The article presents the rationale for the use of hydro-epidemiology in assessing the risk of spreading water-related in-fectious diseases of animals. The authors distinguish six hydro-epidemiological groups of diseases: 1) water is the medium of pathogen accumulation; 2) water is the medium for transmission of the infection pathogen without its biological accumula-tion; 3) the development cycle of the causative agent is directly related to water and aquatic organisms; 4) diseases transmitted by insects having water-related development cycle; 5) diseases transmitted by aquatic and near-water vertebrates; 6) diseases of reservoir inhabitants. At the same time, it is shown that the aquatic filter-feeding bivalves (mollusks) accumulate in them-selves various pathogenic microorganisms, which are the causative agents of infectious diseases of both man and animals. Thus, mollusks can serve as a test object for hydro-epidemiological study in assessing the risk of infectious diseases dissemi-nation in water area and near-water complex as well as in using them directly for food.

Eleven genotypes of soft spring wheat were studied in a series of field and laboratory experiments in 2014 - 2018. The laboratory test included accounting for seed germination and assessing the physiological parameters of seedlings (number of seminal roots, dry matter mass of roots and shoots and their ratio (RSR index)). The field tests included phenological observa-tions, assessment of genotypes by productivity and average yield. The average yield of wheat during the years of study was 1.93-4.92 t/ha and depended on weather conditions during the period of grain formation. The trait “1000-grain mass” was formed under the influence of the genotype (68.1%), the portion of influence of weather conditions was 11.8%. It has been established that the duration of the reproductive period of soft spring wheat in the Kirov region should be at least 40 days. Reducing the duration of the reproductive period leads to a decrease in seed germination capacity. Seeds the formation and development of which took place at the optimum temperature of 16 ºС, by germination spent the most part of seed reserve substances for the development of the aboveground part of the plant (RSR index = 0.70). Under these conditions, the varieties with a lower root index were characterized by high values of the elements of yield structure. At the increased average daily air temperature (by 2-4 oC), seeds that could germinate with a significantly higher number of seminal roots (6.6-9.0%) developed on the maternal plants. During the germination of such seeds, the plastic substances distributed evenly between the shoots and seminal roots (RSR index = 0.94-0.98). The increased influx of assimilates to root system of seedlings could be explained by the fact that the process of seed formation on the maternal plants took place under conditions close to stressful and the adapted seeds spent more reserve substances for root development.

During the research conducted at the All-Russian Research Institute for Starch Products there has been developed a technological mode of using cellulolytic enzymes to reduce the viscosity of grain pulp obtained by grinding naked oat grains soaked in a sodium metabisulphite solution. As the experimental data had been processed, the optimum technological parameters of the process were determined: the consumption of the enzyme preparation Viscoferm was 200 g/t of grain and the dura-tion of fermentation by constant stirring for 2.5 hours at pH 4.6 and temperature 50°C. Under laboratory conditions there has been studied the possibility of starch processing of naked oat grain samples Vyatka, Percheron, 857h05, 766 h05 varieties grown in the Federal Agricultural Research Center of the North-East named N.V. Rudnitsky. Technological assessment based on grain processing in the laboratory using the “plant on the table” method has shown that the yield of coarse-grained starch A in the processing of naked oat using cellulolytic enzymes is 51.4-53.9%, i.e. higher than that of filmy oats, rye Falenskaya 4 and Vyatka 2, wheat and triticale. Low starch content in fiber (7.7-8.7% dry substances DS of fiber) was found in comparison with the results obtained from the processing of filmy oats, Falenskaya and Vyatka 2 rye varieties, wheat and triticale (11.2 - 13.9% DS of fiber). Fiber output by the processing of naked oats is 7.3 - 8.8% DS of grain, by the processing of other types of grain 10.3 - 17.5% DS of grain. The yield of small-grain starch B in the processing of the studied varieties of naked oat is 19.2 - 20.8% DS of grain, that is higher than this value obtained by processing of filmy oats and wheat, but lower than by pro-cessing of rye and triticale. Isolated carbohydrate-protein concentrate, including starch B and proteins, is recommended for use with the extract and fiber as a component for the production of feed.

The research has been carried out under production conditions on light gray forest soils with light particle-size composition at an area of 550 hectares where liquid pig manure (LPM) of a large pig breeding complex is annually used as an organic fertilizer at doses of 60 and 90 t/ha. The average characteristics of LPM are as follows: dry matter content is 9.5%, pH 7.7 units, nitrogen 0.22%, phosphorus 0.11%, and potassium 0.12%. The cultivated grain crops were presented by winter and spring wheat varieties, Moskovskaya 39 and Esther, respectively. It has been established that at the dose of 60 t/ha LPM for two years of research at an average a mean wheat yield was 3.0-3.75 t/ha, and at the dose of 90 t/ha - up to 4.75 t/ha. The return on investments for fertilizers in the “winter wheat → spring wheat” crop rotation link at the dose of 60 t/ha of LPM was 5.41 kg of grain per 1 kg of active substance of manure, at the dose of 90 t/ha - 4.57 kg / kg. A positive balance of nutritional elements developed on all fields, but it was better balanced when the dose of LPM was 60 t/ha and the yield was 3.0 t/ha of grain annually, or when the LPM dose was 90 t/ha and the yield of wheat was 4.75 t/ha. In this case, the estimated potassi-um supply of soil occurs at a lower rate than that of nitrogen and phosphorus. The application of 120 t of LPM during two years in total on loamy sand and of 180 t/ha on light loamy soil provided an increase in the content of mobile phosphorus compounds by 5-22 mg/kg, and potassium - by 11-30 mg/kg with a variation coefficient of 28-57% and 21-49%, respectively.

The long-term research conducted in 2002-2017 in a long stationary experiment on studying different types of field crop rotations under conditions of the Kirov region showed that on sod-podzolic soils the loss of humus could be lowered using agro technical methods. The most critical of them include the reduction of a portion of bare fallow, transition to sown and green-manure fallow, expanded use of perennial legume and grain-legume crops and intercrop sowings. In eight-field crop rotations when using such means of a biologization as plowing of the root-stubble residues, aboveground mass of green-manure crops in fallow fields and intercrop sowings, the supply of organic substance was within 17.24-83.03 t/ha. By mineral-ization of this substance 7.64-11.51 t of humus were produced. In a crop rotation with bare fallow there is a negative balance of humus of -0.06 t/ha. The positive balance is obtained when using sown, green-manure fallows, intercrop sowings (two-three fields), and introduction of up to 25% perennial legumes to the structure of crop rotations. The formation of 0.96-1.44 t/ha of humus in the arable layer provides positive balance of 0.20-0.72 t/ha. The increase of the part of grain crops up to 62.5-75.0% in the structure of crop rotations resulted in rise of their efficiency up to 4.74-4.79 thousand fodder units. It was 0.27-0.32 thousand fodder units higher than in the control crop rotation with bare fallow. Dependence of productivity of agricultural crops on humus content was insignificantly negative (r = -0.16). The efficiency of the studied crop rotations depended considerably on the amount of productive moisture in the soil in a phase of ear formation of grain crops (r = -0.78) and on biological activity of the soil (r = -0.80).

The article provides data on the use of Profort feed probiotic additive containing strains of Enterococcus faecium and Bacillus subtilis bacteria in feeding cows during the period of increasing the milk yield. The research was conducted in 2019 on the basis of Agricultural Production Cooperative Collective farm "Iskra", Kirov region. Two groups of highly productive black-and-white motley cows with the average milk yield of 7500 kg for a lactation of 20 animals each were formed for the experiment. The morphological composition and immuno-biochemical parameters of blood of the experimental animals as well as milk productivity and quality indicators of milk were studied, the economic efficiency of Profort probiotic additive use was calculated. It has been established that the inclusion of Profort additive into the animal diet at a dose of 30 g per head per day during 80 days of the period of increasing the milk yield contributes to the normalization of metabolic processes in their bodies, increasing the average daily milk yield by 9.04 – 12.86% (P<0.05), an increase in the percentage of fat and protein in milk by 0.03-0.10%, respectively, compared with the similar indicators of animals in the control group. When using Profort, from the cows of the experimental group in the first three months of lactation 72785.08 kg of milk in a basic fat content of 3.4% were ob-tained, that was 10580.37 kg of milk more as compared with the milk yield of animals from the control group for the same period (62204.71 kg). It allowed to increase the revenue from the sale of milk by 17.01%, to reduce the cost of production of 1 kg of milk by 2 rubles or 11.76% and to get 6.04 rubles of additional profit for each ruble of additional costs. The increase in profit and reduction in the cost of milk production contributed to an increase in profitability by 18.01%.

Currently, in populations of different cattle breeds there is elimination of a number of alleles of blood groups and an in-crease in the homozygosity coefficient that leads to rise in the amount of homozygous animals. In this regard, the aim of the research was to study the effect of homozygosity by EAV-locus of blood groups on the productive and reproductive characteristics of cows. The research was carried out on the farms of the Smolensk region for breeding of Sychevskaya cattle breed: the “Rybkovskoye” breeding farm and pedigree breeding unit Agricultural Production Cooperative (APC) named after Uritsky. On these farms there were selected 2078 cows, homozygous according to alleles of EAV - locus of blood groups and heterozygous animals born in 2010-2014 (21 and 581, 50 and 1426 heads, respectively). The study has shown that the average milk yield over the productive life of homozygotes in the herd of the “Rybkovskoye” farm is insignificantly lower and on the farm named after Uritsky this parameter is significantly higher. Application of one-way ANOVA analysis determined the weak effect of genotype on the productivity of animals on the “Rybkovskoe” farm only for the first lactation with factorial effect in milk yield, milk fat and protein 1.2, 1.5 and 1.1%, respectively. On the breeding farm named after Uritsky the factorial effect in milk yield and fat
yield for the second lactation was 0.3 and 0.4%, and on the average over the life in milk yield it was 0.4%. The analysis of repro-ductive qualities: the age of the first calving, the age of the first fruitful insemination, multiplicity of insemination to lactation, the number of days before the first insemination in the current lactation, the duration of open days revealed close values, similar nature of distribution and variation of these indicators, absence of statistically significant differences between them in homozy-gotes and heterozygotes. A weak (2% or less) influence of homozygosity on productive longevity, which determines the superiority of homozygous cows over heterozygous, characteristic for samples from both farms, has been found.

The article presents the results of assessment of genetic diversity and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in the re-source sheep population, originated from crossing of fast-growing (Katahdin) and slow growing (Romanov) breeds for QTL mapping and search for candidate genes associated with growth rate. The study was conducted on 88 sheep from the resource population, including two unrelated families that have been reared in the Moscow region since 2017. Each family consists of a Katahdin ram (founder), Romanov’s ewes (mothers), F1 hybrids, and two groups of backcrosses. All sheep were genotyped using a high-density DNA chip Illumina Ovine Infinium® HD SNP BeadChip (~ 600 thousand SNP markers). SNP markers were filtered in the PLINK v.1.90. PCA was performed in PLINK v.1.90 and visualized in R package ggplot2. The genetic diversity indices (Ho, uHe, Ar, FIS) were calculated in R package “diveRsity”. It was established that both crosses had higher level of genetic diversity in comparison with the mother breed. F1 hybrids were characterized by the highest level of observed heterozygosity (Ho = 0.409-0.407), while Ho ranged from 0.382 to 0.396 for the backcrosses, respectively. The expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.329 to 0.356 in the groups from the resource population. Allelic richness was high in all studied groups (more than 1.849). PCA showed that the mated parent breeds were highly differentiated, as it should be in successful establishment of the resource population. The phenotypic characteristic of the backcrosses on live weight and nine body measurements at 9, 42 and 90 days is given. The coefficients of variation were the highest by live weight (17.0-19.0%), body length (15.5-22.3%) and oblique body length (16.2% and 22.7%) at 90 days. The results are intermediate and create a geno-typic and phenotypic base to perform GWAS at the next stage of our study.

The capercaillie as one of the most important hunting objects in Russia has not yet been included in the list of esti-mated hunting trophies due to the lack of an acceptable assessment methodology. The aim of the work is to develop a method for assessing the trophy advantages of a capercaillie. The objects of the study were morphological indicators which expressed the size and the age of the birds caught. The study involved 39 stuffed animals of capercaillie, 47 carcasses of freshly caught birds and 105 skulls from research collections. Measurement of taxidermy products (stuffed animals and museum carcasses) gives inaccurate information about the fowl caught. It is preferable to use the skull of a male capercaillie as a trophy. In the system of the International Council for the Hunting and Preservation of the Wildlife (CIC) the traditional measurements of the skull are the maximum length and width. In trophy animals, the scull size sufficiently reflects the sum of these indicators, therefore they are chosen for trophy assessment. For capercaillie, the correlation of similar pro-meters with body weight was not so close r = 0.489. In authors’ opinion, the assessment method should include the size of the interorbital space as an addi-tional parameter. This measurement is used in methods for determining the age of capercaillies caught. The formula for scoring is the product of the interorbital space by the sum of the maximum length and width of the skull. The correlation coeffi-cient between the trophy rating by this formula and the bird weight in this study is rm = 0.931, and the trophy rating and age rv = 0.920. The intervals of the final points for awarding the medals are: bronze  55-59.99 points, silver  60-64.99, gold  more than 65 points. This assessment system was successfully tested at two exhibitions of hunting trophies held in the Kirov region in 2017, and was approved by expert commissions.

Flax processing waste, flax shive is of great importance for producing sorbents from non-wooden materials in Russia. There are more than 700 thousand hectares of linseed flax crops in the country. Linseed flax shive had been burned everywhere until recently as there was no technology of its processing. The waste disposal problem in the linseed flax cultivation regions could be solved by introducing new flax waste recycling and linen producing technologies developed by scientists of the Federal Research Center for Bast Fiber Crops. In 2015-2018 some studies were carried out in research laboratories and on the experi-mental plant of the center as well as on flax-sowing farms of the Udmurt Republic, Rostov region and Krasnodar territory. The research has shown that linseed shive contains 49-51% of cellulose and 23-27% of lignin, on which the sorption capacity of the material depends. The values of flax waste sorbent sorption capacity by the effective sorption of ions in relation to heavy metals are 85-91 %, to oil products - from 3.9 to 17.3 mg/g, to iodine and methylene blue - 222 and 220 mg/g, respectively. These values don’t concede the sorbents from wood and can replace the use of the latter. The developed technology of obtaining sorbent from flax allows to organize the production directly on flax-sowing farms and flax factories applying raw materials ready to use.