The Department of Veterinary Microbiology mainly focuses on teaching, research and extension in Microbiology and Immunology. Various courses are offered for BVSc & AH, MVSc and PhD degree in Veterinary Microbiology with specialization in Bacteriology, Virology, Mycology and Immunology. Since establishment, a total of 20 PhD and 93 MVSc students have successfully completed degrees. The mandate of the department is application of available methods and development of new tools for diagnosis, prophylaxis and control of infectious diseases of domestic animals and poultry. The department has well qualified faculty many of whom have obtained higher qualifications or specialized trainings abroad or at premier institutes of the country and have brought laurels at international and national levels. Currently, 4 Professors, 2 Associate Professors, 3 Assistant Professors, 1 Research Associate and 3 Research Fellows are working in the department. A total of 349 research articles in national and 42 in international journals have been published by various faculty members of the department.
The department offers the following diagnostic services on regular basis: Isolation of bacteria, viruses and fungi, culture of bacteria and determination of their sensitivity to antibiotics, virus propagation in cell culture, detection of mycotoxins in feed, and immunodiagnosis (employing ELISA, Immunofluorescence, Virus Neutralization Test, Haemagglutination, Haemagglutination Inhibition Assay, Agar Gel Precipitation Test, Agglutination Tests, Electrophoresis and Immunoblotting etc.) and molecular diagnosis (through isolation of nucleic acids, Southern Blotting, PCR, RT-PCR, RFLP etc.) of infectious diseases of domestic animals and poultry.
There are 7 externally funded projects currently running in the department, including two funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology and two by the Ministry of Agriculture of Govt. of India and one by ICAR.
The current research interest of the department is in the development of immunodiagnostics with higher sensitivity and improvement of available vaccines against HS and FMD which confer short duration of immunity.
