals to advance alluring attributes in animals for utility, delight, or research.

Any individual who has a scholarly foundation in Agriculture, Life Sciences, Botany, Biomedical Sciences, Biotechnology, Zoology, Dairy and other related fields may take up this optional.

Any candidate with no previous knowledge of Zoology should not opt for it. He/She may score great in Paper I which resembles general investigations however Paper II turns into the wiping out factor on the off chance that it isn’t covered comprehensively.

How many take the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science optional?

The following table gives the number of candidates who took the IAS exam with the animal husbandry optional and cleared it between the years 2010 and 2015. As you can see, the number of people hardly rises above 50. Nevertheless, the optional has a good success rate and every year, there are candidates who find success in the IAS exam with this optional subject.

Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science Optional Success Rate

Year	No. of candidates appeared	No. of candidates cleared	Success Rate (%)
2017	23	2	8.7
2016	65	8	12.3
2015	52	12	23.1
2014	28	4	14.3
2013	32	5	15.6
2012	52	12	23.1
2011	50	5	10.0
2010	69	7	10.1

In the 2017 civil services exam, the All-India rank 10 was bagged by a vet from Jammu & Kashmir, Dr Bilal Mohi-ud-din Bhat. His optional was animal husbandry and veterinary science.

Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science Toppers

Name	Year	Rank
Bilal Mohi-ud-din Bhat	2017	10
Aman Bishla	2016	315

Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science pros and cons

As with any other optional subject, there are both pros and cons associated with the animal husbandry and veterinary science optional. Go through the pros and cons of the subject and then evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses vis-a-vis this subject and then come to a decision regarding your optional. Think it through as the optional accounts for 500 marks in the final tally and can dramatically affect your final rank.

First of all, we discuss the pros of this subject.

Animal Husbandry & Vet Science Pros

Familiarity – first of all, as a graduate in the subject, you would have studied the subject for 5 years and would be familiar with the concepts. If you take up subjects like pub ad or geography, you would have to study them from scratch.
Syllabus – the syllabus for animal husbandry and vet science is well-defined and precise. There is no ambiguity.
Marks – this is a scoring subject as it is a science and there is no room for interpretation here. Also, you can score easy marks through diagrams and pictures.
Static subject – animal husbandry and veterinary science is a static subject. There is no dynamic component as such here and this leads to the next point, which is the kind of questions asked in the exam.
Repetition of questions – about 80% of the questions asked in the papers are direct and straight-forward. Hence, if you go through the previous UPSC question papers diligently, you should be able to predict questions and in any case, know the important areas to focus on.
Competition – you will face far less competition in this paper compared to the more popular optionals.
Overlap – even though the overlap with the general studies papers is minimal, some areas will help you in the GS papers, such as livestock production and management, extension, milk and milk products technology, and meat hygiene and technology.

Now, let us go through the negatives of this optional subject.

Coaching for this optional subject is hard to come by.
There is hardly any UPSC-tailored study material available for this optional.
It is also difficult to find a mains test series for this optional subject.

Let us take a look at the syllabus for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science for the UPSC mains exam.

There are two optional papers in the UPSC exam pattern. Both the papers are for a total of 250 marks making the total optional marks to 500.

UPSC Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science Syllabus PDF:-Download Syllabus PDF

http://insightsonindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/upsc-syllabus.pdf

Preparation Strategy for Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science Optional

The exam will be divided into two papers i.e. Paper I and Paper II. Find the complete details.

#1 Know the Dates

The very first thing to start any sort of preparations for the exam is to check the important dates and events of the conducting exam, which include – application process, admit card availability, exam date, announcement of the result, cut-off, and other details. Well, to make your preparation strategy stronger, it is recommended to the candidates to check the official website of UPSC regularly for the latest updates and notification, so you can never miss an important notice or a piece of information.

#2 Check and Grasp the Entire Syllabus

Another important step is to learn and understand the complete Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science Paper Syllabus. More than this, you can check other toppers interviews to know their study mantra and important topics which they focus a lot. Once you understand the complete syllabus, find out the most important topics and start your preparations from the difficult one, so you get more time to revise them.

#3 Go for the Best Recommended Books to Complete Syllabus

Below you can find the list of important books that will surely help you to score best in the exam.

Animal Husbandry by Gyan Deep Singh and Anmol Publishers
Propelled Animal Nutrition by Reddy, Oxford
Standards Of Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology, by D V Reddy, Oxford
Animal Physiology by KavitaJuneja, Anmol Publishers
Fundamentals Of Animal Physiology by MonalisaKar, Anmol Publishers
Animal Physiology by K. A. Goyal, Rastogi Publishing
Standards Of Genetics and Animal Breeding by F H KHAN, Jaypee Brothers
Course reading Of Animal Diseases by Ashok Kumar, Sonali Publication
Milk Products Technology by Subhash Biswas, Jaypee Brothers
Handbook Of Animal Husbandry by Manoj Kumar Rai

#4 Prepare Important Topics First

As you probably are aware that marks of the optional paper is critical for your selection in the competitive exam, you need to perform astoundingly well in this paper. Since the remainder of the papers is mandatory for all, it’s the optional paper that can be a game-changer. The correct procedure should be to examine each part of the syllabus and get the right books and read them thoroughly. First, get basic books to clear your fundamentals and afterwards proceed to peruse the development books.

Spread the whole schedule and in the wake of perusing each section make notes of them at the same time. Recollect that your notes will be the last course material for perusing and re-examining in the future. So take as much time as necessary and work admirably with it.

#5 Solve Previous Year Paper

This step is vital for the aspirants who are preparing for UPSC Mains. However, you can pursue the step only once you complete the entire syllabus of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science. Try to solve 10 years papers as it contains a lot of important topics which were asked during the past 10 years. Once you have completed the preparation, try to go for mock tests, as it will help you to improve your speed of writing and prepare you for the actual exam well in advance.

#6 Set Your Goal

It is important for all, to identify their loopholes and analyse them wisely, so you can easily reach your goal and fulfill your dreams. Every aspirant wants to work under the Government of India as a bureaucrat. However, it is not an easy task. To make things easier for you, make a time-table for your preparation and follow it vigorously.

UPSC OPTIONAL SUBJECT LIST

The Civil Services Examination comprises two successive stages:

(i) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective Type) for the selection of candidates for Civil Services (Main) Examination; and

(ii) Civil Services (Main) Examination (Written and Interview/Personality Test) for the selection of candidates for the various Services and posts

The Civil Services (Main) Examination will consist of a Written Examination and an Interview/Personality Test. The Written Examination will consist of 9 papers of conventional essay type out of which two papers will be of qualifying in nature. Marks obtained for all the compulsory papers (Paper-I to Paper-VII) and Marks obtained in Interview/Personality Test will be counted for ranking.

Candidates who obtain such minimum qualifying marks in the written part of the Civil Services (Main) Examination as may be fixed by the Commission at their discretion, shall be summoned by them for an Interview/Personality Test.

Optional papers: Paper-VI (Optional Subject – Paper 1 250 Marks)

Paper-VII (Optional Subject – Paper 2 250 Marks)

Candidates may choose any one of the optional subjects from amongst the UPSC optional list given in below:

UPSC optional list:

(i) Agriculture

(ii) Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science

(iii) Anthropology

(iv) Botany

(v) Chemistry

(vi) Civil Engineering

(vii) Commerce and Accountancy

(viii) Economics

(ix) Electrical Engineering

(x) Geography

(xi) Geology

(xii) History

(xiii) Law

(xiv) Management

(xv) Mathematics

(xvi) Mechanical Engineering

(xvii) Medical Science

(xviii) Philosophy

(xix) Physics

(xx) Political Science and International Relations

(xxi) Psychology

(xxii) Public Administration

(xxiii) Sociology

(xxiv) Statistics

(xxv) Zoology

(xxvi) Literature of any one of the following languages:

Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English.

Each paper will be of three hours duration.
Candidates will have the option to answer all the question papers in any one of the languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India or in English. Notwithstanding this, the Candidate will have the choice to write the Optional Papers in English also if candidates opt to write Paper I-V except the Qualifying Language Papers, Paper-A and Paper-B, in any one of the language included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.
Candidates exercising the option to answer Papers in any one of the languages included in the Eight Schedule to the Constitution of India mentioned above may, if they so desire, give English version within brackets of only the description of the technical terms, if any, in addition to the version in the language opted by them. Candidates should, however, note that if they misuse the above rule, a deduction will be made on this account from the total marks otherwise accruing to them and in extreme cases; their script(s) will not be valued for being in an unauthorized medium.
Candidates should note that if any irrelevant matter/signages/marks etc. are found written in the answer script(s), which would not be related to any question/answer and/or would be having the potential to disclose the candidate’s identity, the Commission will impose a penalty of deduction of marks from the total marks otherwise accruing to the candidate or will not evaluate the said script(s) on this account.
The question papers (other than the literature of language papers) will be set in Hindi and English only.

UPSC optional list and Book list

UPSC optional list /Optional Book List for UPSC (other than literature subjects):

S. No

UPSC optional list

Book List

Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science

· A guide on forest Entomology – Regupathy

· A Textbook Of Animal Husbandry- G C Banerjee

· Advanced Animal Nutrition- D. V Reddy

· Agricultural Economics- S Subba Reddy

· Animal husbandry & veterinary science- T.N. Palanivelu

· Animal Husbandry- Gyan Deep Singh, Anmol Publishers

· Animal Physiology- K. A. Goyal, Rastogi Publishing

· Animal Physiology- Kavita Juneja, Anmol Publishers

· Basics Of Animal Physiology- Monalisa Kar, Anmol Publishers

· Biotech’s Dictionary Of Animal Husbandry – Daya Publishing

· Biotechnology Expanding Horizons – B D Singh, Kalyani Publishers

· Essentials Of Plant Breeding -Phundan Singh, Kalyani Publishers

· Fundamentals of Agriculture Volume-1 -Arun Katyayan, Kushal Publications

· Fundamentals Of Agriculture Volume-2 -Arun Katyayan, Kushal Publications

· General Agriculture- Muniraj S Rathore, Jain Brothers

· Handbook Of Agriculture, Publisher: ICAR

· Handbook Of Animal Husbandry -Manoj Kumar Rai, Oxford Book Company

· Horticulture At A Glance Volume II -A S Salaria, Jain Brothers

· Indian forestry – A breakthrough approach to forest service- K. S Manikandan and S. Prabhu

· Introduction To Agriculture – A K Vyas, Jain Brothers

· Milk And Milk Products Technology -Subhash Biswas, Jaypee Brothers

· Principles Of Agronomy- Yellamanda Reddy, Kalyani Publishers

· Principles Of Animal Nutrition & Feed Technology- D V Reddy, Oxford

· Principles Of Genetics & Animal Breeding- F H KHAN, Jaypee Brothers

· Textbook Of Animal Diseases -Ashok Kumar, Sonali Publication

Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science Strategy for UPSC

Paper I Strategy

Animal Nutrition

For this section, you should refer to the Principles of Animal Nutrition by DV Reddy.
The important topics in this section are energy-protein relationship, use of NPN compounds, feed additives, conservation of fodders, storage and anti-nutritional factors associated with them, and poultry nutrition.

Example questions:

Q) Differentiate between the following:

Protein efficiency ratio and Net protein utilization (4 marks, 2018)

Q) Differentiate between the following:

Net protein utilization and Net protein value (4 marks, 2017)

Q) Discuss in brief about the various systems of expressing the energy value of feeds and energy requirements in swine. (10 marks, 2017)

Animal Physiology

For the topics Endocrine and Cardiovascular Systems, you should use the Textbook of Medical Physiology by Guyton and Hall.
Under the endocrine system, the biochemistry part can be covered from Biochemistry by U Satyanarayana (especially for the subtopics buffers, and acid-base balance). Growth curves, mammary development and digestive organs are important subtopics here.
For the chapters blood, respiration and excretion, you should read Dukes’ Physiology of Domestic Animals.
Under excretion, make sure to read the part about birds. Make notes for this section as it is vast and very difficult to revise at the last moment.
You should practice diagrams for blood cells, cardiac cycle, pulmonary circulation, kidney and its structures, cerebrospinal fluid circulation and air sacs in birds.

Example questions:

Q) Give diagrammatic representation of kidney and narrate its functions. (10 marks, 2018)
Q) Mention digestive organs and their role in food digestion in monogastric animals. (10 marks, 2018)
Q) Write the general functions of blood in the animal body. (10 marks, 2017)
Q) Discuss the role of endocrine glands along with their secretory hormones for cell growth. (15 marks, 2017)

Animal Reproduction

A good source for studying this section is the online source TANUVAS.
Another source is Perspectives in Animal Ecology and Reproduction by Verma and Gupta.
Important topics here are gametogenesis, spermatogenesis and oogenesis, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of semen, and methods of detection of estrus.

Example questions:

Q) Write the physicochemical properties of ejaculated semen in domestic animals. (10 marks, 2018)
Q) Explain, how will you ameliorate the problem of infertility in cattle and buffaloes under field conditions. (10 marks, 2017)

Livestock Production and Management

You can refer to Principles of Dairy Management by P Venkateshwara Rao for this section.
For feeding during draughts, floods and other natural calamities, you can use Pashudhan Magazine. This subsection is very important as the UPSC always asks questions from here.

Example questions:

Q) Write in detail the factors affecting water requirements of animals. (10 marks, 2018)
Q) Write a brief on – Feeding schedule of calves from birth to 3 months age. (5 marks, 2017)

Genetics and Animal Breeding

For population genetics, you can read Cell Biology by Agarwal and Agarwal.
You can also refer to Principles of Genetics by Gardner, Population Genetics by DC Falconer and Population Genetics by SS Tomar.
The important topics here are qualitative and quantitative traits, HW equilibrium and factors affecting the equilibrium (migration, mutation and selection), the partition of variation, and breeding value and its estimation.
Derivation of H-W law and the heritability derivations are not that important.
For Breeding Systems, you should refer to Animal breeding by SS Tomar and Introduction to Practical Animal Breeding by Dalton.

Example questions:

Q) Discuss modified Mendelian ratio in monohybrid cross with examples. (10 marks, 2018)
Q) Importance of gene mutations in farm animals. (10 marks, 2017)
Q) How will you assess that a quantitative trait is affected by additive or non-additive gene action or both? Discuss the methods of selection for simultaneous improvement of multi-traits. (20 marks, 2017)

Extension

For this section, you can read the textbook of Animal Husbandry and Livestock Extension by P. Mathialagan.
You should also be aware of the latest government schemes related to animal husbandry.
This is a scoring section and makes sure to study learning methodology, transfer of technology and government schemes as these topics are frequently asked.

Example questions:

Q) Discuss in detail about different animal husbandry programmes for rural development in India. (15 marks, 2018)
Q) Write in detail about the components of variance. (15 marks, 2018)
Q) Discuss the cattle and sheep developmental programme for improving the economic status of farmers. (15 marks, 2017)

Paper-II Strategy

Anatomy, Pharmacology and Hygiene

The important topics in Histology are staining, freezing microtome and microscopy.
For this section, you should use a textbook of Histology Including the Microscopic Technique by Philipp Stoehr.
The important topics under embryology are gametogenesis, fertilization, germ layers, foetal membranes, placentation, teratology and germ layers derivatives.
You don’t have to study organogenesis in detail.
Please remember that questions are rarely asked from anatomy.
For veterinary hygiene, you should read A Textbook of Animal Husbandry by GC Banerjee. Practice diagrams of housing pattern.

Example questions:

Q) Discuss the following: Anatomical and Physiological classification of neurons. (10 marks, 2018)
Q) Discuss the following: Classification of the placenta in domestic animals. (10 marks, 2017)

Animal Diseases

Important diseases are brucellosis, rabies, rinderpest and PPR, anthrax, pasteurellosis, swine fever, glanders, strangles, leptospirosis and clostridia group.
Important topics in immunisation are herd immunity, zero disease concept, and chemoprophylaxis.
Metabolic diseases is a very important section.
You can refer to Prevention and Treatment of Diseases of the Domestic Animals Including Etiology and Symptoms by Kenelm Winslow

Veterinary Public Health

Under zoonoses, the role of animals and birds in the transmission is important.
You can read Zoonoses: Bacterial Diseases by Sudhi Ranjan Garg and Veterinary Ethics and Jurisprudence by Kirti Dua.
You should also study the Textbook of Elements of Veterinary Public Health by Bachhil and Thapliyal (ICAR).

Milk and Milk Products Technology

This is the most important section of Paper-II.
Practice flow diagrams of product manufacture.
You can use Outlines of Dairy: Technology by Sukumar De.

Example questions:

Q) Legal standards for whole milk powder and skim milk powder. (10 marks, 2018)
Q) Describe the method of manufacturing, packaging and storage of butter. (15 marks, 2017)
Q) Classify dairy industry by-products and explain the general method of preparing acid-casein. (15 marks, 2017)

Meat Hygiene and Technology

For this section, you can refer to Meat and Meat Products Technology by BD Sharma.

Animal husbandry and veterinary science books for IAS

Principles of Animal Nutrition by DV Reddy
Textbook of Medical Physiology by Guyton and Hall
Biochemistry by U Satyanarayana
Dukes’ Physiology of Domestic Animals
Perspectives in Animal Ecology and Reproduction by Verma and Gupta
Pashudhan magazines
Cell Biology by Agarwal and Agarwal
Principles of Genetics by Gardner
Population Genetics by DS Falconer
Population Genetics by SS Tomar
Animal breeding by SS Tomar
Practical Animal Breeding by Dalton
Textbook of Histology Including the Microscopic Technique by Philipp Stoehr
A Textbook of Animal Husbandry by GC Banerjee
Prevention and Treatment of Diseases of the Domestic Animals Including Etiology and Symptoms by Kenelm Winslow
Zoonoses: Bacterial Diseases by Sudhi Ranjan Garg
Veterinary Ethics and Jurisprudence by Kirti Dua
Textbook of Elements of Veterinary Public Health by Bachhil and Thapliyal (ICAR)
Outlines of Dairy: Technology by Sukumar De
Meat and Meat Products Technology by BD Sharma

UPSC Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science Syllabus- Download IAS Animal Husbandry Optional Syllabus

UPSC Civil Services Mains Exam has Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science as one of the Optional Subjects with 2 papers (Paper I and Paper II). Paper I covers topics related to animal nutrition, physiology, reproduction, livestock production & management, genetics & animal breeding. Paper II of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science covers topics related to anatomy, pharmacology, hygiene, animal diseases, veterinary public health, milk products & technology related to it, meat hygiene & technology related to it.

Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science is one of the specialised subjects in the syllabus for optionals. Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science as an optional syllabus is a choice among UPSC aspirants with a background in the dairy/meat business, medicine and those who are veterinary doctors themselves. The precise nature of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science syllabus of UPSC means the possibility of scoring well is very high. This increases the overall score of the UPSC aspirant increasing their chances of selection.

IAS aspirants should note that while Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science for UPSC can potentially be a very high scoring choice, preparation should be thorough to be able to score well in this paper. Also, candidates should solve more questions from previous years’ UPSC question papers as well as from mock tests to be able to crack the UPSC Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science exam.

Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science Syllabus for IAS