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Animal Husbandry Buffaloes- Reproductive Efficiency of Water Buffalo

D. Reproductive Efficiency & Breeding Efficiency Formula

The reproductive efficiency of farm animals which denotes the maximum effective use of their reproductive capacity, is of considerable practical and economic significance to farmers. Fertility and regularity of breeding is of high importance and these two characteristics are associated with the vital problems of buffalo rearing. Although the fertility of the buffalo male and female has a genetic basis, the difference in their overall reproductive efficiency to a large extent can be attributed to managerial practices, particularly feeding and general care.

Lack of sufficient data on the fertility and associated traits is enabling the farmers to involve the regular breeding practices. From the practical point of view the improper diagnosis of oestrus is one of the main causes of low fertility in buffalo cows. As already mentioned silent heats, embryonic mortality and infertile services adversely affect its fertility. The average number of services per conception in water buffaloes ranges from 1.5 to 2.0 in India.

The conception rate is influenced by the season of service, age of the sire and dam, level of nutrition etc. Heifers calving for the first time usually require more services for conception than older animals. Using the formula breeding efficiency can be estimated according to the local conditions.

Breeding efficiency according to modified formula is as follows.

Breeding efficiency=[n(365) + 1040]100/Ac + C1 j

where n = the number of calving intervals
Ac = the age at first calving in days
C1 = the sum of calving intervals in days
and the figure 1040 is optimum age at first calving in days.

V. Artificial Insemination in Buffalo

The coverage of buffaloes under the artificial insemination service is increasing in all the developing countries. Its coverage as well as its effectiveness can be enhanced by the development of an easy and practical method of heat and pregnancy diagnosis; proper processing, storage and transport of sem*n, the use of proven bulls and the improvement on the technique of insemination. In comparison to cattle, the buffalo presents no specific problems for the application of the technique of artificial insemination. In India, it is generally believed that the keeping quality of the buffalo sem*n is lower than that of the bull sem*n and the research on the keeping quality of buffalo sem*n, its storage and techniques of artificial insemination is in progress in India.

It is observed that sub functioning of ovaries, persistent corpus luteum, silent heat etc. are the common problems found in Indian buffaloes. During the main breeding season, the sub-functioning of the ovaries is rather rare, but silent heats are observed. These main reproductive disorders mainly arise out of the abnormalities of their heats which as responsible for delayed service causing longer calving intervals. Therefore, suitable methods of the diagnosis of heat and pregnancy treatment of temporary sterility cases and their successful insemination appear to be very essential.

For securing higher percentage of conception with the artificial insemination, it is essential to improve the technique of insemination and the quality of the diluted sem*n with additives called bio-stimulators etc. increase the uterine con-tractions for assisting the transport of sem*n. The Russian workers have designed an apparatus to measure the electrical resistance of the v**inal mucosa. Incase of cow the optimum time for insemination is when the resistance is between 100 to 250 ohms. But for field use the technique of deep freeze buffalo sem*n has been developed in India. The National Dairy Research Institute has done a good deal of work on dilution and preservation of buffalo sem*n. Now artificial insemination with frozen sem*n provides good scope for upgrading local buffaloes on a large scale, but the paucity of bulls of high genetic merit (specially proven one) is the major constraint in this work.

The spermatozoa of the buffalo bull are morphologically different from those of the cattle bull which are shorter and narrower. The average measurement is as follows: head length is 8 microns and breadth is 5 microns mid pIace length is 15.5 microns and tail length 55 microns. The normal color of the sem*n is opaque, milky white like that of a cattle bull. The sem*n volume per ejaculate increase in the buffalo from 2- 7 years of age and its concentration per ml varies from 200 to 2000 million as reported by various workers in India. The average sem*n volume for Indian buffalo is 2-3 cc per ejaculation and while murrah buffalo it is 4 cc.

Broadly, the anatomy of the reproductive organs and physiology of reproduction of buffalo is similar in many ways as that of cattle. But to achieve the best results in the buffalo some modifications are required in the techniques used.

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