The Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Assam Agricultural University came into existence from 8th January, 1975 after its bifurcation from amalgamated department, Department of Pathology and Bacteriology in the erstwhile Assam Veterinary College vide memo no AAU/R-193 (B)/74-75/10891-941 dated 8th January, 1975. It started functioning under the bold guidance of Late Dr J N Goswami, the first officiating Head of the new Department. In the initial stage, the Department suffered from lack of infrastructure and qualified manpower. However, it got a boost under I. D. A. project of AAU. With the appointment of Dr B R Boro, the founder HOD along with Late (Dr) A Chakraborty, PhD in VPH as another faculty member, the Department of Microbiology continued its journey to its present status. A separate Building was constructed and a number of laboratory instruments were procured. Similarly, as many as six faculty members were deputed for higher studies to different Universities for post graduate degrees leading to MVSc and PhD degrees. At present, the Department of Microbiology is a full-fledged leading Department of Assam Agricultural University. So far, the Department has completed a number of Research projects funded by ICAR, DBT, Govt. of India and DST, ASTEC, Govt. of Assam etc. The Department has so far produced 129 numbers of PG students (110 MVSc. and 19 PhD students) in addition to the regular UG teaching and extension activities. Presently, a total of 18 students have enrolled their names in the MVSc. and PhD studies in different semesters. There is 10 teaching staff presently working in the Department. Out of the total staff, 2 faculty members are solely associated with AICRP on FMD. With university grant, ICAR development grants and grant under different research projects, the Department procured many sophisticated instruments and established separate Bacteriology, Mycology, Immunology, Virology as well as Molecular Biology and Diagnostic laboratories. Now the Department is not only known in the North Eastern Region but also all over India as one of the well developed and advanced Department engaged in teaching and research on microbiology. Further, the department got yet another boost with the establishment of DBT-ADMaC centre for study of emerging, re-emerging and transboundary diseases in the year 2014.
| UG Courses | ||||
| # | Course No. | Course Title | Course Credit | Syllabus |
| 1 | VMC * | Veterinary Microbiology | 5(3 + 2) | * courses are compulsory |
| Masters Courses | ||||
| # | Course No. | Course Title | Course Credit | Syllabus |
| 1 | VMC 601 * | BACTERIOLOGY - I | 4(3 + 1) | |
| 2 | VMC 602 * | BACTERIOLOGY - II | 4(3 + 1) | |
| 3 | VMC 603 * | VETERINARY MYCOLOGY | 2(1 + 1) | |
| 4 | VMC 604 * | GENERAL VIROLOGY | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 5 | VMC 605 * | SYSTEMATIC ANIMAL VIROLOGY | 4(3 + 1) | |
| 6 | VMC 606 * | PRINCIPLES OF IMMUNOLOGY | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 7 | VMC 607 * | VACCINOLOGY | 2(2 + 0) | |
| 8 | VMC 608 * | DIAGNOSTICS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES | 3(1 + 2) | |
| 9 | VMC 609 * | TECHNIQUES IN MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY | 3(0 + 3) | * courses are compulsory |
| PhD Courses | ||||
| # | Course No. | Course Title | Course Credit | Syllabus |
| 1 | VMC 701 * | ADVANCES IN BACTERIOLOGY | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 2 | VMC 702 * | ADVANCES IN MYCOLOGY | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 3 | VMC 703 * | BACTERIAL GENETICS | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 4 | VMC 704 * | MICROBIAL TOXINS | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 5 | VMC 705 * | MOLECULAR DETERMINANTS OF BACTERIAL PATHOGENESIS | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 6 | VMC 706 * | ADVANCES IN VIROLOGY | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 7 | VMC 707 * | MOLECULAR AND GENETIC ASPECTS OF VIRAL PATHOGENESIS | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 8 | VMC 708 * | STRUCTURE FUNCTION RELATIONSHIP OF DNA AND RNA VIRUSES | 3(3 + 0) | |
| 9 | VMC 709 * | ONCOGENIC VIRUSES | 2(2 + 0) | |
| 10 | VMC 710 * | SLOW VIRAL INFECTIONS AND PRIONS | 2(2 + 0) | |
| 11 | VMC 711 * | MOLECULAR IMMUNOLOGY | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 12 | VMC 712 * | ADVANCES IN CELLULAR IMMUNOLOGY | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 13 | VMC 713 * | CYTOKINES AND IMMUNOMODULATORS | 2(2 + 0) | |
| 14 | VMC 714 * | ADVANCES IN VACCINOLOGY | 2(2 + 0) | |
| 15 | VMC 715 * | ADVANCES IN IMMUNODIAGNOSTICS | 2(1 + 1) | |
| 16 | VMC 716 * | MODERN IMMUNOTECHNOLOGY | 3(1 + 2) | |
| 17 | VMC 717 * | CURRENT TOPICS IN INFECTION AND IMMUNITY | 3(3 + 0) | |
| 18 | VMC 718 * | VETERINARY MICROBIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 19 | VMC 790 * | SPECIAL PROBLEM | 2(0 + 2) | * courses are compulsory |
1. 1. Isolation and
characterization of Clostridium
perfringens and C. difficile from
animals, birds, and human, as well as foods of animal origin with different health
status.
2. 2.Phenotypic
characterization of the isolates for resistance pattern to antimicrobial agents
and detection /distribution of resistance genes among the isolates.
3. 3.Assessment of
antibiotic resistance gene transfer between the isolates of different sources,
as well as of the same source
· a. Molecular screening of a total 162 C. perfringens isolates recovered from intestinal scrapings of pig (35), Poultry (48), dog (42), duck (12), goat (2), vulture (8), Quail (4), and human stool samples (11) revealed prevalence of toxin type A(137), Type B(3), Type D (1) & Type G (21) of different parts of North Eastern region including Assam.
· b.Isolation of Type G (21) C. perfringens isolates from broiler chicken is considered to be the first report from India. A suitable vaccine formulation against Necrotic Enteritis in broiler birds has been successfully evaluated.
· c. Majority of the type G
isolates with additional gene (tpeL)
associated with large clostridial toxin (TpeL) leads to a new opening for
future study on TpeL toxin as an additional factor for pathogenicity.
· d. Molecular screening of a total of 57 Clostridiodes difficile recovered from faecal samples of chicken(8), Pig(7), Dog(18), Chicken meat(4), pork(6), beef (5), dry fish (2), and including human stool samples (7) for toxin associated genes revealed both toxigenic (6) and non-toxigenic isolates (35) isolates.
· e. Among the toxigenic
isolates, 4 exhibited both components of binary toxin, ctdA and ctdB gene.
f. Isolation and detail characterization of C.difficile of different host species in respect to their toxin typing, ribityping and profiling of PaLoc region were considered to be the first report from India.
· g. Screening of 39 randomly selected C. perfringens isolates of different sources for distribution gene(s) associated with antibiotic resistance exhibited distribution of ermB (7), ermQ (6),
tetA (12), tetM (6), tetB (2), bcrB (5) and InuA (6).
Objectives :
