The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has initiated work on a project that will pave the way for producing a higher number of calves of elite indigenous breeds, and benefit cattle farmers across the country.
Two calves – one of them of Gir breed, and the other of Sahiwal breed - born in an interval of one week at NDDB's Anand facility for producing calves through in-vitro fertilization technique. The embryo production technique is commonly known as test-tube baby in human beings.
In this technique, elite cows, which have high milk yield, are selected. Oocytes are aspirated at a regular interval from the selected donor cows, which are then fertilized in petri dish using semen of top elite bulls.
After seven days of development in laboratory, the embryos are transferred to cows (surrogate mothers) having low milk production potential. At the end of around nine months, a calf belonging to an elite breed is born.
NDDB said that normally a cow can produce one calf in a year, but the in-vitro fertilization technique allows production of as many as 20-25 calves from an elite cow in a year by repeating the above process.
"This technique can be used to multiply the number of high producing cows of our finest indigenous dairy breeds like Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi and Tharparkar," it said.
NDDB chairman Dilip Rath said that the in-vitro fertilization technique coupled with selection of donors and sires based on genomic breeding values would revolutionize the method of selecting and breeding animals, and help in accelerating genetic progress in our indigenous breeds.
The facility has been established with the help of a Brazil government's research organisation, which has expertise in producing IVF calves of cattle breeds of Indian origin.
"Our collaboration would help us get good Gir genetics from Brazil," he said.
Rath said that the facility would be used for training veterinary professionals in IVF technique.
FRIEND IN NEED...
The facility has been established with the help of a Brazil government’s research organisation, which has expertise in producing IVF calves of cattle breeds of Indian origin
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "A Sahiwal calf (inset) and a Gir calf")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}