Two more calves born through embryo transfer in Sirmaur

The birth of two female calves - Ganga and Jamuna - through Embryo Transfer Technology (ETT) at a cattle breeding farm in Bagthan, Sirmaur, has opened up new opportunities for Himachal Pradesh to go in for high pedigree livestock production using surrogate cows.

A pilot ETT project was introduced three years ago. The birth of the two female calves had raised the total number of new born animals at the farm to six with two males - Gaurav and Saurav - born in 2011.

"This technology provides rapid genetic improvement of livestock. The animal husbandry department proposes to import high pedigree embryos for implantation," said B P Malhotra, director of State Animal Husbandry department.

Ganga and Jamuna were born on March 24 and April 5. Out of six calves, four have their biological parents in Punjab but were born to surrogate cows in Himachal after frozen embryos were implanted through ETT.

Maltreat said that three veterinarians from the department were sponsored to German Holstein Association (DHV), Bonn, Germany and thereafter trained at Kalsi (Uttarakhand). A trial was conducted by K D Ryot, Deputy Director (Animal Production) of the department to standardise ETT.

Ten frozen cattle embryos were brought from Ludhiana and implanted in surrogate cows at Bagthan farm. Embryos were simultaneously collected from Bagthan and Kotla Barog farms after subjecting them to super-ovulation treatment. These embryos were further transferred in synchronised recipients ( surrogate cows) resulting in the birth of two calves at these farms.

Ryot said, "Some of the benefits of the technology will be a rapid genetic improvement, circumvention of infertility, twinning in cattle, conservation of endangered breeds or species of animals, easy and economical import and export of embryos as compared to adult livestock, and disease control."

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