Frozen Cows – IVF Successfully Used To Impregnate Indigenous Cattle
In-virto fertilization technique (IVF) and frozen embryo has been successfully used to establish pregnancy in livestock for the first time India—a major breakthrough for genetically improving, conserving and propagating indigenous cow breeds.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh launched “JK BovaGenix” that will focus on producing IVF embryos on a large scale from indigenous cattle breeds at Dr Vijayapat Singhania Centre for Excellence for Assisted Reproductive Techniques here in Janjgir Champa district. The project is of J K Trust—an NGO which has been working towards livestock breed improvement using artificial insemination technology for the last four decades.
Establishment of pregnancies using frozen embryo is for the first time in India at present the centre has 28 cows with 14 pregnancies through IVF and 14 through frozen IVF embryos in the last three months since its inception. The first batch of IVF calves are expected to be born by the year. In 2012, a calf was born with this technique but the attempt was unsuccessful.
In IVF technique, the ova is aspirated manually from the donor mother’s ovary and is then combined with male semen to develop an ova into an embryo
, which can be frozen and preserved for many years. These embryos are then transplanted into recipient mothers to produce live calves.Speaking at the function, chief minister Raman Singh said this is an initiative that his government will support. “I think this can be developed further with the assistance from other states as it would help protect and propagate indigenous cow breeds and boost milk output“, he added.
Dr V P Singhania, JK trust chairman, expressed the hope that success of the programme would create several thousand high milk yielding cattle and good quality of bulls in the near future.
Union agriculture ministry’s animal husbandry commissioner Suresh S Honnappagol described the research and the breakthrough as a major step towards preserving indigenous cattle breed and improving its milk yield. He said the centre has already earmarked Rs 850 crores for various technological and programmes that will ultimately benefit the farmers.
Dr Shyam Zavar, CEO and a pioneer in embryo transfer research, said the project aims to rapidly multiply and upgrade indigenous breeds of cattle such as Gir from Gujarat, Sahiwal from Punjab and Haryana, Tarparkar from Rajasthan and Ongole from Andhra Pradesh and others. There are 40 indigenous breeds of cattle and 13 breeds of buffalos in the country.
He said indigenous cattle breed in India have a lower milk yield as compared to the same breed in other parts of the world. For instance, he said, indigenous breed like Gir produce 2.5 times more milk in Brazil as compared to our country because of the genetic improvement and not necessarily by eating twice the quantity of fodder.
Chief minister Raman Singh also launched a mobile cattle IVF and embryo transfer lab, the first in the country, which will facilitate this advanced assisted re-productive technology to the door steps of the farmers in villages across many states.
