Chinese preserves ‘super’ buffalo breed

Islamabad : A Chinese company has successfully preserved the breed of a superior but aged Pakistani buffalo through OPU-IVF-ET technology by obtaining pregnancy from her embryo.

“We obtained eggs from a ‘Nili Ravi’ buffalo, the grandmother of a young buffalo which yielded a world record of 28.3 kilograms of milk during a competition held at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad,” Dr Qaisar Shahzad, technical manager of Buffalo Embryo Production at Royal Cell Biotechnology (Pakistan) told Gwadar Pro.

He said that the buffalo had not given birth to an offspring in the last four years due to ageing (20 years). Four eggs were collected from this buffalo using ultrasound-guided OPU and two embryos were produced as a result.

One embryo was transferred to a younger buffalo at Ibrahim Dairy Farm, Faisalabad and pregnancy was obtained.

At this farm, a total of six pregnancies were achieved after transferring the embryos in eight buffaloes, while results from other farms are awaited, Dr Qaisar said.

Commenting on the significance of the results, Dr Qaisar said that they had preserved the breed of a ‘super’ buffalo. “It will enable us to produce scores of buffaloes with similar super qualities as the donor. Also, a healthy buffalo can give birth to 4-5 offspring in her lifetime.

However, through the OPU-IVF-ET, we are able to reproduce around 15 calves a year. This will increase the population of animals of superior breeds and help in increased milk production,” he said.

The fertilisation technique involves obtaining egg cells from a buffalo (or other animals) of superior breed and transferring the embryo into other buffaloes.