D. Artificial Insemination in Buffalo Features.

a. The buffalo bull can be trained more easily than cattle for donating semen for artificial insemination.

b. The buffalo bull is less choosy concerning the teaser and quickly mounts an unoestrous female and even a male buffalo in their service rate.

c. Temperature required for artificial vagina is 39o C as against 41°C for cattle.

d. Massage technique for semen collection required longer period for effective results.

e. Electro-ejaculation from the buffalo is still in the experimental stage and although it has achieved success to some extent, still some more research has to be carried out in this regard.

f. The head of the buffalo spermatozoa is more rectangular than that of cattle spermatozoa.

g. Volume, sperm concentration, initial motility are generally lower in the buffalo and as it is already mentioned the semen from healthy buffalo bulls is milky white with a light shade of blue. Cattle semen has got a yellowish tinge.

h. Semen dilutors suitable for cattle like egg yolk, phosphate (EYP) buffer are not at all suitable for buffalo. Higher fertility was resulted with a new diluent called "kampschmidt's glucose sodium biocarbonate egg yolk extender". Another highly encouraging buffalo dilutor has been developed by the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal and known as citric acid whey (CAW). In Pakistan the studies suggested the use of homogenized milk as a diluent for buffalo semen and study conducted at Indian Veterinary Research Institute reveals that among 102 animals conceived 66%, 22%, 5% and 6% animals became pregnant by the first, second, third and fourth inseminations respectively. The average number of inseminations required per conception was 1.56. Fertility was ascertained by rectal palpitation and by calving results. A conception rate of 72% is not common in buffaloes bred by artificial insemination.

Another outstanding technique in the field of buffalo breeding is multiple ovulation embryo technology. Under the Indo-US project the fundamental and applied research on embryo transfer technology has also been taken up in collaboration with Indian Veterinary Research Institute, National Dairy Research Institute, Punjab Agricultural University etc. One buffalo embryo transfer centre has also been established by the Indian Dairy Development Board at the Sabarmati Ashram Goshala, Bidaj, Gujarat. The frozen semen and the embryo transfer technologies have opened up immense possibilities for improving the productivity of the neglected farm animals in the buffalo breeding.

VI. Progeny Testing in Buffalo Breeding

The selection of breeding stock on the basis of dam's performance and type and certain level of milk yield, is almost an universal practice. But a selection index which includes milk yield, butter fat percentage, age at first calving and calving interval is the best measure for selecting the breeding stock. The preparation of such an index needs detailed study of the phenotypic and genotypic correlations between these characters. Such investigations can be taken up by the universities, research stations and other concerned departments. Simple and practical selection index are to be developed. The progeny test in the only accurate and effective method of selection. But its application in tropics and sub tropics pose several difficulties which are as follows.

a. Lack of simple and practical method of progeny testing.

Simple progeny testing is to be evolved to suit to the tropics and sub tropics. Even though, the records of dames and daughters are available, the farmers especially the breeders are finding difficult to make use of the data for assessing the breeding performance of their herd sires. These difficulties are very genuine because several important considerations arise out of progeny testing of herd sire.

Firstly, due allowance must be given to the varied environmental conditions under which the off springs are born. We may try to penalize the inheritance of the parents unnecessarily for such environmental differences like season of calving, level of feeding, standard of management etc. Therefore it is essential to standardize the lactation records for seasonal variations to standard environmental condition. Secondly due allowances must be made for the variation at the age of daughter and dame. Thirdly, we process little information about the minimum number of daughters required for accurately assessing the breeding worth of a sire. The objective should be to test the maximum number of bulls with the minimum number of daughter consistent with a fairly high degree of accuracy. Fourthly, there is little information on the level of milk production at which a sire can be regarded as proven. There is a need of research on all these aspects of progeny testing on water buffaloes under tropical and sub-tropical conditions.


b. Long sire daughter interval

Due to slow and late maturity of buffaloes, generally the sire progeny interval is very large. Every effort should be made through improved management and feeding practices to shorten the generation interval which will increase the genetic gain per year. Majority of the buffalo bulls would be dead by the time the records of their daughter are available for assessing their genetic worth. Eight to tell years is the minimum interval. But a small number of buffalo bulls can survive beyond this age and retains a fair degree of fertility. These bulls between the age of 8-10 years provide us an opportunity for assessing their transmitting meet. With the help of progeny testing, it will be possible to locate a few outstanding sires which should be artificially mated to the maximum number of buffalo cow in selected herds. The cows of these sires form high producing dams which should be saved and reared for upgrading village herds.

c. Lack of herd recording

Herd recording is the main basis for progeny testing. Herd recording practice is confined to only government and other large dairy farmers and research institutions. In order to ensure proper maintenance of the records, the organizations should be well equipped with staff. These records help in improving the productivity of local breeds of buffaloes.

VII. Conclusion

A considerable gap exists between the availability of and the need of superior buffalo bulls. Therefore every effort should be made through artificial insemination to increase the number of superior breeding males for accelerating the pace of improvement in water buffalo. To ensure these measures, it is necessary to use sires of known breeding merit as far as possible. The application of artificial insemination to buffalo.


First Topic: Water Buffalo Breeding