School of Life Sciences

Department of Animal Science

Supported by UGC-SAP- DRS-II and DST-FIST-I (Level-II)

The Department of Animal Science is committed to excellence with holistic approach in teaching and research since its founding in 31st July, 1993.

The Department and offers a M.Sc. Zoology programme with Choice Based Credit System (CBCS). The program courses are blended with classical Zoology and Modern Biology within the frame of Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE). In addition, our program is research-intensive, providing personalized, hands-on training in faculty member’s laboratory. Working together with their advisers, students design an independent, faculty-directed research project that culminates in a formal written thesis. Students from M.Sc., Zoology qualified CSIR-Lectureship, CSIR-Junior Research Fellowship, DBT-Junior Research Fellowship and Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE).

Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology/ Inter-disciplinary subject: Interested candidate may directly approach the Faculty in Department of Animal Science. Faculties are working in different area of research such as Behavioral Neuroscience, Aquaculture, Nanoscience, Reproductive Technology, Cancer Biology and Neuronal Stem Cells. Candidates can enrol into the Ph.D program through independent research fellowship or Junior Research Fellow/ Project Fellow in Government sponsored research project to the individual faculty. In addition, Bharathidasan University supporting the research program by providing financial support through University Research Fellowship.

The Department received financial support from University Grants Commission through UGC-SAP-DRS-I (2007-2012), UGC-SAP-DRS-II (2014-2019) and Department of Science and Technology through DST-FIST-I (Level-I: 2002-2007; Level-II: 2017-2022) with the total amount of Rs. 2,28,00,000/- during the last five years (2013-2018)

Faculty has mobilized research grant of Rs.343 lakhs from different funding agency such as Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), The Tamil Nadu State council for Higher Education(TANSCHE) and RUSA 2.0 –Biological Science during the last five years (2019-24).

A total of 111 research articles has been published by the faculties in International journals, the articles published in a journal with the average impact factor of 2.987 and the articles earned an average of eight citations per article with overall h-index of 16 during the last five years (2019-24).

Overall, 208 (24 during 2019-24) candidates earned their PhD degree through the department of Animal Science and 19 are currently pursuing. After graduation, many of them are pursuing Post-doctoral Research in USA, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, France, Hong Kong, Israel, King of Saudi Arabia, Finland, Switzerland, etc. Others are placed as college teachers, scientists, academic administrators, entrepreneurs, etc.

The Department established common equipment facility with full range of molecular biology equipment and advanced equipment such as Quantitative Real-time PCR, Spectroflurometer, GC-MS, Cell Culture Facility, Flow-cytometer, and Aquaculture facility.

The Department has a well-established CPCSEA-approved Animal House, which caters to the needs of the other science departments in the University.

The Department has been further extended and includes the Centre for Pheromone Technology (2008) and the Mahatma Gandhi-Doerenkamp Centre (MGDC) (2009). Now, the MGDC activities have expanded as a National facility named as National Centre for Alternatives to Animal Experiments (NCAAE) funded by UGC under Centre with Potential for Excellence in Particular Area (CPEPA) Scheme (2016-2021).

Former faculty members, Prof. M.R. Chandran (Area of Research: Aquaculture), Prof. M.A. Akbersha, Prof. P. Subramanian (Area of Research: Aquaculture), Prof. P. Geraldine (Area of Research: Cataract and age-related disorders, and Mycopathology), Prof. C. Balasundaram (Area of Research: Aquaculture), and Prof. G. Archunan (Area of Research: Pheromone Biology), have contributed significantly to the development of Department of Animal Science through teaching, innovative research and creative activity