THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NATIVE LIVESTOCK BREEDS AND THEIR SUSTAINABLE USE The National Conference on ‘Native livestock breeds and their Sustainable Use’ took place at Kottayam, Kerala. It was organized by the Vechur conservation Trust in association with M.G.University, Kottayam. The Registration of participants (210 numbers) marked the beginning of the day of the conference. The instant painting by child artist ‘Minon’ was amazing. He drew 44 extinct animals in less than one hour. Simultaneous was the photo exhibition on the Livestock wealth of Kerala. It gave a realization that Kerala is rich in its diversity and not poor as thought by many. The exhibition was arranged by Dr.Anil Zachariah and his team. After the welcome speech by Dr.Joby George the inauguration of the Seminar was done by Dr.Rajan Gurukkal, Vice Chancellor of the M.G. University. He elaborated the Community’s role in conservation and the need for community support in such activities. He made a special mention of the Samburu Protocol and the need for such protocols in India. He said a protocol for Vechur should be given top priority. Sosamma Iype in her Presidential address expressed deep concern about the rapid loss of biodiversity.She said two breeds are lost every week as per FAO statistics.The conservation action taken for Vechur cattle- though late -has made it possible that Vechur cow is still on this earth. A paper on Government’s role in conserving native domestic breeds was presented by Dr.A.Batobyal from the Ministry, Government of India. It was an opportunity to understand the role of Government as well as Universities, NGOs and other organisations. The focus on endangered breeds by the Government was emphasized and listed. His concluding remarks with a quote “When last individual of a race of living things breaths no more, another Heaven and another Earth must pass before such a one can be again “ created a kind of fear in the mind .The message was clear that unless we take strong and stringent action to save the remaining valuable germplasm, the future is bleak.
Dr.Kandsamy N, Professor of Animal Breeding and Genetics and former Dean of Namakkal Veterinary College, presented a paper on the Livestock breeds of Tamil Nadu and their conservation.The pictures and habitat of breeds of cattle, sheep, goat, buffaloes and pigs was a great attraction to all. How cultural and religious practices help in conserving breeds was a real inside story.He brought the richness of TamilNadu to light. UNEP was represented by the presence of Sri Pramod G Krishnan Sri. Prayar Gopalakrishnan, ExMLA and former Milma Chairman said he is basically a farmer and conservationist. The need for encouraging and supporting the farmers keeping native animals was emphasized. Another point he stressed was including conservation of domestic animals in the syllabus in the school system. He said that these two points be included in the resolutions and brought to the notice of the Government . He said that nowadays children do not even have the idea that milk comes from the cow.They should be encouraged to know nature and its preciousness Dr.J.Mohan, Additional Director Dr.James K.C, District Animal Husbandry Officer,Kottayam represented the Govt.Department of Animal Husbandry, Kerala. They wished all success to the seminar and the activities of the Trust. The technical papers were from different institutions. including National Dairy Research Institute, and Kerala Agricultural University. Kerala Agricultural University team led by Dr.K.V. Raghunandanan, Director CAS in Animal Genetics and Breeding, presented papers of great practical importance. The slide show by the renowned Environmentalist and Photographer, Sri P.K.Uthaman on Precious Nature was in his own words “is not an entertainment but a serious issue�. Through his slides he showed the indescribable colours and beauty of the nature, how the forests are source of life sustaining water and what happens when forests are destroyed. He said this realization led him and many others to fight for the rescue of Silent Valley. The Vechur conservation he is also involved is a continuation of the Silent Valley protection. Dr.A.P. Thomas thanked all those who involved with the conference and expressed his willingness and desire to be more involved with the Trust activities and collaborative research. The second day of the technical session moderated by Sri Prayar Gopala Krishnan was devoted for farmers sharing of experience with native animals
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and their suggestions and emphasis on the rights of the farmers. It even disclosed the observation on resistance of Vechur cattle to aortic worms and many many interesting findings. It was expressed in this session that in case there are obsolete rules, they have to be changed or else Gandhiji’s policy on salt making would have to be followed. The session ended with vote of thanks by Dr.Jayan Joseph
Editor Sosamma Iype
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CONTENTS Technical Session -1 1.
Programme
2.
Presidential address Sosamma Iype
3.
Inaugural address Rajan Gurukkal
4.
Government’s role in conservation of livestock breeds Asimabha Batobyal
5.
Role of Vechur conservation Trust Jayan K. C
6.
Impact of modern IPR regime on conservation and sustainable use of native livestock genetic resources K.P.Ramesha
7.
Native Breeds of Madhya Pradesh: An Overview Pallavy Choubey, Elizebeth Thomas
8.
Comparative performance of goats Rani Alex, Raghavan K.C, Naicy Thomas
9.
Genetic Improvement of Malabari Goats Naicy Thomas, Raghavan K.C.
10.
Performance in Native Pigs of Kerala A.P.Usha, Venkatachalapathy R.T.
11.
Beta casein gene polymorphism - Vechur cattle Muhammed E.M, Mathew.S
12.
Conservation and Genetic Diversity of Native pigs A.P.Usha, Venkatachalapathy R.T.
13.
Role of Conservation of Farm Animal Genetic Resources in disease management of livestock Radhika.G, Raghavan.K.C, Reghunandanan.K.V
14.
Adaptability studies on Vechur cattle of Kerala Venkatachalapathy R.T., Sosamma Iype Technical Session-2 Sharing of Farmer’s experience
15.
Integrated farming with a single cow unit P.Biju
16.
Can Kasargod cow be an ideal homestead cow? Manmadhan Nair M.K.
17.
The cute little ‘kamadhenu’ Sharmila Saraswathy K.G
18.
My experience with Sustainable use of native breed cattle S.Thomas
19.
Domestic animal Diversity Conservation and Livestock Keepers rights Sosamma Iype , Jayan K.C, Joby George
20.
Value addition of gavya Y.V.Krishnamoorthy
21.
Vechur cow Our family’s food security Kochurani, Jimmy George
22
Towards A Pastoral Policy: For Protection of Pastoralists Rights & For Conservation of Local Animal Breeds Vivekanandan P.
23.
Farm animal biodiversity of Tamil Nadu and sustainable use of animal genetic resources. Kandasamy N.
24.
Resolutions taken at the National conference
NATIONALCONFERENCE on ‘NATIVE LIVESTOCK BREEDS AND THEIR SUSTAINABLE USE’
PROGRAMME 27-9-2010 9.30
: Registration
10.30
: Inaugural Session
Prayer Welcome
: Dr. Joby George, Member, Vechur Conservation Trust
Presidential Address
: Dr. Sosamma Iype, Managing trustee, Vechur Conservation Trust & Former Director, Centre for advanced Studies in Animal Genetics and Breeding,Kerala Agricultural University,Mannuthy
Inaugural Address
: Dr. Rajan Gurukkal, Vice-Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi University
Felicitations
: Dr. Asimabha Batobyal Joint Commissioner (LP), Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries. : Shri. Pramod G. Krishnan I.F.S., United Nations Development Programme. : Dr. R. Vijayakumar Director of Animal Husbandry, Govt. of Kerala : Shri. Prayar Gopalakrishnan Ex-MLA & Former Chairman, MILMA : Dr. K. C. James District Animal Husbandry Officer, Kottayam.
Honouring the farmers : Release of the Book ‘Livestock Keeper’s Rights’ Vote of thanks
: Prof. A. P. Thomas, Director, Advanced Centre of Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development, M.G.University.
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Technical Session 12.00 noon Moderator Veterinary College,
Session 1 : Dr. N. Kandasamy, Former Dean, Namakkal Veterinary College & Core Member, LIFE Network
Government’s Role in Conservation of Livestock Breeds
: Dr. Asimabha Batobyal
Role of Vechur Conservation Trust in Conservation of native live stock of Kerala State
: Dr. Jayan K. C.
1.00p.m.
: Lunch
2.00p.m.
:
Moderator
: Dr. K. V. Reghunandanan Director, Centre for Advanced Studies in Animal Genetics and Breeding, Kerala Agricultural University, Mannuthy
Session 2
Farm Animal Biodiversity of Tamil Nadu and Sustainable Use of Animal Genetic Resources
: Dr. N. Kandasamy
Climate change adaptability and Disaster Risk reduction-Relevance of native breeds
: Dr. J. Radhakrishnan IAS (UNDP)
Impact of modern IPR regime on conservation and sustainable use of native livestock genetic Resources-indian perspective
: Dr. K. P. Ramesha, N D R I, Bangalore
Role of Conservation of Farm Animal Genetic Resources in disease management of livestock Adaptability of Vechur cattle
: Dr. G.Radhika, Dr. K.C. Raghavan and Dr. K. V. Raghunandanan : Dr. Thirupathy Venketachalapathy and Dr. Sosamma Iype
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Conservation of genetic diversity of Ankamali Pigs of Kerala
:
Dr. Usha A. P. & Dr. Thirupathy Venketachalapathy
Performance of Ankamali Pigs of Kerala
:
Dr. Thirupathy Venketachalapathy & Dr. Usha A. P. Dr. Naicy Thomas, Dr. K.C. Raghavan & Dr. Rani Alex
Genetic improvement of Malabari Goats : Beta casein gene polymorphism and genetic superiority of Vechur cattle
:
Native Breeds of Madhya Pradesh- An Overview
:
5.00 pm.
10.00 am. Moderator Value addition of Panchagavya - By products My experience with sustainable use of native breed cattle Livestock Keepers Rights The Cute little Kamadhenu Vechur cow-Our family’s food security
Dr. Muhammed E. M. Dr. Stephan Mathew
Dr. Pallavi Choubey & Dr. Elizabeth Thomas : “Precious Nature” -Slide Show Shri P. K. Uthaman, Environmentalist 28-9-2010 : Session 3 : Sri. Prayar Gopalakrishnan :
Dr. Y. V. Krishnamoorthy
: : : :
Sri. S. Thomas Dr. Sosamma Iype Smt. Sharmila Hari Iyer Smt. Kochurani Joseph and Sri. Jimmy George
Can Kasargod cow be ideal for homestead? Integrated farming and Vechur cow The Kuttanad scenario of Duck rearing
: : :
1.00 pm. 2.00 pm. Vote of Thanks
: : :
Sri. M. K. Manmadhan Nair Dr. P. Biju Sri. John Baby, Sri. Jayan Joseph & Sri. Jacob Sebastian Lunch Plenary session Dr. Jayan Joseph Vechur Conservation Trust
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NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NATIVE LIVE STOCK BREEDS 27-09-2010 AT M.G. UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS (SOSAMMA IYPE) This is a great occasion of a get-together of friends in conservation. Year 2010 is Biodiversity year we all know. It is the responsibility of all of us to see that biodiversity is conserved. Man is a part of nature. So are animals, plants, microbes, the air, water, land ,soil and all other things. Man probably has harmed nature most for selfish motives. It is a common saying now the earth will be safe without man. But man cannot exist without nature.If we have this in mind that we do not own this earth and nature and we are only a part of it we would realize we have no right to destroy the nature. Now today a special group has assembled here.The administrators, policy makers, the scientists, breeders, the livestock keepers and young students all have come as a group, we can do much more than individuals working alone. We can develop a common voice in the interests of native domestic livestock. What happens to domestic animal diversity ? Breeds and species are vanishing.Once lost it is for ever. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says 4000breeds are used by Farmers.1/3rd is in danger of extinction .Domestic animals are becoming extinct at the rate of two breeds per week. According to estimates published in the 3rd edition of the World Watch List for Domestic Animal Diversity, 1000 domestic species have vanished in the past 100 years. One in four mammals and one in eight birds are at risk of extinction. Commercial farmers rely on only a few breeds. 90% of cattle in industrialized countries come from only six defined breeds. 83 percent of dairy cows in US are Holsteins Similar is the situation with other species. Standardization of agriculture lead to adoption of more economically productive breeds.Those which do not cope up with market trends disappear.So we do not see much heritage animals and breeds. We do not find people in domestic animal rearing sticking to it for generations or years. Next generation moves to some other field and traditional agriculture or animal husbandry vanish.The Westerners have gone into high-tech farming or intensive industrial farming.Same happens in many other countries.In India what we want is the sustainability of different breeds.The Livestock keeper or farmer has to have his or her livelihood.They should not be gobled up by big corporates.We do not want Monsanto animals.They are already trying to patent animals which may result in preventing use of offspring by farmers.Here we come in with livestock keepers rights.We are releasing a book on Livestock Keepers Rights to be legally adopted.
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Today we think about native animals and how they can be sustained. We need them to be out of danger as an insurance for the future.We need them for more studies and utilization. We want our tropical heat resistant animals to be there in the Global warming crisis.We want to have them in safe status as a part of our history and geography.For this they have to be sustainable.How to make them sustainable? We will be hearing from our speakers. Sustainability is the capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time.We cannot expect mankind to be concerned to actually improve the situation. Unless we can come up with a way in which to make saving the diversity of this planet profitable.Otherwise biodiversity and the future of mankind are at risk. Loss of animal genetic diversity endangers the sustainability of animal rearing and the ability of farmers to respond to changing environmental conditions, such as disease, climate, production systems, as well as future consumer preferences and food security. Biodiversity is biosecurity .It is food security.It has to be there if man is to be alive. With regard to situation in India and the policies we have the most eminent person of the field present here today. The Vechur Conservation Trust organises this National Conference with the help of National Biodiversity Authority of India and in collaboration with the Advanced Centre of Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development of M.G. University. How the trust came into picture? It is a long story. A story spread over to more than 2 decades. In Kerala, by the ’60s the native livestock esp. cattle was disappearing fast due to crossbreeding with Red Sindhi in the 50s and with Jersey and Brown Swiss in ’60s.People had a preference for the crossbreds due to higher milk yield. To achieve the higher level of production, inputs had to be significantly increased. Also, primary health care and disease prevention costs rose for the crossbred animals.But the idea was to evolve a really adapted breed for Kerala At that time also, there had been a few, thinking that all the native animals should not get transformed as crossbreds and some should be retained for the future. The Vechur cow was almost extinct by ’80s.There was an effort to find out whether Vechur cows were remaining. But that did not succeed. When I started working in the KAU I had the good fortune to have many students and some very very special and unique.The topic of Vechur cow also had come up in our conversation.One day Anil Zachariah asked me whether we could make an intensive search for Vechur cow.There were other environmentally conscious students. We started a search,purely a voluntary one with our own effort,time and money.The search went on.Many students were utilizing their weekends and vacation for search.I told the team if we succeed in finding Vechur cows I will see that we get support.I had hope with Indian Council of Agricultural Research. To be brief we worked together.We got seven animals to start with
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the saving of vechur cow. Dr.Radhakrishna Kaimal the then Dean of Vety College and Dr.E.G.Silas, Vice Chancellor, KAU were men of vision and they favoured the idea as early as 1988. The support from local people were immense in the search. Some gave us food. Late Dr.Raveendran of Vaikom we remember with reverence.Vechur Swamy gave guidance.Many many good memories. The Vechur Conservation Association since 1988 was transformed as Vechur Conservation Trust in 1998. Then Trust is dedicated to the cause of domestic animal diversity. The name vechur is only symbolic. The healthy aspect is that the Trust and the Kerala Agri.University work hand in hand to the cause.The Trust gives research facilities to the students by providing material for the study.The association of environmentalists like Sri P.K.Uthaman and many others is the strength and backing.You can see the presence and whole hearted participation of the then vety students and most of them now with AH dept.Many still with the same fever of conservation. Now what the Trust does, Dr.Jayan K.C. will be talking about it in the next session. But the work of the Trust is recognized by people and they are a part of the Trust. Authorities like National Biodiversity Authority and Department of Science and Technology have recognized our work and supported. Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India is appreciative and the Joint Commissioner has taken all the efforts to be away from a very important meeting of the Planning Commission to be with us.International agency UNDP is represented by the presence of Sri Pramod Krishnan. The Germplasm Centre at Moozhikulangara, Neendoor of the Trust is valued most by the farmers.Chilled semen and frozen semen of Vechur bulls are available in the Germplasm Centre. Also semen of Kasargod bulls.The Centre has started freezing of semen in this biodiversity year fulfilling the requirement of conservation through frozen germplasm The high producing animal need not be the economic animal. Also the same kind of animal may not be sustainable to different categories of people. Many varieties /breeds of animals would be required for livestock breeders to enable sustainability in the present and meeting the changing climate and market trends.We are going to have deliberations on all these and will come up with concrete suggestions. All over the world the role of NGOs in conservation has been recognized FAO emphatically states this.Government of India has a very liberal policy about this.But most of the time the funding does not reach the agencies ardently working for the cause.The Trust had been struggling to even exist and make its contribution.The funding agencies esp.the State and Central should assess the work and contribution and amply support the Trust for serving the humanity. Let us hope that this Seminar will be a big step in this direction.
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ABSTRACT OF INAUGURAL ADDRESS RAJAN GURUKKAL, VICE CHANCELLOR, M.G.UNIVERSITY,KOTTAYAM
The lack of integral community support has led to the extinction of many of the livestock breeds. Various movements for cattle breed preservation have been successful in certain parts of Africa and other parts of the developed countries. The conservation research initiative (CRI) that was implemented in Samburu, Kenya is an example of this. The success of the Samburu protocol was not merely due to a few scientists and researchers. The Samburu community had an economy, which when faced with a grave peril, had to be resuscitated. This led to a collective effort from many spheres of the society. Samburus are pastoralists living in Kenya Africa and their lives are interlinked and dependent on their animals. Samburu feel their way of life and contributions are undervalued. In September 2009 they developed a community protocol to address the issues. They keep small East African Zebu cattle, Red Massai sheep and East African goats. Till the exotic animals were introduced, these were the only animals they had. They were adapted to the local climate and they represented hundreds of years of codevelopment,between livestock.environment and the Samburu way of life.They have cultural significance and has been a part of their heritage.The samburu way of life promotes the conservation of their animals.They assert a right to continue their lives according to their values and their way of life promoting sustainable livestock keeping and thereby conserving them.Their knowledge is very special with animal health practices, understanding the ecology which help finding water and feed for their animals.The ethnoveterinary knowledge of treating the animals with medicinal plants of the area is another remarkable area.The breeding practices they follow utilizes the mother’s qualities, survival rate of offspring and other qualities . The protocol insists on prior informed consent and benefit sharing. Samburu demands rights for decisions on research and breeding involving their livestock and their recognition as custodians of livestock. Similar system should be implemented in the country. Many movements that began in India have been short-lived. This was due to the fact that these were led by human sentiments and not a well-structured mechanism. Such a mechanism should be the result of a wellplanned strategy. The objectives of the system should be exempted from the need to create profits through business propaganda. I am confident that this conference would become an effective platform for a meaningful result in terms of drafting a protocol for long-term sustenance of various livestock breeds like Vechur. The protocol should give the rights to the livestock keepers in a similar way.
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GOVERNMENT’S ROLE IN CONSERVATION OF LIVESTOCK BREEDS Dr.Asimabha Batobyal Joint Commissioner, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries, Govt. of India, NewDelhi Conservation of the Animal Genetic Resources is a subject of global importance. India is a country rich in biodiversity and different players have to come together to do this work. Unless there is a good co-ordination between players, this will not succeed. Anything in conservation can be achieved only with the co-operation of communities, farmers, and their organizations. The Vechur Conservation Trust is an example for such a success in conservation. This paper deals with the role of Government in conservation of livestock breeds. It is necessary that the main terms used are defined. Without definitions perceptions are blind’s idea of an elephant The formulation of this paper is under three categories viz. Government, Conservation & Sustainable use, Breeds & Threatened breeds.It also mentions country’s international commitments and lacuna in fulfilling these. Government means 1. Union Government, Ministries / Departments and subordinate formations 2. State Governments . 3. Government undertakings 4. Government sponsored agencies and 5. Autonomous bodies wholly funded by the Government. Government’s role Role is based on actions driven by Constitutional Provisions , Statutory Provisions, Allocation of Business Rules, International Commitments and Popular demands Mandate of Department of Animal Husbandry.dairying. and Fisheries(DAHDF) a) Allocation of Business Rules (As amended up to 4.6.2009) b) Conservation of Indigenous Breeds c) Maintenance of Central Herd Books for Indigenous Breeds of Livestock d) Preservation, Protection and Improvement of stocks in Union Territories Conservation & Sustainable Use Conservation in Narrow sense is maintaining a few specimens of the breed and allowing them to breed / reproduce.
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In the broad sense it is treating breeds as exhaustible natural resources and management of human use of these natural resources for current public benefit & sustainable utilisation in future. Breeds & Threatened Breeds Different Perceptions 1. Conservationists’ approach 2. Scientists’ approach (breeder/ quantitative geneticist/ molecular geneticist) 3. Development practitioners’ approach 4. Rearers’ / farmers’ approach What is desirable is a convergence of all. Breeds There is a plethora of definitions based on a) homologous appearance, behavior and other distinctive characteristics b) Perpetuity of appearance, behavior and characteristics over generations when bred within the group c) Common ancestry among members d) It is at least in part the perception of the breeders and the livestock industry which decides when a group of individuals constitutes a “breed” e) Breeds as viewed by Dr.Jay Laurence Lush A breed is a group of domesticated animals, termed by such common consent of the breeders, a term which arose among the breeders of livestock for their own use and no one is warranted in assigning to this word a scientific definition and in calling the breeders wrong when they deviate from the formulated definition Threatened Breeds a) Matching with IUCN RED List Guidelines for ‘vulnerable’ b) Population below 10,000 c) 50% decline in last 10 years Threats to local breeds a) Population pressure leading to habitat destruction b) Globalization, industrialization, intensification of mechanization leading to marginalisation of traditional production system and the associated breeds. c) Changing cultural practices, erosion of customary institutions and social relations. d) Loss of access to resources, overgrazing, resource degradation. e) Epidemics leading to large-scale culling (birds in HPAI outbreaks, cattle in FMD outbreaks)
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f)
Natural Disasters (Cyclone AILA affecting substantial Garole sheep population in Sunderban delta) g) Military conflict (Prolonged military conflict leading to loss of breeds) h) Policy (Overt or covert subsidies for cross breeding, post disaster restocking programme) Magnitude of livestock wealth of India Species
Population (million)
Species
Population (million)
Cattle
185
Buffalo
98
Mithun
0.28
Yak
0.065
Sheep
61
Goat
124
Pig
13.5
Horse
0.75
Donkey
0.65
Camel
0.32
Global Scenario Out of the 27616 breeds reported-690 are extinct International commitments of Government The country is committed to conserve Biodiversity according to 1. Rio Summit of UNCED, 1992 Section II of Agenda 21 2. Convention of Biodiversity,1993 3. CGRFA (Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture ) decision on SoWAnGR, 1999 (State of the World survey of animal genetic resources) 4. SoWAnGR & Country Reports, 2001-05 5. Interlaken Declaration, 2007 6. Global Plan of Action, 2007 The state of preparedness. A look at how far the country is prepared in carrying out conservation reveals an overall picture which indicates a lack of: 1. Capacities and adequate institutions for characterization, inventory & monitoring, breeding & conservation 2. Policy-strategy-programme-institution framework 3. Structures for national, regional & international cooperation 4. Coordination with NARS and national Non-Governmental Organizations.
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5. interest in international donor community Reasons for the lack in capacities 1. Relevance of AnGR (Animal genetic Resources)to food security not recognized 2. More pressing development goals: poverty alleviation and meeting the demand for products of animal origin 3. Missing technical guidelines for sustainable use of AnGR and in vivo in situ conservation 4. Lack of human capacities in livestock production and AnGR management Interlaken Declaration 2007 of CGRFA 1. AnGR critical to food security and sustainable livelihoods 2. maintain and use the full diversity of animal genetic resources to meet production challenges 3. facilitate access to these resources, and ensure the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from their use 4. contribution of local and indigenous communities 5. gaps in capacities to manage animal genetic resources 6. new and additional resources, and long-term support for national and international AnGR programmes Rationale of The Global Plan of Action (GPA) for Animal Genetic Resources Provides a framework, agreed by the international community, 1. to support and increase the overall effectiveness of national, regional and global efforts for the sustainable use, development and conservation of animal genetic resources, 2. To facilitate mobilization of resources, including adequate financial resources, development of institutions, human resources and cooperative frameworks Strategic Priorities for Action (SPA) The 23 SPA provide the agenda for action for the GPA and are grouped into four Priority Areas: 1. Characterization, Inventory and Monitoring of Trends and associated Risks (2 SPAs) 2. Sustainable Use and Development (4 SPAs) 3. Conservation (5 SPAs) 4. Policies, Institutions and Capacity Building (13 SPAs) Implementation of Global Plan of Action 1. Financing / Funding 2. Raising Awareness
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3. Institution & Capacity building 4. Research & Technical support 5. Policy Development Implementation and Financing of the GPA 1. National, regional and global levels 2. Role of international organizations 3. Involvement of stakeholders 4. International cooperation 5. Interaction with donor community 6. Monitoring of progress and reporting 7. Further guidance by the CGRFA within its Multi-Year Programme of Work Implementation: Awareness raising SP 15 : Establish or strengthen international information sharing, research and education SP 18 : Raise national awareness of the roles and values of animal genetic resources SP 19 : Raise regional and international awareness of the roles and values of animal genetic resources Implementation: Institutional & technical support SP12 : Establish or strengthen national institutions, including national focal points, for planning and implementing animal genetic resources measures, for livestock sector development SP 14 : Strengthen national human capacity for characterization, inventory, and monitoring of trends and associated risks, for sustainable use and development, and for conservation SP 15 : Establish or strengthen international information sharing, research and education SP 17 : Establish Regional Focal Points and strengthen international networks Sp 1/5; 10/1; 16/6: Management of transboundary breeds Implementation: Research and Capacity Building SP 13 : Establish or strengthen national educational and research facilities SP 16 : Strengthen international cooperation to build capacities in developing countries and countries with economies in transition, for: characterization, inventory, and monitoring of trends and associated risks; sustainable use and development; and conservation of animal genetic resources Implementation: Research and Capacity Building – 2 SP 11 : Develop approaches and technical standards for conservation
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SP 2/2+4 : Develop methods for characterization, breed evaluation, comparison SP 20 : Review and develop national policies and legal frameworks for animal genetic resources Implementation: Policy Development SP 3 : Establish and strengthen national sustainable use policies SP 20 : Review and develop national policies and legal frameworks for animal genetic resources Implementation: Policy Development SP 21 : Review and develop international policies and regulatory frameworks relevant to animal genetic resources SP 11/4 : Review impact of zoosanitary standards on conservation Implementation: Funding of the GPA SP 23 : 1. Strengthen efforts to mobilize resources, including financial resources, for the conservation, sustainable use and development of animal genetic resources 2. Implementation and Financing of the GPA 3. Country based 4. International cooperation 5. Substantial and additional financial resources 6. CGRFA to develop a funding mechanism, with a potential FAO TF account 7. India is a signatory in this declaration and hence has to implement its role at the governmental level directly Major Players 1. Ministry of Agriculture(DARE/ ICAR /DAHDF (Department of Agriculture Education, Indian council of agricultural research,Department of animal husbandry Dairying and Fisheries) 2. Ministry of Environment & Forests (CBD;Biological Diversity Act, 2002; NBAI;ZSI) 3. Ministry of Science & Technology (DBT) 4. Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change – NAPCC & NMSA DARE / ICAR 1. NARS-National Agriculture research system 2. NBAGR-National bureau of animal genetic resources 3. Network Programme for Indigenous Breeds 4. Research & Technical Backstopping for conservation projects. 5. Listing and Registration of Breeds
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DAHDF’s Efforts 1. Purebred Farms (CCBFs) for livestock breeds 2. Central Herd Registration Scheme 3. National Project for Cattle & Buffalo Breeding 4. Conservation of Threatened Breeds of Small Ruminants, Pigs, Pack Animal, Equines and Yak Background of Scheme on Conservation of Threatened Breeds of Livestock 1. Extinction of breeds became global phenomenon with industrialisation 2. Planning Commission suggested formulation of a Centrally Sponsored Scheme before start of Xth Plan 3. Scheme formulated and approved in February 2003 with allocation of Rs. 15.00 crore Coverage and scope of the Xth Plan Scheme 1. Cattle, Buffalo and Poultry breeds excluded (Poultry included in XI Plan) 2. Mithun added at a later stage 3. Breeds with population less than 10,000 covered 4. Government, semi government, autonomous bodies, Universities and NGOs eligible for assistance Eligible Activities 1. Establishment of nucleus breeding units 2. Feed and labour cost of nucleus breeding units for two years 3. Quantum of assistance : Horses (91.50) Pony (85.52) Camel (64.5) Yak (58.5) Mithun (58.5) Pig (53.5) Sheep (64.50) Goat (53.50) Size of nucleus breeding units 1. Horse/ponies, camel : 40+4 (45+15) 2. Pigs: 40+4 (60+15) 3. Yak, Mithun : 60+6 (45+15) 4. Sheep/goat : 500 +20 Year-wise releases Xth Plan Subsequent Releases 2002-03 : Rs. 295.00 lakh 2003-04 : Rs. 50.00 lakh 2004-05 : Rs. 527.68 lakh 2005-06 : Rs. 386.92 lakh 2006-07 : Rs. 230.25 Lakh Total : Rs.1489.85 lakh (Say Rs.14.90 crore) Xth Plan : Rs. 14.90 crore 2007-08 : Rs. 1.36 crore 2008-09 : Rs. 1.95 crore 2009-10 : Rs. 1.88 crore
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Performance of the Scheme 1. Number of breeds covered - 24 breeds + 3 species 2. Number of states covered - 16 states, 1 UT 3. Species wise breeds covered : 4. Goat (8), Sheep (5), Pig (6), Horse/ Pony (5), Yak, Mithun, Double Humped Camel. Projects supported 1. Goats (8) : Terresa, Malabari, Sangamneri, Black Bengal, Jamunapari, Beetal, Surti, Longhaired. 2. Sheep (5-1=4) : Bandur, Madgyal, Bonpala, Garole, Muzaffarnagri. 3. Pig (6) : Doom, Angamali, Zovawk, Dome, Mali, Ghoongroo. 4. Horse/Pony (6-1=5) : Bhutia, Spiti, Zanskari, Gray Sindhi*, Kathiawadi, Marwari 5. Yak, Mithun, Double Humped Camel Evaluation of the Scheme Nabard Consultancy Services (NABCONS) evaluated the scheme to observe: 1. Inherent rigidity in the Scheme restricted acceptability among participants 2. Issues relating to sustainability of projects after two years not addressed properly 3. Differences in life cycles of small and large animals not accounted for Revision of Scheme during XI Plan 1. Administrative Approval with respect to revised scheme issued in November 2008 2. Elements of flexibility introduced 3. Project costs updated to cover escalations in cost of inputs 4. Wider basket to choose from; nucleus breeding units one of the components 5. Provision for strengthening institutional infrastructure for conservation 6. Emphasis on State-wise inventory of animal genetic resources 7. Linkages with research agencies 8. Documentation of activities 9. Formation of Breeders’ Organisations Institutional Structure 1. State Level Committee on Animal Genetic Resources, 2. Central Steering Committee 3. Preparation and review of watch list 4. Continuation of existing nucleus units 5. Need-based collaboration with Research Agencies
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Special mention 1. Double humped camel ,Yak, Garole Sheep, Marwari & Kathiawari Horses and Teressa Goat Suggested interventions 1. States to address AnGR concerns, constitute Committees and prepare State Level inventories. 2. Involvement of ICAR Institutes / Universities in enhancing Awareness. 3. Training of field functionaries for proper orientation. 4. Documentation of State AnGR Policy 5. Building up flocks homozygous for FecB gene (and similar genes) and formation of Breeders‘ Association 6. Breed Shows and Exhibitions 7. Seminars & Workshops Decisions on Technical Issues 1. Optimal population size in nucleus breeding units (further fine tuning ?). 2. Procedure for consideration of proposals on unknown / lesser known breeds 3. Breed Registration criteria 4. Accuracy of bred census (Provisional results avilable on internet) 5. What makes a breed a candidate for conservation 6. What happens after a breed is registered 7. Rationalising entire process & redrawing stakeholder matrix Point to ponder “When last individual of a race of living things breaths no more, another Heaven and another Earth must pass before such a one can be again” Charles William Beebe
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DOMESTIC ANIMAL DIVERSITY OF KERALA AND THE ROLE OF VECHUR CONSERVATION TRUST Jayan K. C. and Jayan Joseph Vechur Conservation Trust, A-37,Indira Nagar str 2, Mannuthy, Thrissur. The state of Kerala which came into existence in 1956 by the merger of the Princely States of Travancore, Cochin and the Malabar province of the British ruled Madras State and the Kasargod Taluk of the South Kanara District on Linguistic basis, had a rich and varied heritage regarding its culture, folklore, music and also in its biodiversity as a whole. Kerala with its tropical climate and evergreen nature of rain forests is rich in its flora and fauna.‘Silent Valley’ in the Western Ghats is declared as a ‘Biological hotspot’ by the United Nations. The Kerala community was traditionally a farming community and they had their own sustainable agriculture and animal husbandry systems. These systems practiced for hundreds of years were the backbone of rural economy. It all was mainly paddy-based systems. Kerala had a rich domestic animal diversity. It had cattle, goats, pigs, buffaloes, ducks and fowl to its credit. Cattle breeds in Kerala were small in size to adapt to the hot humid climate of Kerala. Vechur was the most acclaimed one. The Malabari goats had their names written in golden letters in the goat world. The sturdy and prolific Ankamaly pigs were well known in the central Kerala. The Kuttanad buffaloes were used extensively for ploughing the marshy and deep paddy fields of Kuttanad where the heavy ones will drown. The ducks and chicken also were an integral part of the rural life in Kerala Efforts to improve the productivity of cows started in the 1940s in the Travancore State. The milch breeds of the Indian Subcontinent were used for this, mainly the Red Sindhi. In 1956, the Dept. of Animal Husbandry came into existence with a view to provide better animal health care and to improve the livestock and poultry production in the entire state of Kerala. As far as the animal wealth of this state was concerned, all the animals were considered non-descript. No efforts were made to describe them or assess their merits. All the local animals were considered as a hindrance to the economic development of the state. More importance was given to maximum production than optimum production. For improving the livestock, exotic germplasm were introduced into the state. With regard to the cattle of Kerala, in 1961 the Livestock Improvement Act came into existence. The Act banned all local germplasm from getting multiplied. Local Bulls were subjected to forceful castration. The cultivated preference among the farmers also paved way for the drastic reduction in the local germplasm. By the 80’s almost more than 80% of
22
the cattle were crossbreds. The reductions in the ethnic germplasm were drastic in the South and Middle areas of Kerala where cross breeding facilities were more. Only some animals were left in the Northern Kerala as the regional Co-operative milk union was not yet established in the Malabar area. In the south and central regions, only few animals were left that too due to geographical isolation or inaccessibility. Similar measures were taken for improving the goats, pigs, buffaloes and poultry. As a result of these, the local livestock breeds face the verge of extinction. The Silent Valley movement started in 1973 gained momentum in the year 1980. The importance of preserving the biodiversity became a talk in every part of the state. Finally in 1984 Silent Valley was declared a National Park. The ‘Silent Valley’ Campaign gave fuel for conserving the genetic diversity in domestic animals also. Taking the core message of the Silent Valley movement to heart, a group of environmentally conscious students of the Veterinary College, Mannuthy under the leadership Prof. Sosamma Iype started the ‘Save Vechur Campaign’. Extensive search in the Kottayam and Ernakulam Districts were conducted by the student team led by their leader Anil Zachariah with the help of local veterinary doctors and local people. This culminated in spotting a cow in the house of sri. Manoharan, a toddy tapper in Ullala near Vechur. Then some more cows could be spotted. The eight cows initially identified were purchased and a Vechur project was started in 1988 in the Veterinary College. Later by extensive search for the next one year helped to identify some more cows and a few bulls. They also were bought and the breeding program for multiplication was started. It was very successful in the sense that by 1998 about a few animals were supplied to farmers. Now by the year 2010 the population of Vechur animals has reached to around 2000. The Vechur Conservation Trust was registered in 1998 with the specific objective of conserving the domestic animal diversity of Kerala. It was a realization that no University or Government organization can do the job independently.An organization with the sole objective only can do this .The Trust has veterinarians, environmentalists, nature lovers, scientists, farmers and people from all walks of life as its members. The Trust is supporting the breeding activities of the farmers who rear the Vechur cows. Semen of Vechur and Kasargod bulls are supplied to farmers who rear these animals. The Trust identifies the right farmers for Vechur and Kasargod cows. About 1/5 of the Kerala farmers need a cow which gives milk just for home consumption.(CDS study) The Trust is trying to satisfy their demands. The Germplasm centre in Moozhikulangara, near Ettumanoor in Kottayam district, is situated in the breeding tract of the Vechur cattle. Scientific breeding and management of cows is the priority of the centre. The Trust take up activities like seminars in schools,
23
colleges and to Veterinarian and farmers groups to spread the message of conservation. The Vechur bulls maintained by the trust have at least five generations of pedigree. Why Trust? People sometimes may doubt the importance of Trust in Domestic animal diversity conservation. They ask “is the Government machinery not capable of doing these things”? In our experience we can surely say that conservation is something, which needs to be addressed in a different way. It involves actions, which may sometimes contradict Government rules, and also it needs a quicker action and decisions, which is practically difficult in the Government setup. A judicious use of the resources is also an important part of any conservation action. Selection of the right kind of farmers for rearing those endangered animals is inevitable if the project is to succeed. Another area, which deserves attention, is the judicious use of the germplasm. Semen and other similar materials should be used in such a manner that it doesn’t go to unsafe hands. Curbing this type of an action is possible for the Trust due to its close relation with the farmers. This means there should be a very cooperative collaborative and supporting approach.So to conserve the local breeds an organisaton like the Vechur Conservation Trust which is dedicated to the cause is essential and the Government should support such organizations which ensures the maintenance of the Domestic Animal Diversity in a state like Kerala. Had there not been a group of Volunteers with so much of dedication there would not have been a Vechur cow or Kasargod cow. But though after 20 years,Government have realized conservation is important in the domestic animal sector. The Trust is raising its voice against introduction of exotic breeds to India. Atleast now Kerala State has to be independent. Kerala has to stop forthwith the dependency on the Western world for germplasm. The Trust is going forward in creating more awareness of the need of heat resistant tropically adapted animals which might become necessary for the whole world .It had been the dream and vision of a student teacher team –now with more supporters the Vechur Conservation trust-the Domestic animal conservation became a reality in Kerala. More papers on the subject are being presented in this Seminar and with all the experience of the livestock keepers and other conservationists and scientists there is going to be a positive outcome and the Trust will be able to fulfill its objectives more effectively.
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IMPACT OF MODERN IPR REGIME ON CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF NATIVE LIVESTOCK GENETIC RESOURCESINDIAN PERSPECTIVE K.P.Ramesha Principal Scientist,Southern Campus of NDRI, Adugodi, Bangalore-560030.
India is bestowed with rich domestic animal biodiversity with 30 breeds of cattle, 10 breeds of buffaloes, 42 breeds of sheep, 30 breeds of goats, 8 breeds of camels, 6 breeds of horse and 18 breeds of poultry in addition to other species like pig, donkey, mithun, yak, turkey, duck, etc. India has contributed richly to the international livestock gene pool and improvement of animal production in the world. Brahman cattle are found in 45 countries while Sahiwal breed is found in 29 countries (Ramesha et al., 2007). Ironically, the recent decades have witnessed a loss of several breeds/populations due to neglect, urbanization and a host of other reasons. The level of biodiversity, which is of concern, is that of breeds and even populations within breeds. In fact, within breed, diversity accounts for 50 to 70% of total genetic variance (Hammond and Leitch, 1996). Many of the native breeds of livestock in India are in the threat of extinction. It is difficult to save them, unless they are made economical under the prevailing production systems. The United Nations proclaimed 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity, and people all over the world are working to safeguard this irreplaceable natural wealth and reduce biodiversity loss. Animal Genetic Resources The assemblage of the breeds and populations having traits and unique characters is phrased as Animal Genetic Resource (AnGR). Adaptations of native livestock breeds in relation to their ability to tolerate heat and parasites as well as their ability to survive and produce and capacity to work in harsh conditions under poor quality feed and fodder is yet to be fully understood, and exploited for further improvements. Genes responsible for unique characteristics in some species/breeds, and potential to yield certain unique products in indigenous livestock could be identified and protected through appropriate Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) for the benefit of livestock keepers. If proper internationally accepted legal system is developed with respect to use of animal genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, the livestock keepers could get economic benefits through benefit sharing in the modern IPR regime.
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Multilateral agreements At the international level, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of United Nations and Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs) Agreement of World Trade Organization are the two major agreements governing access and rights over genetic resources. As India is signatory to CBD and TRIPs Agreement and also ratified Global Plan of Action on Animal Genetic Resources it is obligatory for India to develop suitable legislation to protect and improve livestock biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge. The CBD is a legally binding international instrument, which recognizes the sovereignty of nations over their genetic resources, including the capacity to establish conditions of access by other nations and a fair/equitable sharing of benefits from the use of such resources. As such, the livestock biodiversity have not been the objects of much specific consideration within the CBD. Under TRIPs any country ratifying the Global Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) and becoming a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) must establish minimum standards for intellectual property rights many of which including trade secrets, patents, indications of geographical origins and trademark are relevant to livestock sector. Modern IPR regime and livestock sector With the advent of genetic engineering and multilateral IPR agreements a new era of gene hunting has started. Researchers, innovators and companies have now started to protect their intellectual property in livestock sector. This has alarmed and threatened the general public and raised economic, legal and ethical concerns (Rothschild et al., 2003). If proper internationally accepted legal system is developed with respect to use of animal genetic resources, patenting of novel genes will bring about economic benefit to the livestock keepers through benefit sharing.
Patenting in livestock sector Patenting of life forms is the most controversial aspect even among WTO members. Patents represent the largest form of IP and their development is regulated by laws differing from country to country. These laws and their interpretations are subject to change, especially when new technologies are introduced. Any product or process or design which involves an inventive, novel and non-obvious step capable of industrial application could be patented. A patent represents a legal monopoly granted by a country’s government to an inventor, permitting the patent owner to prohibit anyone else from making, using or selling this invention for a specific period of time (presently 20 years). The aim of a patent system is to encourage economic and technological development by rewarding intellectual creativity.
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Mega biodiversity countries provide genetic resources for modern animal breeding and biotechnology industry. The genetic resources have been transferred freely to other countries in the past; under the understanding that these are common heritage of humanity. With the development of modern biotechnology, there is possibility that our breeds/varieties may be genetically altered and the new variety/breed may later be substituted for the original breed/ variety from which it was developed. There is a threat of bio-piracy with regard to native livestock breeds and associated traditional knowledge. If proper controls and checks are not included in the system of IP protection relating to AnGR, there is a danger of Multi National Companies (MNCs) becoming owners of breeds/varieties originating from biodiversity rich countries. Patent protection will discourage the natural selection that, at present, takes place at farmers’ level. In the livestock sector, patents have been granted for gene sequences with utility such as genetic markers. A New Zealand company, Agmark, has claimed a patent on the “Booroola” gene, which regulates the ovulation rate in sheep. The Booroola gene can be traced back to Bengal sheep which were imported from Kolkata and crossed with Merinos (Köhler-Rollefson, 2005). The patent covers animals that are produced in a breeding programme in which the DNA test has been used, but not those animals that carry the gene naturally. The open question is whether the patent also covers the offspring of the animals that have been tested for the presence of the gene. Another notable patent application is one by Monsanto for a series of twelve patents on pig breeding. One of the first conflicts in quantitative animal breeding resulted from a patent entitled “Method of Bovine Herd Management” granted to the Cornell Research Foundation (Cornell University) in the USA in 1994 and Canada in 1998. The invention is for the “test-day model” and includes the gathering of data, mathematical treatment and the use of the data by dairy producers (Rothschild et al., 2003; Scholtz and Mamabolo, 2006). The novelty and non-obviousness of the patent has been seriously questioned. The practices of gathering, manipulating and using data by dairy producers have existed for nearly 100 years (Schaeffer, 2002). In South Africa, these principles have been in use since 1917. The patent therefore claims rights to a practice that has been public knowledge for a long time. The novel idea within the patent is the specific mathematical model and procedures that were developed for the analysis of test day yields. In European Union and some other countries patents can also be granted on normal animals which have merely been subjected to certain techniques like a gene diagnosis, or a process for determining the animal’s sex. The European Patent Office granted patent on Dolly the cloned sheep to the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh (patent application EP 849 990) in 2001. The US Company XY Inc. was in 2005 granted patent EP 1257168, which covers a method for selecting sperms by sex for the artificial insemination of mammals. The
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first European patent on genetically manipulated dairy cows was granted in 2007. Under patent number EP 1330552 “inventors� from Belgium and New Zealand claim processes for breeding cows which give more milk or milk with altered constituents. The cows are produced either by marker assisted breeding and bred normally, or by having more milk genes additionally incorporated into their genome. Patenting of Livestock breeds Biotechnology is providing the capability to produce novel genetically modified organisms (plants, microorganisms and animals) which are commercially valuable and industrially useful. Patent protection for these innovations is being sought in many countries. Under TRIPs agreement it is not possible to have a valid patent claim which claims an essentially biological process. Hungary is one of the few countries that grants patent protection for animal breeds (WIPO, 1995) , as specified in Articles 110 and 111 of the 1995 Hungarian Law on the Protection of Inventions by Patents. The Bulgarian Law for Protection of New Plant Varieties and Animal Breeds has been enforced since 1996. In terms of patentability of higher life forms, such as animals, they are not treated any differently by the Australian Patent Office from the way in which lower life forms are treated. The East African Boran cattle breed has also been patented in Australia (Scholtz and Mamabolo, 2006). The practice in New Zealand is similar to that of the Australian Patent Office. In general patents to animals are also allowable in Japan. In contrast to these countries, animals (whether transgenic or otherwise) are not patentable in countries such as Argentina, Brazil and China (Blattman et al., 2002) and India (Ramesha et al., 2010 a,b). Animals and animal varieties per se are not patentable in South Africa. Trademarks Trademarks are signs or symbols registered by a manufacturer/producer or merchant to identify goods and services. Genetic material per se cannot be protected or covered by a trademark. A trademark could be a useful tool in biotechnology sector as a means of value addition tool. Geographical Indications Geographical Indications (GIs) are signs or expressions used to indicate that a product or service originates in a country/region or specific place. Both Trademarks and GIs are used to identify the products. A Trademark puts emphasis on the producer or a manufacturer of a product whereas a GI highlights the geographical origin of a product and the characteristics derived from it. GI does not protect the breed or genetic material per se but adds commercial
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value to the animals of breed reared in a particular region. They may be used as a value addition mechanism. Origin-based marketing in which control over production processes remains with the livestock keepers can empower livestock keepers versus corporate interests and provide greater earning power. Geographical indications prevent others, except the producers of goods from the original region from using that particular geographical indication incorrectly as a trademark for other products than those from the area. There is scope for utilizing GI based on unique characteristics of products produced from a breed in a geographical area due to natural conditions and unique production system. Trademarks and geographical indications could be used for value addition and thus aid to protect registered breeds. In France Bresse breed of chicken is produced in the Bresse geographical area only as defined by law under protected designation of origin (Verrier et al., 2005) and sold at 50-60 per cent higher price. Similarly, to save the Sambucana sheep from extinction, a consortium was set up and a special brand name for guaranteed Sambucana meat was set up in Italy. Roquefort cheese can be made only from the milk of the Lacaune sheep breed. Geographical indications are used to protect interest of livestock keepers in developing countries also like Karoo lamb (South Africa) and Chos Malal goat meat (Argentina). Typical curd made from milk of Chilika buffaloes, and milk products with typical flavor made from Banni, Dharwari buffaloes are other examples which could be considered for protection. Trade Secrets Trade Secrets provide protection against unauthorized disclosure or use of confidential information (of a technical or commercial nature). Trade secrets are important in biotechnology field including plant and livestock breeding where commercial breeders want to keep their nucleus stock and the pedigree information (and other information) away from their competitors. Sometimes the right to use the genetic material for breeding is determined through formal or informal contract. NEED FOR A SUI GENERIS SYSTEM There is an urgent need for legally binding internationally accepted system for access and sharing of benefits from the use of AnGR and associated traditional knowledge. There is a need for recognition of community rights over knowledge and biodiversity. The proponents of IP protection are of the view that patent based approach is essential to provide incentive for innovation and to increase flow of funds to R & D in animal agriculture. They claim that possible negative balance will be outweighed by benefits likely to be derived in terms of new varieties/breeds.
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NEED FOR AN INTERNATIONAL TREATY In spite of significant contribution of animals to the food security and nutrition, laws and policies including intellectual property protection on genetic resources so far focused only at plant genetic resources. In the modern biotechnology era, there is danger of animal genetic material from biodiversity rich countries being exploited by others including large international companies. The development of a legally binding “International Framework on Animal Genetic Resources” is therefore becoming a matter of urgency. During the First International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources held at Interlaken, Switzerland delegates from 109 countries including India on 11th September 2007, have adopted a Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources, the first internationally agreed framework to halt the erosion of livestock diversity and support the sustainable use, development and conservation of animal genetic resources. (http://dad.fao.org). INDIAN IPR SCENARIO IN LIVESTOCK SECTOR India is signatory to CBD and TRIPs Agreement and also ratified Global Plan of Action on Animal Genetic Resources it is obligatory for India to develop suitable legislation to protect and improve livestock biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge. In order to comply with CBD India has enacted Biological Diversity Act (2002). In India private ownership of livestock is common and the public ownership is rare. The owner of the animal has the right to use the genetic resources in breeding and can have control over who is receiving genetic material from his/her animals. However, it is difficult in secondary and further generations to have control over gene flow. In case of poultry, generally farmers are given hybrids by commercial producers. In the modern IPR era, it is essential to provide certain rights such as access to natural resources, grazing rights, participatory decision making in the plans or programmes affecting ANGR to livestock keepers through a sui generis system which will help in protecting native livestock and their sustainable use. Accreditation of indigenous livestock breeds by way of registration is warranted (Yadav, 2003). Under the Central Herd Registration Scheme of the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, at present, the animals belonging to Hariana, Gir, Kankrej and Ongole breeds of cattle and Murrah, Surti, Mehsana and Jaffrabadi breeds of buffalo are registered depending on the confirmation to breed characteristics and prescribed milk production norm. Owners of registered animals are provided certificate and prizes/incentives to encourage conservation of indigenous breeds and production of high quality cows and buffaloes. Recently, recognising the need for an authentic national documentation system of valuable sovereign genetic resource with known characteristics, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) initiated a mechanism for “Registration of Animal Germplasm” at National
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Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR), Karnal (http://www.nbagr.res.in). This would help to provide protection to the valuable animal genetic diversity and facilitate its access for genetic improvement of animal breeds. Both the herd registration scheme and breed registration system developed by ICAR lack legal enforcement authority. There is an urgent need to develop a suitable legally binding sui generis system and establishment of Animal Genetic Resources Authority of India for protecting the interests of livestock keepers and animal breeders through a law comparable to the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 and PVP and FR Rules 2003 with due consideration for the special characteristics of AnGR (Ramesha et al., 2007, 2008, 2010a, b). Such an authority will be a boon for conservation and sustainable use of native livestock genetic resources. Indian livestock keepers are rich in Traditional Knowledge (TK). TK associated with biological resources is an intangible component of the resource itself. TK has the potential of being translated into commercial benefits by providing leads for development of useful products and processes. The valuable leads provided by traditional knowledge save time, money and investment of modern biotech industry into any research and product development. Hence, a share of benefits must accrue to creators and holders of TK. It might be worth giving attention to the need and possibility for developing a “clearing-house� mechanism to operate at the Dept. of Animal Husbandry and to the possibility of conducting an IPR audit. The Jeevani (herbal medicine derived from the leaves of the Arogypaacha plant based on TK of Kani tribe) case highlights the possibility of benefit sharing for the TK associated with local livestock breeds. EPILOGUE Protection of native livestock breeds and associated traditional knowledge through appropriate sui-generis system is essential for conservation and their sustainable use in the modern IPR regime. Identification of genes for unique characteristics in native livestock breeds will go long way not only in the advancement of science and livestock production, but also pave way for patenting of gene sequences for these traits. If proper internationally accepted legal system is developed with respect to use of livestock biodiversity, patenting of novel genes will bring about economic benefit to the livestock keepers in the modern IPR regime through benefit sharing and help in conservation and sustainable use of native livestock breeds.
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REFERENCES Blattman.J, McCann.J, Bodking.C & Naumsoka.J, (2002). Global intellectual property International developments in animal patents. In: Intellectual Property Rights in Animal Breeding and Genetics. Eds. Rothschild.M.F. & Newman.S., CABI Publishing, New York. pp. 63-84. Hammond, K. and H. Leitch, (1996). The FAO Global Programme for the Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources. In: Miller R., V. Pursel, and H. Norman (eds.), Beltsville Symposia in Agricultural Research. XX. Biotechnology’s Role in the Genetic Improvement of Farm Animals. American Society of Animal Science, IL: 24-42. Köhler-Rollefson, (2005). Building an International Legal Framework on Animal Genetic Resources Can it helps the dry lands and food-insecure countries League for Pastoral Peoples. Ramesha.K.P., Pourouchottamane R and Bhattacharya.M. (2007). Role of indigenous livestock genetic resources in the era of modern Intellectual Property Rights. Indian Dairyman, 2007, 59 (11):39-45. Ramesha, K.P., Pourouchottamane, R., Kataktalware, M.A. and Sarkar, M. (2008). Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues in livestock biodiversity-Indian Perspective. Journal of Livestock Biodiversity. 1 (1):8-12. Ramesha, K.P., Pourouchottamane, R. and Bhattacharya, M. (2010a). Intellectual Property Rights-animal genetic resources-options for India. Indian Dairyman. 62(1):50-63. Ramesha, K.P., Sadana, D.K. and Goswami, S.L. (2010b). Modern IPR regime-a boon or a bane?. Indian Dairyman. 62(8):74-79. Rothschild, M.F., Plastow, G. & Newman, S. (2003). Patenting in animal breeding and genetics, in A. Rosati (ed.) WAAP Book of the Year 2003. Wageningen Press, for World Association for Animal Production (WAAP). Schaeffer, L.R., (2002). Dairy cattle test day models: A case study. In: Intellectual Property Rights in Animal Breeding and Genetics. Eds. Rothschild, M.F. & Newman, S., CABI Publishing, New York. pp. 233-246. Scholtz, M.M. Mamabolo, J. (2006). A developing country perspective on recent developments in animal breeders and intellectual property rights. African J. of Biotechnology. 36 (5):22-25. Verrier E., Tixier-Boichard.M., Bernigaud.R. and Naves.M. (2005). Conservation and value of local livestock breeds: usefulness of niche products and/or adaptation to specific environments. Animal Genetic Resources Information. 36: 21–31. WIPO (1995). Database of Intellectual Property, Hungary Law No. XXXIII of 1995 on the Protection of Inventions by Patents, Pp 1-35. Yadav, M.P. (2003). Patentable areas of farm animals. Featured article. http://www. indiaveterinarycommunity.com.
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NATIVE BREEDS OF MADHYA PRADESH: AN OVERVIEW Pallavi Choubey and Elezebeth Thomas Madhya Pradesh State Biodiversity Board 1st Floor, Kisan Bhawan, Bhopal. Livestock plays an important role in traditional agricultural economy of the country. It is an integral part of social, economic and environmental system of our rural agriculture. Indian livestock sector provides sustainability and stability to the national economy by contributing to farm energy, food security, and manure for agriculture and fuel for domestic purpose. India is birth place of mega biodiversity in animal genetic resources of the world. With a repository of one-ninth of the germplasm of cattle breeds in the world and all breeds of the riverine buffalo,India is definitely rich in these resources. Its share of world genetic wealth in sheep, goat and cattle is around 20 per cent, 33 per cent and 16.5 per cent, respectively. Ladakh and the Northeast are also home to some unique domesticated breeds. All the indigenous breeds have a unique pool of genes. Native breeds of livestock are the result of selection, evolution, domestication and adaptation over the years. Indigenous breeds adjust productivity to adverse climatic conditions and availability of food. They are resistant to diseases peculiar to the region in which they have evolved. Unfortunately, their economic value has not been understood and are now loosing grounds because of many reasons. There are 30 well defined breeds of cattle in India, constituting around 18 per cent of the country’s total cattle population. The remaining 82 per cent of the cattle are referred to as nondescript and are generally named after the region they come from. Genetic Diversity in Animal Genetic Resources in India Species
As per World Watch List
As per Indian literature
Cattle
70
30
Buffalo
20
10
Yak
5
Nil
Sheep
62
42
Goat
34
20
Horse
7
6
Donkey
3
Nil
33
Species
As per World Watch List
As per Indian literature
Camel
9 (+1 Bactrian)
8
Pig
8
Nil
Rabbit
3
Nil
Fowl
19
15
Quail
2
Nil
Duck
6
Nil
NBAGR, 2009 Indian cattle breed (64) Local - Alambadi, Amritmahal, Bachaur, Bargur, Binjharpuri, Cutchi, Dangi, Deoni, Frieswal, Gangatiri, Gaolao, Ghumsuri, Gujamavu, Hallikar, Jersind, Kankrej, Kappiliyan, KaranFries, Karan Swiss, Kenkatha, Khamala, Khasi,Kherigarh, Krishna Valley, Kumauni, Ladakhi, Malnad Gidda, Malvi, Mampati, Manapari,Mewati, Mhaswad, Motu, Nagami, Nagori,Nimari, Ponwar,Pullikulam, Punganur, RedPurnea, Ramgarhi, Rathi, Red Kandhari,Sanchori, Shahabadi, Son Valley, Tarai, Taylor,Tho Tho, Umblachery, Vechur, Zosial. Regional Transboundary Hariana, Hissar, Kangayam, Khillari, Siri, Sunandini. International Transboundary Sahiwal, Red Singhi, Gir, Ongole, Nelore,Tharparkar Breeds of Buffalo (23) Local - Assamese, Banni, Bhadawari, Chilka, Diyara,Godavari, Jerangi, Kalahandi, Manda, Manipuri,Marathwada, Nagpuri, Pandharpuri, Parlekhemundi, Sambalpur, South Kanara, Toda. Regional Transboundary Mehsana, Nili -Ravi, Surti, Tarai. International Transboundary Jaffarabadi, Murrah. Goat Breed (34) Local - Andaman Feral Goat, Assamese Hill, Attapady, Black, Baigani , Barren goat, Bidari,Changthangi, Chegu, Dalua, Ganjam,Gohilwadi, Himalayan Ibex,Himalayan
34
Tahr,Indian Mohair, Jhakrana, Kannai Adu, Kutchi,Malabari, Marwari, Mehsana, Nilgiri Tahr, Osmanabadi, Ramdhan, Sangamneri, Sirohi, Surti, Teressa, Zalawadi. Regional Transboundary Bengal, Gaddi, Tibetan. International Transboundary Barbari, Beetal, Jamunapari. Sheep breed(62) Local - Avikalin, Avimanns, Avivastra, Bagri, Balangir,Bellary, Berari, Bhakarwal, Bharat Merino,Biangi, Bonpala, Changthangi, Chokla, Chotanagpuri, Coimbatore, Dakshini, Deccani,Desi, Dhamda, Dumba, Gaddi, Ganjam, Garole,Godavari, Gurez, Hassan, Indian Karakul, Jaisalmeri, Jalauni, Karanah, Kashmir Merino,Kashmir Valley, Kenguri, Kheri, Kilakarsal,Magra, Malpura, Mandya, Marathwada,Marwari, Mecheri, Munjal, Muzaffarnagri, Nali,Nellore, Nilgiri, Patanwadi, Pugal, RamnadWhite, Rampur Bushair, Sangamneri,Sardarsamand, Shahabadi, Shapo, Sonadi,Telengana, Tiruchy Black, Vembur. Regional Transboundary Hissardale, Madras Red, Poonchi, Tibetan Poultry breed (28) Local - Cari Gold, Debendra, Dhanraja, Gramalakshmi, Gramapriya, Kadaknath, Kalinga Brown, Kashmir Faverolla, Krishna, Miri, Mrityunjay, Nicobari, Vanaraja, Yamuna, Ankleshwar, Bursa, Chittagong, Danki, Daothigir, Ghagus, Haringhatta black, Kalasthi, Punjab brown. Regional Transboundary Girraja International Transboundary Aseel, Brahma, Cochin, Indian game. Recognized breeds of Livestock and poultry in Madhya Pradesh Breeds of Animals
Native Regions
‘Malwi’ and ‘Nimari’ ‘Gaolao’
All over Vidarbh region of Maharashtra and
breeds of cattle
adjoining areas of M.P (Chhindwara dist.)
‘Kankattha’ breed of cattle
Panna district of M.P.
‘Bhadawari’ breed of buffalo
Bhind and Gwalior districts of M.P.
‘Jalauni’ breed of sheep
Tikamgarh and Shivpuri
35
‘Jamnapari’ breed of goat
various villages of Bhind district situated near Chambal river
Berari Goats
Nimar district of M.P.
‘Malwi camel’
Mandsaur district of M.P.
Malvi – The breed takes its name from the Malwa tract in MP.There are two types of Malvi breed which are generally recognized viz. (1) Agar type found around Shajapur district of M. P. and Jhalawar district of Rajasthan (2) Mandsaur or Bhopal type which is comparatively smaller in size and is found in the district of Mandsaur of Bhopal. Phenotypic Characters:It has deep short and compact body. Ears are alert and short in size. Horns are short but thick tapering to a blunt point. Neck is short and dewlap is thin. Tail is moderately long with a black switch reaching to the fetlock. The general colour of the breed is grey to iron grey and almost black in the neck and quarters. Bullocks are good for road and field work. Cows are poor milkers, 5-6 kg per day. Initiatives by the Govt. of M. P.:Malvi is a famous draught breed of Malwa. The Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, Deptt. of Animal Husbandry has established Govt. breeding farm at Agar Shajapur and controlled breeding Centres. Centers are generally located in various villages in the home tract where Malvi bull is kept for Natural Service.There are 35 such control breeding centers for Malvi in the state. College of Veterinary Sciences Jabalpur has also conducted a study on “Characterization of Malvi breeds of Cattle”. The project was financially assisted by ICAR. New Delhi. The study was conducted with the help of state Animal Husbandry Department in 3 districts of Madhya Pradesh State i.e. Ujjain, Shajapur & Rajgarh District, which are breeding tract of Malvi breed. The study included – (a)Description on of Malvi Breed., (b) Body Measurement of Malvi Cattle. (c) Body growth rate. (d) Milk production (e) Fat percent. (f) Gestation period. (g) Inter calving period. (h) Dry period. (i). Draft ability of Malvi Bullock. & (j) Chromosomal Characterization. Nimari breed Nimar breed is known as “Biological engine of Nimar”. Nimari breed has originated from cross of Gir and Khillari around Maheshwari and Barwani region. It is a dual purpose breed. The home tract is concentrated in central part of Khargone and Barwani district.
36
Border of Khargone district towards Khandwa, Indore & Dewas has also thin population of Nimari breed of cattle. Phenotypic Characters:Nimari animals are big in size. Coat colour is red with large splashes of white on various parts of the body. Nimari bullocks are very active and found to be very useful for water lifting and heavy ploughing . Initiatives by the Govt. of M.P.: Department of Animal Husbandry has established a Cattle breeding farm for Nimari breed at rodia district khargone. Selective breeding of the animals is being done at the farm and males are supplied to “Control breeding centers & to farmers. Kenkatha Kenkatha cattle take their name from the River Ken for the are breed along the bouts of this river in the area of Bundelkhand. Cattle are breed in Ajaygar district of Panna district and Chatarpur. It is one of the endangered in Indian cattle breeds (Population ranges from 1001000) Phenotypic Characters:Animals are short in size. Colour of animal is grey. Body is compact and heavy. Animals are good for draught purpose. Bullocks are small but firmly sturdy animals and good for cultivation in rocky areas. Initiatives by the Govt. of M.P.: Department of Animal Husbandry has established a Cattle breeding farm for Kenkatha at Pawai district Panna. Gaolao Cattle This indigenous cattle breed is found in Balaghat, Chhindwara, Betul and Seoni District of Madhya Pradesh. It is a dual purpose breed mainly for fast transportation and mild production. Phenotypic Characters:The Gaolao cattle is white or grayish/black in colour and the muzzle and horns are black. Bullocks are useful for ploughing and cows are average milkers. Bhadawari
37
The Bhadawari buffaloes are known for high fat contents in the milk. The breeding tract and the natural habitat of this breed are Bhind, Morena and Gwalior District of Madhya Pradesh and Agra, Etawa, Jhansi District of Uttar Pradesh. Phenotypic Characters:Animal of this breed are medium sized and of wedge shape with small head. Tail is long, thin and flexible with black and white or pure white marking. Legs are short and stout. Ears are scanty. Body is usually light, copper coloured which is peculiar. Initiatives by the Govt. of M.P.: Department of Animal Husbandry is in the process of establishing a breeding farm for Bhadawari in Shivpuri District. Jamunapari Jamunapari is the biggest Indian breed of goat. The origin of the breed is in the vicinity of the river Jamna, Yamuna and Chambal. The Jamunapari goats are commonly found in Agra, Mathura and Etawah Districtj of Uttar Pradesh and Bhind & Morena Districts of Madhya Pradesh. Phenotypic Characters:White colour with red spots on the body. Dual purpose breed for meat and milk. Well – developed Roman nose, pendulous and big ears. Short and large udder with big teats. Milk yield 2.25 to 2.7 kg per day. Kadaknath Kadaknath breed of poultry is reared by the tribals of Jhabua & Dhar Disricts of Western M. P. Previously the breed was also distributed in Dhar districts of M. P. and adjoining areas of Gujarat & Rajasthan. It is locally known as “Kalamasi” meaning the fowl having black flesh. It is considered to be a sacred bird and offered as sacrifice to Goddess after Diwali. The flesh of this breed though black and repulsive to look at, is considered not only a delicacy but is also of medicinal value. Tribes use Kadaknath blood in the treatment of chronic disease in human beings and its meat as aphrodisiac. The meat and eggs are reckoned to be a rich source of protein (25.47% in flesh) and iron. Phenotypic Characters:The colour of the day old chicks is bluish to black with irregular dark stripes over the back. Body weight at 20 weeks is 920 g. Age at sexual maturity is 180 days. Annual egg production is 105 eggs
38
Major reasons for dilution of gene pool of native livestock 1.
Misdirected crossbreeding with exotic stock.
2.
Indiscriminate crossing of native stocks,
3.
Non-adoption of breeding plan and unrestricted interbreeding among different breeds.
4.
Growing trend of global reliance on a limited number of selected breeds.
5.
Degradation of ecosystems.
6.
Fluctuating market requirements.
7.
Diseases and natural disasters.
8.
Slaughter of animals for export.
Source of information:1. www.ecosensoium.org 2. www.environmental portal.in 3. www.india.in 4. www.mplivestock.com 5. www.nbagr.res.in 6. Text Book of Animal Husbandry by G. C. Banerjee 7.
Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, Department of Biodiversity and Biotechnology, Madhya Pradesh
39
COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE OF DIFFERENT INDIAN BREEDS OF GOATS Rani Alex, Raghavan K.C and Naicy Thomas. All India Coordinated Research Project on Malabari Goat Improvement, Kerala Agricultural University, Mannuthy, Thrissur, Kerala INTRODUCTION The goat is the earliest domesticated ruminant and has served mankind earlier and longer than cattle and sheep. Goats have distinct social, economical, managerial and biological advantages over other livestock species. They significantly contribute to the agrarian economy and play a very vital role in the livelihood security of small and marginal farmers and landless labourers especially in the arid, semi-arid and mountainous regions of the country. Thus the goat has been appropriately termed “the poor man’s cow� and certainly no better designation could be found to express the position of this useful creature amongst our domestic animals. The goat genetic resources in Kerala are reputable for their high prolificacy, milk yield, excellent growth rate and adaptability to the hot humid conditions prevalent in the state. In addition to this goats contribute towards the livelihoods of the poor through risk mitigation and accumulation of wealth. Therefore goats are ideal vehicle for generating cash returns to meet food security needs and improve welfare among small and marginal farmers in Kerala. Regardless of the contributions made by the goats for rural economy in Kerala, they are neglected leading to a lack of improvement in productivity of these invaluable genetic resources. The goat population in the state showed a decline in trend from 1997 to 2003. The declining trend in goat production has reversed during the last five years and to make this numerical increase more profitable to ordinary farmers, an improvement in the goat production practices is absolutely essential. For these prevailing resources are to be evaluated and strategies should be developed for the needs of the common man. The present tendency among a section of farmers of Kerala is to rear breeds other than our local breeds, and sell these animals at exorbitant prices. Some times these animals are also used to cross with native germplasm. Though the first generation crossbreds show an increased growth rate, it is not sustained. In this context it is felt that a comparison should be made between the performance of Malabri breed with other Indian breeds in terms of net profit obtained. So this paper aims at comparing the performance of Malabari breed with other Indian breeds in terms of its performance and returns to the farmers.
40
Native breeds and their importance The indigenous goats are valuable reservoirs of genes for adaptive and economic traits, in providing diversified genetic pool, which can help in meeting future challenges resulting from possible changes in production systems and consumer requirements. Well-adapted local breeds that are widely kept without special feed concentrate or preventive health care are now increasingly recognized as being more productive than imported exotics. They thus form the most suitable foundation for sustainable livestock production in developing countries. These native breeds are evolved through years, after exposed to stressful environmental conditions such as great heat or shortages of feed or water, are rich in survival and fitness traits, which have disappeared from high performance breeds. It was not environmental conditions alone that shaped these breeds. In many cases it was active manipulation on the part of local animal breeders whose breeding decisions were influenced not only by cultural preferences but also by technical knowledge gathered, developed and preserved by local communities for generations (Lebbie and Ramsay, 1999). The safeguarding of locally adapted livestock breeds is therefore very much in the interest of developing countries both for present and future food security. Beyond this, such breeds harbour assets whose potential cannot even be estimated today. Indian breeds of goats The goat breeds with varying capacities to produce meat, milk and fibre have been developed in India primarily through natural selection and adapted to diversified agro-climatic conditions based on their utility and production function. The goats of Temperate Himalayan Region (where rainfall is low) grow fibres of good quality and possesses the finest quality undercoat called Cashmere or Pashmina. The goat breeds found in North and North –western region are large in size, and primarily of milch type. In the Southern and peninsular part of the country, goats with dual production of meat and milk are found. The highly prolific meat breeds are found in the Eastern region of the country. There are about 20 well defined goat breeds in the country which constitute about 20-25% of the total goat population. The remaining are non-descript having mixed features. Distribution of goat breeds – region wise is given below.
41
Temperate Himalayan
North-Western
Southern
Eastern
Gaddi
Jamunapari
Sangamneri
Ganjam
Changthangi
Marwari
Osmanabadi
Bengal
Chegu
Zalaawadi
Kannai Adu
Beetal
Malabari
Kutchi Sirohi Barbari Mehsana Surti Jhakrana Gohilwadi (Source: Acharya, 1982)
Goat breeds of Kerala
Goat production in Kerala is mainly centred on its native breed Malabari (or Tellichery). The Malabari is one among the famous dual-purpose goat breeds of India. It is named after the place of origin, the Malabar region of Kerala state. It was reported that this prolific breed of goat evolved a few centuries ago by crossing Jamnapari, Surti and Arab goats with local goats (Kaura, 1952). This breed of goats belongs to a mixed population of Arab Indian goats including Cutch cross and Tellichery. Indiscriminate crossbreeding of local goats with other types and subsequent inbreeding led to the evolution of this breed, showing a wide variation in the colour pattern and general performance. Coat colour varies widely from completely white to completely black. 31% of the goats have long hair. Males and a small percentage of females (13%) are bearded. Both sexes have small, slightly twisted, horns, directed outward and upward. Ears are medium-sized, directed outward and downward; Udder is small and round, with medium-sized teats (Anon., 2004). The other, Attapadi Black is also well known for its hardy nature, disease resistance and excellent growth rate. Attapady black goats are medium sized, lean, slender bodied and leggy animals maintained for meat and manure. The animals are black in colour and the extremities including face, ear and legs are also black. Rarely white spots were noticed on the forehead. In the adult goats horns were present and they were curved with back ward orientation tips. Black coloured long pendulous ear covered the lateral side of the face. Generally these goats are poor milk producers. (Anon., 2003)
42
Performance comparisons of Malabari breed with other breeds of India The majority of goat breeds in India are meat-type animals. Some, like the Jamunapari, Beetal, Jhakrana, and Surti, produce relatively large quantities of milk but are not comparable to the improved dairy goat breeds from Europe and North America. A detailed comparison of the performance of different breeds in India in terms of growth and reproductive traits is carried out based on the reports of various units of All India co-ordinated Research Project on goats and the results are shown in table 1. It is conclusive from the table that the Malabari attains more or less equal body weight at six months of age when compared to Sirohi and Jamunapari which are considered to be the majestic breeds. But Malabari out way both of them in case of age at first kidding and litter size. Acharya (1988) reported that the Jamunapari is more sensitive than the other breeds to confinement, stall feeding, and removal from its home tract. While comparing with other prolific breeds like Black Bengal and Barbari, the growth performance of Malabari was uncomparable. Another trait which is used in this comparison was interkidding interval and the performance of Malabari was medium in this regard too. The lactation performance of Malabari goats are not compared here due to the lack of sufficient information. But it is reported that the average peak yield reported was 1237.62±75.44ml. (Anon., 2009). So it will surely add to the worthiness of this breed. Table 1. Comparison of the growth and reproductive performance of goat breeds of India Breed
Body weight at six month of age(Kg) Singles
Twins
Age at first kidding (days) Triplets Quadruplets
Type of birth (Percentage)
Inter-kidding interval (days)
Barbari
12.06 ±0.07
55.56
40.94
3.51
-
397.7±4.1
229.4±7.1
Ganjam
9.47±0.01
100
-
-
-
619.49±1.62
318.44±0.88
Sirohi
16.19±0.17
71.74
27.15
1.10
-
662.92±9.23
351.99±2.79
7.44±0.283
22.81
60.14
15.15
1.89
381.389±0.843 202.78±1.314
Jamunpari 15.51±0.09
46.4
51.93
1.65
-
701.0±18.4
Malabari
24.29
61.47
13.19
1.05
394.47±25.43 274.0±21.34
Black Bengal
15.99±0.33
(Source: Anon., 2009)
43
288.0±8.18
Income from goat rearing – A comparison among different breeds A comparison of the income received in different breeds in five years was done in table 2 based on the number of kiddings in five years, average litter size and body weight attained at six months of age. Black Bengal and Barbari excel Malabari in the average kiddings in five years. Litter size of these breeds was more or less equal to Malabari. Other breeds like Jamunapari and Sirohi attains almost equal body weight at six months of age when compared to Malabari. While considering the over all performance in five years, in terms of total body weight of all the kids at six months of age, Malabari excelled any other breed under comparison without any dispute. Table 2.Comparison of different breeds in India based on the income received in five years Breed
Kiddings
Body weight at six Average litter size Total number Totalbodyweight in six months (kg) months of age (Kg) of kids
Barbari
6.22
12.06 ±0.07
1.48
9.21
111.02
Ganjam
3.79
9.47±0.01
1
3.79
35.89
Sirohi
3.30
16.19±0.17
1.29
4.26
68.92
Black Bengal 7.12
7.44±0.283
1.71
12.18
90.58
Jamunpari
3.88
15.51±0.09
1.55
6.01
93.28
Malabari
5.22
15.99±0.33
1.65
8.61
37.72
Economics of Malabari goat rearing in Kerala The study was conducted from 2006 to 2008 to analyse the profitability of Malabari goat rearing under semi intensive system of management. The present study entirely based on AICRP on Malabari goat improvement’s monthly field records of centres Tanur(Malappuram), Thalassery (Kannur) and Badagara (Kozhikode) on goat population, production and various costs of goat rearing. Majority of the goat keepers in the project area are rearing only one adult and its kids (45.62 per cent). Per cent of people rearing two adult goats, three adult goats and four adult goats were only 28.34, 11.52 and 6.91 respectively. Per cent of goat keepers rearing more than five animals was only 7.60. Average flock size was only 2.19. For this study the goat farmers in the area are classified into different adult animal units based on the average goat they owned in the period for the ease of calculation. Results of the economic analysis was shown in table 3. From the table it was clear that returns per month per adult animal on an average was Rs.163.14. Another point to be noted is that maximum returns per adult animal was from one adult animal unit i.e.,
44
Rs. 178.56. It was probably due to the less money they invested for rearing one goat and its kids. Most of the families belonging to this group rear the animal mainly with the food waste and green fodder available in the near by areas. Major share of the income of the goat rearing comes from the sale of kids and other animals(68.45%), followed by milk (21.02%) and manure. Among the cost of rearing, as in any other livestock enterprise, cost of feeding is most important and it accounts for 92. 97 per cent of the total rearing cost. Treatment cost constitutes only a meager share of the total rearing cost. This point out the importance of our native breed –Malabari. So the feed conversion efficiency and disease resistance characters of this breed should be extrapolated to maximum extend for further increasing the profitability of goat farmers. Table 3. Economics of goat rearing in Kerala Adult animal unit
N
Total returns Total cost
Net returns
Returns/month Returns/adult animal/month
One
37
6784.92
1791.68
4993.24
252.04
178.56
Two
33
11620.85 3109.61
8511.23
408.27
171.45
Three
16
13763.81 3555.65
10208.17
472.95
138.33
Four
6
21328.83 3486.50
17842.33
796.06
175.04
Five and above
8
22902.50 5884.59
17017.91
754.86
98.22
Total
100
11659.44 2937.96
8721.48
411.81
163.14
Conclusion: In the recent past, considerable emphasis was given on crossbreeding of indigenous goat breeds with exotic as well as with indigenous improver breeds in order to enhance their productivity. The resultant outcome was very inconsistent due to many shortfalls. However, there is now growing realization for the importance of indigenous breeds because of their suitability and adaptation to diversified agro-climatic and socio-economic situations. Still some of the farmers are continuing the earlier trend without recognizing the worth of our native breeds. It is clear from the above study that the selected populations of Malabari have higher overall performance than any other Indian breeds in their home tract. Every breed will show its maximum potential in its home tract where it is evolved out. So the performance and economic feasibility of other Indian breeds in the climatic conditions of Kerala will surely lower than our native breed which is acclimatized over years in our climatic conditions. The most viable option is conservation through utilization. Due to their better adaptation to local environment conditions proper use of these indigenous breeds would contribute to improved food security and reduce pressure on the environment. Utilization
45
of the indigenous breed will help to reduce external inputs in nutrition and healthcare of animals and hence could increase the profit margin of goat farmers. To make the conservation attractive and sustainable, the strategy must be associated with some benefit which can be economic and in general fitting the production objective of the farmers. In this regard too, Malabari goat proves its worth. References: Acharya, R.M. 1982. Sheep and Goat Breeds in India. Animal Production and Health Paper No.30. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 190p. Acharya, R. M.1988. Goat breeding and meat production. Goat Meat Production in Asia. Proceedings of a workshop held in Tando Jam, Pakistan,13-18 March 1988. Anonymous. 2004. ICAR-ADHOC Project on Conservation and Evaluation of Malabari goats. Project Completion report 2001-2004. Centre for Advanced Studies in Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy. 44p. Anonymous. 2003. ICAR-NABGR Network Project on Survey, Evaluation and Characterisation of Attapady Black goats. Final Report 2001-2003. Centre for Advanced Studies in Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy. 115p. Anonymous. 2009. Project co-ordinator’s Report, 2008-2009. All India Coordinated Research Project on Goat Improvement. Central Institute of Research on goats, Makhdoom, 29p. Kaura R. L.. 1952. Indian breeds of Livestock. Prem Publishers, Luknow 165p. Lebbie, S.H. and Ramsay, K. 1999. A perspective on conservation and management of small ruminant genetic resources in the sub Saharan Africa. Small Rum. Res. 34:231-247.
46
GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF MALABARI GOATS Naicy Thomas, Raghavan,K.C and Rani Alex All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Malabari Goat Improvement Kerala Agricultural University, Mannuthy. INTRODUCTION Goats are a very important species of livestock in India, mainly on account of their short generation interval, higher rates of prolificacy and the ease with which the goats and their products can be marketed. Goat rearing in Kerala is one of the most popular animal production enterprises among low income groups. The main breed used is Malabari which has evolved centuries ago in northern parts of Kerala coast. The breed derives its name from its native habitat of “Malabar� area of northern Kerala where they are densely populated. The breed is widely distributed in the districts of Kasargod, Trichur, Kannur, Kozikkode and Malapuram and mainly concentrated in and around Tellicherry and therefore called sometimes as Tellicherry breed. Malabari goats are medium-sized animals. Coat color varies widely from completely white to completely black. Males and a small percentage of females are bearded. Both sexes have small, slightly twisted, horns, directed outward and upward. Ears are medium-sized, directed outward and downward. Tail is small and thin. Udder is small and round, with medium-sized teats. The breed is very prolific with 45% twins and 4.5% triplets. The litter size at birth varied form 1.25 to 1.98. The performance of goats, as in the case of any animals with respect to any traits is the result of the sum total of its genotype, environment and the interaction between genotype and environment. So the main ways of improving the performance of goats is by improving the genetic potential and also by providing congenial environment to express it. A successful animal production enterprise depends on balancing these by examining cost-benefit relationships. The main and sustainable method for improving the performance is by selection of superior animals and breeding. Little effort is made in this regard in Kerala till the implementation of All India Co-ordinated Research Project on goats, a project aided by Govt. of India. All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Goat Improvement In order to improve the production potential of Indian goats in terms of growth, milk production and reproductive traits a Coordinated Research Project is established with its headquarters at Central Institute of Research in Goats (CIRG), Makhdoom, Agra, UP). There are different centres and the focus in each centre is on different breeds. The breeds included are
47
Jamnapari, Barabri, Bikaner, Sirohi, Black Bengal, Ganjam, Surthi, Osmanabadi, Sangamneri, Beetal and Malabari. All centres have a common breeding programme and the common objective is as follows. i. To assess the production performance of goat breeds in farmer’s flocks under village management system and improve the germplasm through selection. ii. To evaluate the socio-economic status of goat breeders and the economics of goat production in farmers’ flock. iii. To disseminate the pro-poor goat based technologies under field conditions and assessment of their impact on goat production. Malabari Goat Improvement The project is implemented by Kerala Agricultural University from 2001 onwards. Six centres at northern districts of Kerala namely, Thalassery and Thaliparambu at Kannur district, Badagara and Perambra at Kozhikodu district and Tanur and Thavanur at Malappuaram District were formed the field centres. The goat farm attached to the College of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Mannuthy is used as the elite germplasm centre and the Centre for Advanced Studies in Animal Genetics and Breeding, Mannuthy is functioning as a centre for marker studies. The flock strength of registered animals under field unit was 1593 including 865 adult female goats as on 31 March, 2010. Baseline information on production and reproduction traits, management practices, population trends, feeding system, disease pattern and mortality and socio-economics of goat production were collected through appropriate surveys. Body weight from birth to 12 months of age at three months intervals and milk yield at monthly intervals were recorded. The male kids were selected on the basis of their body weight at six months and dam’s milk yield. Multiple birth born kids will be preferred over single born kids in the selection of future bucks. Selected male kids were purchased from the farmers and maintained at the elite germplasm centre till they attain sexual maturity and redistributed to the farmers. The bucks are rotated among farmers to avoid inbreeding.. Performance of Malabari Goats The overall mean body weight recorded at below one, three, six and nine months of age were3.24±0.07, 9.10±0.1415.51±0.35 and, 18.95±0.57kg respectively. The overall mean average daily milk yield and 90 days milk yield were 0.83±0.03 and 79.98±2.87 litres respectively The over all mean of age at first service and age at first kidding were 263.45±11.33 and 393.22±9.48 days respectively. The overall mean gestation length and inter kidding interval were 149.25±0.25 and 292.51±10.70 days respectively. Average litter size was 1.65. The percentage of singles, twins, triplets and quadruplets were 24.29, 61.47, 13.19 and 1.05 respectively.
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Performance of selected bucks Eighteen bucks were selected during 2006-07 with an average body weight at six months of age 21.3±3.25 Kg. The average of the population during the period was 15.56±0.57 Kg with a selection differential of 5.74 Kg. 35 bucks were distributed during the year 2007-2008 with an average body weight at six months of age 22.50±4.55 Kg. with a selection differential of 5.94 Kg. The average peak yield of dams of selected bucks was 953.23±28ml with a selection differential of 105 ml. A total of 22 bucks of Malabari breed were selected on the basis of body weight and growth rate from the home tract and distributed to various field centres and the evaluation process is currently going on. Comparative performance of progenies and their contemporaries At six months of age progenies had a body weight of 16.76±0.45, 14.56±0.23 and 14.24±0.24 respectively in Badagara, Tanur and Thalassery centres. The average values for the contemporaries were 16.03±0.50, 12.08±0.28 and 14.70±0.15 respectively. In all centres progeny had higher average than that of contemporaries. Sire evaluation Based on the performance of the progeny the bucks were evaluated by the method of Best Linear Unbiased Prediction method (BLUP) and the breeding values of the bucks used were estimated. . The breeding values for the bucks distributed for body weight at six months is varied from 0.053- 3.655. This is expressed as a positive deviation from the population average of 15.12 Kg. The use of improved bucks under field conditions will be continued and the semen from those bucks will be preserved and subsequently used for the production of more bucks to use under field conditions, thus improving the population average. Conclusion Based on the studies made so far, it is clear that good performing animals can be used for the improvement of local populations of Malabari goats and other desi local nondescript animals. Selective breeding in Malabari goats is the best method of choice for improvement. Superior males can be identified on the basis of their six month body weight, litter size and milk yield of the dam. Such males can be used to improve the farmers flocks. This is supported by laboratory studies of gene marker traits. These will enable an assessment of the potential for improvement and need for conservation of our valuable germplasm.
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GROWTH AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE IN NATIVE PIGS OF KERALA R.Thirupathy Venkatachalapathy and A.P.Usha Centre for Pig Production and Research, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, Kerala-680651 Introduction Indian subcontinent is a rich centre of biodiversity in animals and plants. Indian livestock breeds are known for their heat tolerance, disease resistance and ability to survive with limited feed resources. Apart from the recognized breeds there are number of lesser known breeds, the genetic erosion of these breeds and varieties are matter of concern. Though several such breeds of cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat are characterized and documented, adequate efforts have not been made to identify the merits of the indigenous pig population of the country. The pig is one of the most efficient feed converting animal species among livestock. This is due to the realization of its positive qualities like short generation internal, higher growth rate, large litter size and better reproduction efficiency. Besides, they have ability to convert agro industrial byproducts and kitchen waste into valuable meat. However, the pig meat constitutes (0.42 MT) less than 10 % of the total meat produced in the country. The pig population in the country increased from 4.40 millions in 1951 to 13.92 millions as per 2003 census. In contrast to other livestock it registered an impressive growth rate of over three percent. This constitutes around 1.30% of the total world’s population. The indigenous pigs accounts for about 84% of the country’s total pig population. The population sizes of these breeds are decreasing in recent years, because of crossbreeding with Exotic European and American breeds to improve body weight, growth rate and feed conversion efficiency. There is an urgent need to characterize and conserve native breeds as a repository for future need. Materials and Methods The data were collected from 60 Angamali pigs maintained at Centre for Pig Production and Research, Kerala Agricultural University spread over a period of 15 years 1993 to 2010. The animals were maintained under identical management conditions. They were fed with concentrate feed mixture with 16-18% crude protein containing maize, ground nut cake or soya bean, wheat bran, dried fish, mineral mixture and Salt. Feed additives such as vitamin mixture, lysine, methionine and zinc oxide were added at rate of 200g each per tonne of concentrated feed. Animals were dewormed before each breeding season and vaccinated against Classical Swine Fever, Foot and Mouth Disease. Sows
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having litter were fed 2.0 Kg feed with an additional allowance of 100gm per piglet in the forenoon and afternoon. Gilts were fed with 1.5 Kg. Concentrated in the morning and 100 gm. of green grass in the evening. Results and Discussion Angamali pigs are native pigs of Kerala and are small in size, pot bellied, hairy and black in colour with long face and short ears. The two morphologically distinct groups exist, one with short snout and dished back. The other group is hairy with long snout and nondished back. These animals are unique in characters like disease resistance, lean meat production and good bristle yield. The phenotypic variation is noticed among the native pigs of different localities. These pigs have early age at maturity, shorter inter-farrowing interval and mothering ability. Reproductive performance of Angamali pigs The reproductive performance of Angamali pigs are comparable to Large White Yorkshare and other exotic breeds. The age at first fertile service ranged from 250 to 290 days and the age at first farrowing were 365 to 395 respectively. The litter size ranging from 5 to 9 at birth and 4 to 7 at weaning. The mean reproductive performance of Angamali pigs are presented in the table 1. Table 1. Reproductive performance of Angamali pigs S.No
Trait / Characters
Mean
1
Litter size at birth (nos)
8.59±0.32
2
Litter weight at birth (kg)
5.48±0.30
3
Birth weight (kg)
0.640±0.01
4
Litter size at weaning (nos)
5.90±0.53
5
Litter weight at weaning (kg)
33.90±3.06
6
Average weaning weight (kg)
5.87±0.12
7
Pre-weaning mortality (%)
20.76±1.84
8
Age at first conception (days)
261.70 ±6.60
9
Age at farrowing (days)
375.50±9.20
10
Gestation period (days)
111.60±2.70
Body weight and Growth performance of Ankamali pigs Angmali pigs are small in size, the adult body weight body weight of male ranged from 60 to 80kg and female from 50 to 70kg under good management conditions. The growth performance of Angamali pigs are presented in the table 2.
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Table 2. Growth performance of Angamali pigs S.No.
Age in months
Body weight (Kg)
1
1 st
7.65 ± 0.26
2
2 nd
12.05 ± 0.34
3
3
rd
18.00 ± 0.40
4
4 th
25.72 ± 0.52
5
5
32.60 ± 0.58
6
6 th
39.70 ± 0.64
7
7
th
44.90 ± 0.68
8
8 th
49.50 ± 0.70
9
9
th
54.20 ± 0.72
10
10th
57.10 ± 0.80
11
Adult
63.50 ± 0.85
th
Carcass characteristics of Ankamali pigs Meat from the indigenous black pigs is preferred for its leanness, flavour and also believed to have medicinal properties. However, there is no authentic information is available. The back fat thickness is less in indigenous Angamali pigs compared to exotic and their crosses. The mean carcass characteristics of Angamali pigs are presented in the table 3. Table 3. Carcass characteristics of Angamali pigs S.No
Trait / Characters
Mean
1
Live weight (10th month in kg)
57.10 ± 0.80
2
Carcass weight (Kg)
48.20 ± 0.40
3
Carcass length (cm)
47.94 ± 0.30
4
Back Fat Thickness (cm)
2.70 ± 0.10
5
Dressing percentage
65.00 ± 0.30
6
Gut (Kg)
5.44 ± 0.10
7
Feet (Kg)
1.15 ± 0.08
8
Head (Kg)
3.78 ± 0.80
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S.No
Trait / Characters
Mean
9
Heart (g)
158.88 ± 3.80
10
Lungs (g)
6.80 ± 0.15
11
Diaphragm (g)
52.22 ± 0.40
12
Liver (g)
6.90 ± 0.18
13
Spleen (g)
111.11 ± 1.40
14
Kidney (g)
132.22 ± 1.08
15
Loin eye area (cm2)
14.60 ± 0.20
Summary The reproductive performances of Angamali pigs are quite comparable to exotic breeds, though they have lesser body weight. They showed better mothering ability and resistance to metritis mastitis agalactiae complex and enteritis. There is potential to identify genes for disease resistance and other adaptive traits such as heat tolerance in wild/indigenous life and these genes can be transferred to otherwise vulnerable stock by marker associated introgression. References: 1. Giuffra, E., Kijas, J.M.H., Amarger, V., Carlborg, O., Jeon J.T. and Andersson, L.2000. The origin of the domestic pig: independent domestication and subsequent introgression. Genet. 154: 1785-1791 2. Annual Report 2009-10 of AICRP on Pigs, CPPR, Mannuthy. 5. Central Statistics Organization, Government of India, New Delhi.
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BETA CASEIN GENE POLYMORPHISM AND GENETIC SUPERIORITY OF VECHUR CATTLE Muhammed E.M1 and Stephen Mathew2 Department of Animal Breeding, Genetics and Biostatistics, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy – 680 651 INTRODUCTION In Kerala 96% of livestock population is cattle producing 98.50% of total milk. More than 82% of the cattle are crossbreds except very few indigenous animals (breed like Vechur). Vechur cattle once thought to be extinct due to extensive crossbreeding are the first native cattle of Kerala to be saved, multiplied and approved as a distinct breed and this is the smallest breed in the world. Milk is a common source of animal protein and associated micro elements for vegetarians. Cow’s milk contains two major protein groups: caseins and whey proteins and out of which caseins account for 80% of milk proteins. Bovine milk contains 4 caseins: alpha S1 (CSN1S1 39-46% of total casein), alpha S2 (CSN1 S2 8-11%), beta (CSN2, 25-35%), and kappa (CSN3 8-15%). â Casein (â-CN) is the second most abundant protein in cow’s milk that contains 209 amino acids. There are 12 genetic variants of â-CN: A1, A2, A3, B, C, D, F, H1, H2, I and G out of which A1 and A2 are the most common.Within â-CN, the A2 variant was the first to be completely sequenced. Using the sequence of â casein A2 as reference, variants A1 and others differ by having a histidine instead of proline at position 67. Milk proteins release bioactive peptides called betacasomorphins (BCMs) upon proteolytic digestion by pepsin, pancreatic elastase and leucine amino peptidase. Consumption of â-CN A1 producing BCM-7 is reported as a risk factor of type 1 diabetes mellitus and ischaemic heart disease in humans. MATERIALS AND METHODS Blood samples collected from 72 Vechur cattle, 100 crossbred (Sunandini) cows and 14 Kasargode Dwarf cattle formed the materials for the present study on â-CN gene polymorphism. Of the total 72 Vechur cattle, 62 animals were from KAU farm and 10 numbers were from animals maintained by Vechur Conservation Trust, Vechur. The 14 Kasargode Dwarf cattle were from the animals maintained at KAU farm unit. Vechur is a small breed of cattle which were very popular in Vechur area of Kottayam district, Ernakulam and Alappuzha. Though they were very small of about 150 kg adult body weight they had the capacity to produce 2-3 Kg milk daily with fat content about 5%. They were thought to be extinct by the aggressive crossbreeding policies followed in Kerala (1 MVSc scholar, 2 Professor)
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by using exotic germplasm on local female cattle. In the year 1989 a search for the existence of legendary Vechur cattle was launched by the students of Veterinary College under the leadership of Anil Zachariah and Prof. Sosamma Iype. Their search became successful and they could identify and locate a handful of Vechur and Vechur like small animals, thanks to a few poor illiterate farmers who conserved this germplasm resisting all actions exterminating the local breeds. That was the beginning of Vechur Conservation programme at Kerala Agricultural University. The present population of Vechur animals will be around 1500 including 78 animals in the KAU Vechur farm. The crossbreds used in the study were from different parts of Kerala viz, Kozhikode (22), Kannur (15), Malappuram (14), Wayanad (15), Thrissur (24) and Kottayam (10). Most of the crossbred cattle in Kerala are having exotic inheritance ranging between 50-62.5% of Jersey/ Brown Swiss/Holstein Friesian or a combination of these breeds. AS-PCR Analysis Allele Specific Polymerase chain reaction (AS-PCR) is a modification of PCR in which the DNA polymerase is used to amplify the target DNA only if the PCR primers are perfectly complementary to the target DNA sequence. It relies on the use of an oligonucleotide primer for PCR amplification that precisely matches one of the alleles but not the other. AS-PCR makes use of the fact that product formation in PCR is sensitive to mismatching of the 3' residue in one of the two primers (forward or reverse) used. When a mismatch occurs at or near the 3’end of the PCR primer, amplification is inefficient. Classification of Alleles and Primers Used Of all the 12 â-CN variants all except A2 produce BCM-7 upon enzymatic digestion in the gut. Among BCM-7 yielding variants A1 is the predominant type and other alleles are very rare. Therefore in this study alleles are classified as A1 and A2 only. Based on this, two allele specific reverse primers each one matched to one of two alleles at 3' end (G for â-CN A2 and T for â -CN A1) along with a common forward primer were used. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Genotype and Allele Frequencies of â –CN In Vechur cattle the genotype frequencies of A1A1, A1A2 and A2A2 were observed as 0, 0.34 and 0.66 whereas in crossbred cattle the corresponding frequencies were 0.32, 0.28 and 0.40 respectively .Of the 72 vechur cattle typed, none of the animals were of A1A1 genotype. No A1A1 genotypes were found in Kasargode Dwarf animals also and the corresponding frequencies in Kasargode Dwarf cattle was recorded as 0.79 (A1A2) and 0.21 (A2A2).
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The frequencies for A1 and A2 alleles in Vechur were noted as 0.2 and 0.80 respectively and for crossbreds the frequencies were recorded as 0.46 and 0.54, respectively. In the Kasargode Dwarf cattle A1 and A2 allele frequencies were obtained as 0.39 and 0.61 respectively. The presence of A1 allele in Vechur cattle suggests that the foundation stock of the present Vechur herd had the introgression of A1 alleles of taurine breeds. The very low frequency of A1 allele in the present study indicate that knowingly or unknowingly breeding bulls used could have been predominantly of A2A2 genotype. Another possibility for the low frequency could be sampling fluctuation of A1/A2 alleles that usually happens in small populations. Present study has covered A1/A2 polymorphism of almost all adult Vechur cattle in Kerala Agricultural University. So the knowledge of genotype obtained in the study can be applied judiciously to develop a herd/breed of Vechur cattle with A2A2 genotype . ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are thankful to the Dean, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, Director Department of Animal Breeding, Genetics and Biostatistics, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy and Vechur Conservation Trust, for providing facilities for the study. REFERENCES Beales, P.E., Elliott, R.B., Flohe, S. Hill, J.P., Kolb, H., Pozzilli, P., Wang, G.S., Wasmuth, H., Scott, F.W. 2002. A multi-centre, blinded international trial of the effect of A1 and A2 âcasein variants on diabetes incidence in two rodent modelsof spontaneous Type I diabetes. Diabetologia 45:1240–1246 Bell, S.J., Grochoski, G.T. and Clarke, J. 2006. Health implications of milk containing âcasein with the A2 genetic variant. Crit. Rev. Fd. Sci. Nutr. 46: 1, 93 -100 Bonsing, J., Ring, J.M., Stewart, A.F. and Macinlay, A.G. 1989. Direct submission accession number X14711. University of New South Wales, School of Biochemistry, P.O. Box 1, Kensington, N. S. W. 2033, Australia. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Bui, M. and Liu, Z. 2009. Simple allele-discriminating PCR for cost-effective and rapidgenotyping and mapping. Pl. Methods, 5:1-8. Elliot, R.B., Harris, D.P., Hill, J.P., Bibby, N.J., Wasmuth, H.E. 1999. Type I (Insulin dependent) diabetes mellitus and cow milk: casein variant consumption. Diabetologia. 42:292-296
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Farrell, H.M., Jimenez-Flores, R., Bleck, G.T., Brown, E.M., Butler, J.E., Creamer, L.K., Hicks, C.L., Hollar, C.M., Ng-Kwai-Hang, K.F. and Swaisgood, H.E. 2004. Nomenclature of the proteins of cows’ milk—sixth revision. J. Dairy Sci. 87:1641–1674. Iype, S. and Venketachelapathy, R. T. 1997. Vechur cattle of Kerala. Animal Genetic Resource Information. FAO (UNEP), Rome.18:62. Jann, O.C., Avemu, E.M.I., Ozbeyas, C., Zaragoza, P., Williams, J.L., Marsen, P.A., Lenstra, J.A., Goudarzi, K.M. and Erhardt, G. 2004. Geographic distribution of haplotype diversity at the bovine casein locus. Genet. Sel. Evol. 36:243–257. Keating, F., Smith, T.J, Ross, R.P. and Cairns, M.T. 2008. A note on the evaluation of a betacasein variant in bovine breeds by allele-specific PCR and relevance to â-casomorphin. Irish J. Agric. Fd Res. 47: 99–104. Mishra, B.P., Mukesh, M., Prakash, B., Sodhi, M., Kapila, R., Kishore, A. and Kataria, R.R. 2009. Status of milk protein â-casein variants among Indian milch animals. Indian J. Anim.Sci.79:722-725. Sun, Z., Zhang, Z., Wang, X., Cade, R., Elmir, Z.and Fregly, M. 2003. Relation of âcasomorphin to apnea in sudden infant death syndrome. Peptides 24: 937–943. Thorsdottir, I., Birgisdottir, B.E., Johansdottir, I.M., Haris, D.P., Hill, J., Steingrimsdottir, L. and Thorsson, A. 2000. Different beta-casein fractions in Icelandic versus Scandinavian cow’s milk may influence diabetogenicity of cow’s milk in infancy and explain low incidence of Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus in Iceland. Pediatrics 106:719-724.
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CONSERVATION AND GENETIC DIVERSITY OF NATIVE PIGS OF KERALA A.P.Usha and R.Thirupathy Venkatachalapathy Centre for Pig Production and Research, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, Kerala-680651 INTRODUCTION Pigs are important meat producing livestock and are versatile animal capable of withstanding diverse management practices and agro ecological conditions. Among the domestic animals, pigs are the most prolific breeders and fast growers. The biological advantages such as short generation interval, better reproductive efficiency and its ability to thrive on agro industrial byproducts and kitchen waste made them to play an important role to make up the animal protein deficiency, at a very low cost. Traditionally the indigenous pigs produce bristles and meat. Before the advent of nylon, the pig bristles had a great demand and the meat was a byproduct. With the fall in bristle market, pork has become an important commodity. In India, pig and pork industry is in the hands of traditional pig keepers, belonging to the lowest socio-economic stratum with no means to undertake intensive pig farming of purebred stock and improved methods of breeding, feeding and meat handling. Pig farming will provide employment opportunities to seasonally employed rural farmers and supplementary income to improve their living standards. Thus pigs contribute substantially to the economy of the socially backward and tribal population of this country. There are 600 breeds of pigs in the world (Giuffra et al., 2000). These breeds are developed suitable to different environmental conditions. For instance, certain breeds are adapted to withstand extreme heat, others are especially resistant to disease, and many others are adapted to survive periods of draught – implying the rule of ‘survival of the fittest’. There have been no serious attempts to catalogue the various breeds or strains of domesticated pigs in India. The animal genetic resources in the country are vast and varied but not properly evaluated and documented. The population of many breeds is declining. Therefore, it is necessary to characterize and evaluate various breeds. Domestication and Historical importance of pig Pigs belong to the genus Sus Linn: Order- Artiodactyla, sub order Suiformas and familySuidae. These include the domesticated ones and several wild species such as common wild boar (Sus scrofa cristatus). Domestication of pigs took place in Europe (Sus scorfa) some where around the Baltic seas in the Neolithic times. In Asia, pigs (Sus vittatus) were separately domesticated in China around 3000 BC. These pigs were separated from the
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Middle and East Asian mainland extending from western India to central China and some of the islands like Japan, Sumatra and Borneo. Although the pigs have always been used as supplier of meat, there have been other uses as well. The Egyptian treading and thrashing have been mentioned. In France, the pigs natural ability to locate and grub up truffles (subterranean fungi) has been exploited, it is trained to help man in finding them. In the New forest, in the Middle ages pigs were trained to point and retrieve game in place of hunting dogs, which were forbidden. The boar was a symbol of warrior among the Germans and Celts. Frey, the Scandinavian God of fertility had a golden boar to draw its chariot. As per the Vedic literature (Smrti sastra) Vishnu’s third incarnation is called ‘Varaha’, a boar and is believed to have descended into the waters to draw up the earth with the help of the tusks. In earlier days pigs were treated as holy creatures, the physical features of which were well described in Mahabharata. Population Trend and contribution to National economy The pig population in the country increased from 4.40 millions in 1951 to 1010 millions in 1983 and now stands at 13.92 millions as per 2003 census. In contrast to other livestock it registered an impressive growth rate of over 3%. This constitutes around 1.30% of the total world’s population. The current value output from pig is estimated to be 2694 crores and the production of pork and pork products were estimated to be 6,12,550 MT with 3.03% growth rate in last decade. Indian share in piggery meat production moderately increased from 0.53% in 1981 to 0.63% in 2002. The contribution of pork products in terms of value works out to 0.80% of total livestock products and 4.32% of the meat and meat products. Kerala has a total pig population of about 76,000 of which mostly are crossbreds of Desi, Large White Yorkshire, Landrace and Duroc. Importance of conservation Natural and artificial selection over centuries are the vital source for breed evolution and germplasm improvement. The native pigs are evolved by nature; they are resistant to various diseases and can withstand wide range of environmental extremities. There is potential to identify genes for disease tolerance and other adaptive traits such as heat tolerance in wild/indigenous varieties and these genes can be transferred to otherwise vulnerable stock by marker associated introgression. About 84% of the total pig population in the country is indigenous and not characterized properly. As a result of industrialization and globalization, the indigenous animals are getting relaced with crossbred animals. For preserving the biodiversity, the indigenous animals need to be conserved either ex=situ or in situ
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Conservation efforts Meat from the local black pigs is preferred by people especially in north-eastern India for its flavour and leanness and also believed to have medicinal properties. Various breeds of pigs exist in India, and are not yet properly characterized, evaluated and documented. The population sizes of these breeds are decreasing in recent years, because of low body weight, slower growth rate, less feed conversion efficiency and lean meat percent compared to exotic European and American breeds. Special efforts are therefore required to conserve the genetic resources of these local breeds. A nucleus herd of local pigs was established during 1993-94 at Centre for Pig Production and Research, Mannuthy and now a stock of 15 males and 35 females are maintained. The phenotypic and genetic characterization of these Desi pigs of Kerala is underway. Breed Characterization The pigs present through out the world are different from each other in morphology and production traits. There are 600 breeds of pigs in the world (Giuffra et al., 2000). The pigs found in different countries are genetically diverse and show phenotypically distinct characters, e.g. Mexican hairless pigs and Chinese Meishan pigs. In India many of such native breeds exist in small population size, almost in the verge of extinction. There have been no serious attempts to catalogue the various breeds or strains of domesticated pigs. A systemic evaluation of genetic diversity of these important breeds will enable us to understand these breeds better and formulate plans to conserve them. As a preliminary step, the germplasm have to be properly characterized and grouped based on various morphological, chromosomal, biochemical and molecular markers. For the purpose of conservation and exploitation of the superior nature of the native breeds it is necessary to take up genetic studies to find out how much related the individuals are within and between population. Molecular tools offer better means to characterize a breed in terms of variation at loci associated with phenotypes. This data will be useful in preserving a representative gene pool of the populations. Presently the DNA markers are found to be very effective and offer maximum information about a population. In the past few years, microsatellites have become the most popular molecular marker system and have been intensely applied in genome mapping, characterization and phylogeny studies of livestock. The indigenous pigs of Kerala was characterized and grouped into different population based on the microsatellite marker analysis of DNA.
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Work done Molecular characterization of the indigenous pigs of Kerala was conducted using microsatellite markers. Blood samples were collected from pigs maintained University pig breeding farm, Mannuthy and were grouped as population I, the samples from Koothattukulam, Angamali, Thodupuzha, Moovattupuzha, Kottayam and Kollam ie Districts to the south of Thrissur belonged to population II, those from Ollur slaughter house were grouped as population III and ones from Palakkad dist, Govindapuram and Meenakshipuram ie districts to the north of Thrissur belonged to population IV. For comparison a few Large White Yorkshire (LWY) animals were also included as a separate population. High molecular weight genomic DNA was prepared from blood samples. These samples were typed using twenty-five microsatellite markers (Coppoeters et al 1993) for their polymorphicity. Number of alleles, allele size range and frequency, heterozygosity (Ott 1992), polymorphic information content (Botstein et al. 1980), and genetic distance (Nei, 1972) were calculated. Genetic relationship among desi pigs of Kerala The allele frequencies at each locus for each population were used for computing the genetic distance between each pair of populations. The population was divided into four groups based on their geographical distribution. The Nei’s genetic distance between populations ranged from 0.4808 to 0.7161. The genetic distance between population II and IV was maximum (0.7161) and that between population III and I was minimum (0.4808). According to the results obtained, the population II and IV show considerable distance (0.7161) from each other and form different clusters. The population III and IV are equally far from population I with the genetic distance of 0.4818 and 0.4898 respectively. The genetic distance of population II and IV from population III are moderate, i.e., 0.6121, 0.5704 respectively. Further investigation is needed for their characterization purpose. Dendrogram The dendrogram is a phylogenetic tree to show the relationship among different populations. Dendrogram of relationships between the four populations under study. Phylogenetic tree was drawn using the genetic distance obtained (Kijas, and Andersson, 2001). No definite conclusions could be arrived from the tree drawn except that population three and four were closely related among themselves than population one and two When the analysis was done with an exotic breed Large White Yorkshire it clearly showed that population two is different from the other groups and that population one and three were more closely related than any other groups (Fig 1). This agrees with the geographical origin of the breeds that population two belonged to Koothattukulam area which are mainly the Ankamali pigs. This
61
shows that this genetic group is very much different from other population of local pigs of Kerala. But the length between clusters and between populations is considerably greater, which indicate that the population showed variation within and among clusters. It is a clear indication that various genetically different populations exist in the studied group. The results from the markers indicate that all four populations differed from each other. Even though clustering is found between groups, variation is noticed between and within populations for the different parameters tested like number of alleles, allele frequency distribution, and heterozygosity. The two morphologically distinct groups noted in this study –– less hairy, short snout and dished back were found in population III (plate 1), and other hairy with long snout and nondished back were found in population I, (plate 2) which were grouped under two separate clusters. In India many of the native breeds exist in small population size, almost in the verge of extinction. A systematic evaluation of genetic diversity of these important breeds will enable us to understand and formulate a rational plan for their conservation. For the purpose of conservation and exploitation of the superior nature of the native breeds it is necessary to take up further genetic studies in a systematic manner. References: 1. Botstein, D., White, R.L., Skolnick, M. and Davis, R.W. 1980. Construction of genetic linkage map in man using restriction fragment length polymorphisms. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 32: 314-331 2. Coppoeters, W., Van de Weghe, A., Peelman, L., Depicker, A., Van Zeveren, A., and Bouquet.Y. 1993. Characterization of porcine polymorphic microsatellites loci. Anim. Genet. 24(3):163-70 3. Giuffra, E., Kijas, J.M.H., Amarger, V., Carlborg, O., Jeon J.T. and Andersson, L. 2000. The origin of the domestic pig: independent domestication and subsequent introgression. Genet. 154: 1785-1791 4. Kijas, J.M.H. and Andersson, L. 2001. A phylogenetic study of the origin of the domestic pig estimated from near complete mtDNA genome. J. Mol. Evolution.5. 5. Nei, M. 1972. Genetic distance between population. Am. Naturalist. 106: 283-29 52: 302-308 6. Ott, J. 1992. Strategies for characterizing higly polymorphic markers in human gene mapping. Amer. J. Hum. Genet. 51: 283-290
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Figure 1 Phylogenetic tree of different population of indigenous pigs of Kerala.
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ROLE OF CONSERVATION OF FARM ANIMAL GENETIC RESOURCES IN DISEASE MANAGEMENT OF LIVESTOCK Radhika,G., Raghavan,K.C. and Reghunandanan,K.V. Department of Animal Breeding, Genetics & Biostatistics, COVAS, Mannuthy INTRODUCTION Farm animals play a very crucial role in the rural livelihood of developing countries. Apart from meeting the protein requirements of the undernourished, they also augment income generation of smallholders in marginal environment. Genetic resources are the building blocks of sustainable agriculture (Bishop et al., 2002). Genetic diversity has enabled farmers and breeders to develop and use domestic animals that are suited to a wide range of production environments. The diversity of cattle, sheep, goat, pig, poultry and breeds of other farm animal species represents an irreplaceable source of traits for livestock development in response to changing environmental and human needs (Gibson et al, 2005). Recent advances in the agricultural and animal husbandry sector, along with the changes in culture and needs of human community, led to the rapid popularity of some breeds of farm animals. Whereas, some other breeds (especially, with less production potential) are in the verge of extinction. Such erosion of farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR) is a subject of major concern throughout the world. Genetic value of an animal is determined not only due to its production, but also due to its adaptability to existing environment, utilization of available feed resources and particularly to the level of resistance to local diseases. Disease management is a critical component of livestock production as diseases affecting livestock can have significant impact on animal production. Hence, for the sustainable development of FAnGR, it is essential to give due importance to enhance production of farm animals, along with increasing their disease resistance capacity. Current status of breeding strategies and disease control measures Animal Breeding programmes always pivoted around enhancing economy of the producer. Hence breeding of farm animals focused almost exclusively on increasing production traits such as milk, meat and eggs. Breeders formulated different strategies for improving quantity and later quality of the above said characteristics. This increased production to a great extent, but livestock diseases, especially infectious ones, affected animal production throughout the world. Diseases of animals caused production losses, loss of income, uncertain food security and even affected human health.
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Disease management/control options hitherto studied included chemotherapy, vaccination and appropriate management methods. Constraints to such disease control strategies included environmental and food-safety related impacts of chemical treatments, affordability and accessibility of treatments to poorer livestock keepers and the evolution of resistance to many commonly used drugs (FAO, 2006). Examples include parasitic resistance to anthelminthic drugs, bacterial resistance to antibiotics, virus resistance to vaccines etc. Importance of including genetic elements into management of farm animal diseases In countries with well-developed intensive livestock population, 39 infectious diseases have been identified thus far that cause great economic loss in livestock production and also threaten animal welfare (Jovanovic, 2009). Outbreaks of swine flu and hoof-and-mouth disease in Great Britain suggest the vulnerability of current systems of disease control and prompt further consideration of the problems involved in developing rational measures for control of infectious disease in domesticated animals (Bishop et al, 2002). The main advantage of including genetic elements into management of farm animal diseases includes an effective, consistent and permanent solution to the problem. Also once the strategy is established; it offers low input and maintenance cost, and sustainable disease management. Genetic improvement of disease resistance can be an element of overall genetic improvement, which is turn in a component of sustainable livestock production system development (Bishop et al., 2002). Genetic management of disease For the purpose of genetically managing a disease, it is essential to differentiate between disease resistance and tolerance. Resistance refers to the ability of a host to resist infection, while tolerance signifies a condition in which the host is infected by the pathogen but display very limited adverse effects (Javanovic et al., 2009). Managing genetic resources in order to enhance the resistance or tolerance found in livestock population offers an additional tool for disease control. There is substantial evidence that resistance to infectious disease in animals has a genetic component and it has often been shown that there are genetic differences in response to various infectious challenges (Axford et al., 2000). These genetic differences can be studied by undertaking investigation at three different levels – species, breed and individual animal. An example for differences in genetic resistance among species is the incidence of foot rot in small ruminants. Goats display a greater resistance/tolerance to the causative agents of foot rot than sheep as evidenced by the higher incidence of foot rot in a small population of sheep maintained at University Goat and Sheep Farm, Mannuthy. Another example from
65
the same species i.e. sheep is the success in identifying PrP gene which controls resistance of sheep to scrapie (Dawson et al., 1998). Much research effort is now directed towards finding disease resistance genes. Significance of disease resistance/tolerance at breed level requires specific attention. There is much anecdotal evidence pointing to the greater disease resistance of livestock breeds indigenous to environments where they face a heavy disease challenge (FAO, 2006). In tropical region, where extreme endemic diseases are widespread, due to their evolutionary roots, locally adapted autonomous breeds display a far greater level of genetic resistance and adaptation, as compared to imported breeds (Savic, 1995). Disease resistant/tolerant breeds: There are different approaches to genetic management of diseases, of which choosing the appropriate breed suitable for the production environment appears to be the best and easy solution. Two alternative approaches are : Cross-breeding to introduce genes into breeds that are otherwise well adapted to the required purposes and selection for breeding purposes of individuals that have high levels of disease resistance or tolerance (with the help of molecular markers associated with desired traits). FAO DAD-IS system manages a database of phenotype and genotype characteristics and other health criteria, which serves as a foundation for further research in genetic resistance to diseases. Based on data from FAO DAD-IS 2007, many breeds of farm animal resources expressed greater resistance to a larger number of pathogens. Table – 1 Mammalian breeds reported to DAD-IS as having resistance or tolerance to specific diseases or parasites Disease
Buffalo
Cattle
Goat
Sheep
Trypanosomiasis
17
4
4
Tick infestation burden 1
17
1
Tick borne diseases
11
1
Internal Parasites
1
Fasciolasis
2
2
1
9
Pig
1
Horse
Deer
1
1
2
1
1
Bovine leucosis
9
Foot rot
1
14
Source: FAO, 2006. Animal Genetic Resources and resistance to disease.
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Major disease against which mammalian breeds reported a resistance or tolerance include Trypanosomiasis – Disease caused by a blood parasite transmitted by Tsetse flies and one of the important health problems in Africa. The most trypanotolerant breeds include N’Dama and West African Shorthorn cattle. Ticks and tick-borne diseases – Ticks pose a severe threat to animals in the tropics. Moreover ticks are responsible for spreading diseases like anaplasmosis, babesiosis, theileriosis etc. Zebu cattle are well known for resistance to ticks and are hence utilized for the purpose of crossbreeding with many temperate cattle breeds. In the case of theileriosis Sahiwal calves were found to be less adversely affected than Holstein-Friesian calves, when infected with the disease (Glass et al., 2005). Internal parasites – Red Maasai breed of sheep showed lower faecal egg counts and hence lower mortality, when compared with Dorper sheep in areas of Kenya that are heavily infected with nematodes (Baker, 1998). This proves that locally adapted breeds perform better than imported exotic breeds in areas endemic for nematodes. Foot Rot – is a contagious bacterial disease of hoofed animals which causes severe lameness. Sheep are the most susceptible species but some breeds are more resistant to foot rot than others. Hailu et al. (2006) reported that breed type had a significant effect on survival rate of goat kids. Similar reports were obtained from University Goat and Sheep Farm, Mannuthy, when a study was carried out to find out the genetic and nongenetic factors affecting incidence of floppy kids in native and crossbred goats. University Goat and Sheep Farm, Thrissur, Kerala acts as a nodal institution, for goat research with the main objective of genetic enhancement of purebred native breeds namely Malabari and Attappady Black. One of the major problems which the farm faced was profound muscle weakness among one week old kids with signs of anorexia and ataxia, suggestive of Floppy Kid Syndrome (Bleul et al. (2006)). Statistical analysis revealed that genetic group; year of birth and dam’s weight at kidding had significant effect on the incidence of floppy kids in the farm, whereas sex, birth weight, type of birth and season of birth had no significant effect. Attappady Black kids were the least affected group (24.6%), followed by Malabari (45.4%) and crossbreds (51.84%). Bleul et al (2006) suggested gastrointestinal infection due to Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens and/ or Cryptosporidium as the primary cause for Floppy Kid Syndrome. Native breeds of India are well known for its disease resistance and heat tolerance capacity. Indigenous breeds must have resisted the gastrointestinal infection due to its disease resistant nature. (Radhika et al., 2010 submitted for publication).
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Within breed selection for disease resistance Apart from selecting breeds adapted for a particular area, resistant animals within a breed can also be selected, either based on phenotypic indicators or molecular markers or both together. An example for such selection is the identification of mastitis resistant cows through Marker Assisted Selection. (MAS) Mastitis or inflammation of udder is considered to be the most economically devastating disease affecting dairy industry. Genetic markers (CxCR2) associated with inflammatory responses during mastitis, could aid in selection of mastitis resistant cows. This approach of genetically identifying mastitis resistant cows may represent an effective means of Marker Assisted Selection for mastitis (Youngerman, 2004). Thus within breed selection for disease resistance would aid in better herd health through animal selection, which in turn would reduce economic losses within the herd. Aparna (2010) explored the possibility of incorporating Gastro Intestinal Nematode resistance as a criterion for selection in goat breeding. Fecal Egg Count (FEC) was taken as an indicator of host resistance and it showed a moderate heritability of 0.393. Among nongenetic factors, centre showed a statistically significant effect on FEC, with University Goat and Sheep farm recording the least FEC. This might be due to the improved immune status of animals in the farm, through careful selection along with scientific management practices followed in the farm. Conclusion The present disease control measures like drug therapy and vaccination provide many threats to animals and environment. As a positive alternative, genetic elements can be included for effective disease management and this method is strongly recommended due to its sustainability and permanent nature. Genetic variation within breeds and between breeds is well established as far as disease susceptibility is concerned, and it can very well be included in Breeding programmes for future development of FAnGR. For achieving this target, much research has to be initiated into the genetics of livestock disease resistance. Moreover efforts should be maximized to preserve the genetic diversity of FAnGR, so that many valuable breeds are not lost, before they are studied. At a time, when unknown dangers like disease epidemics tighten their clutches and new molecular technologies open up their possibilities, let us link the old with the new. Let us preserve our native breeds and utilize them as the best study material for disease resistance research.
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References Aparna, S. 2010. Genetic Resistance to Gastro Intestinal Nematodes in Goats. Thesis submitted to Kerala Agricultural University. Axford, R.F.E., Bishop, S.C, Nicholas, F.W. and Owen, J.B. 2000. Breeding for disease resistance in its evolutionary context. In Breeding for disease resistance in farm animals, 2nd ed. CABI Publishing, Wallingford. Pp. ix-xiv. Baker, R.L. 1998. Genetic resistance to endoparasites in sheep and goats. A review of genetic resistance to gastrointestinal nematode parasites in sheep and goat in the tropics and evidences for resistance in some sheep and goat breeds of Kenya. Anim. Gen. Res. Difo. 24: 13-30. Bishop, S.C., DeJong, H. and Gray, D. 2002. Opportunities for incorporating genetic elements into the management of farm animal diseases: Policy issues. Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, FAO, Rome. 36p. Bleul,U., Schwantag,S., Stocker,H., Corboz,L., Grimm,F., Engels,M., Borel,N. Lutz, H., Schonmann,M. and Kahn,W. 2006. Floppy Kid Syndrome caused by D-Lactic Acidosis in goat kids. J. Vet. Intern. Med. 20, 1003-1008 Dawson, M., Hoinville, L.J., Hosie, B.D. and Hunter, N. 1998. Guidance on the use of PrP genotyping as an aid to the control of clinical scrapie. Vet. Rec. 142: 623-625. FAO, 2006. Animal Genetic Resources and resistance to disease. Part 1, Section E The state of World’s Animal Genetic Resources for food and agriculture, Rome. Glass, E.J., Preston, P.M., Springbett, A., Craigmille, S., Kirvar, E., Wilkie, G. and Brown, C.G.D. 2005. Bos taurus and Bos indicus (Sahiwal) calves respond differently to infection with Theileria annulata and produce markedly different levels of acute phase protein. Intl. J. Parasitol. 35(3): 337-347. Gibson, J., Gamage, S., Hanotte,O., Iùiguez,L., Maillard,J.C., Rischkowsky,B., Semambo,D., Toll,J. 2005. Options and Strategies for the Conservation of Farm Animal Genetic Resources. Report of an International Workshop, France. Jovanovic, S., Savic, M. and Zivkovic, D. 2009. Genetic variation in disease resistance among farm animals. Biotech. Anim. Husbandry 25(5-6): 339-347. Savic, M., Jovanovic, S. and Trailovic, R. 1995. Some genetic markers in blood of Balkan goat. Acta Veterinaria 45: 5-6. Springbett, A.S., MacKenzie, K., Woolliams, J.A. and Bishop, S.C. 2003. The contribution of genetic diversity to the spread of infectious diseases in livestock populations. Genetics 165: 1465-1474 Youngerman, S.M., Saxton, A.M., Olmer, S.P. and Pighetti, G.M. 2004. Association of CXCR2 polymorphisms with subclinical and clinical mastitis in dairy cattle. J. Dairy Sci. 87: 2442-2448.
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Short note ADAPTABILITY STUDIES ON VECHUR CATTLE OF KERALA R.Thirupathy Venkatachalapathy and Sosamma Iype College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, Kerala-680651 INTRODUCTION Among cattle, Vechur cows were considered the pride of Kerala. These animals derived their name from the village of origin, Vechur, a small place by the side of Vembanadu Lake near Vaikom in Kottayam district of Kerala. Vechur cattle were very popular and available in large numbers in Kottayam, Alappuzha and Ernakulam districts about half a century ago. Grading up of the local cattle with Red Sindhi was the government policy in the 50’s. The policy of massive crossbreeding with exotic bulls adopted and aggressively pursued since the 60’s transformed the local animals including Vechur to crossbred throughout the state. Local bulls were not permitted to be retained as per Kerala Livestock Act, 1961. However, the temple bulls were exempted from this. The government policy coupled with a cultivated preference of the farmers for crossbred cows yielding more than double the milk of local cows in the first generation itself, led to the near extinction of the Vechur cows. Materials and Methods Physiological parameters such as body temperature, respiration and pulse rate were recorded at 08.00 A.M. and 14.00 P.M. for two seasons of the year in both sexes of Vechur cattle. Ten animals in each group exposed to Sunlight for three hours 10.00 A.M. to 3.00 P.M. daily and their temperature and respiration and pulse rate were recorded before and after the exposure. Results and Discussion Rectal temperature In Vechur cattle, the overall average forenoon and afternoon rectal temperatures recorded were 100.61 0F ± 0.03 and 101.580F ± 0.04 , ranging between 96.8 and 103.80F. Afternoon rectal temperature was uniformly higher than forenoon, but not significant. The coefficient of variation was very low i.e 0.30 to 1.1 percent Pulse rate: The overall mean pulse rate/minute in the forenoon and afternoon of vechur cattle was 63.21 ± 0.3 and 68.9 ± 0.3 respectively. Pulse rate ranged from 42 to 98 per minute. Pulse
70
rate recorded in the afternoon was uniformly higher than the forenoon in all categories. The coefficient of variation ranged from 4.5 to 14.5 %. Significant difference was noticed between afternoon and forenoon. Respiration rate/minute All categories showed an increase in respiration rate in the afternoon. The overall average forenoon and afternoon respiration rate recorded were 21.45 ± 0.1 and 24.05 ± 0.13, which ranged from 14 to 36. No significant differences were noticed between season, time of recording or age group. The coefficient of variation varied from 9.52 to 17.5 % . Heat tolerance Ten animals from each group exposed to Sunlight for three hours 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. daily and their temperature, respiration and pulse rate were recorded before and after the exposure. The estimated values of Heat Tolerance Index and Dairy Search Index are presented in the table 4. Table 1. Mean body temperature of Vechur cattle for different seasons May to July August to October o Category Temperature ( F) Temperature (oF) Forenoon Afternoon Forenoon Afternoon Cows (30)
100.3 ± 0.05
101.3 ± 0.04
100.3 ± 0.08
101.3 ± 0.06
Heifers (19)
100.9 ± 0.06
101.6 ± 0.05
100.7 ± 0.08
101.5 ± 0.06
Bulls (9)
100.6 ± 0.01
101.6 ± 0.09
100.5 ± 0.15
101.6 ± 0.20
* Number of observation given in parenthesis Table 2. Mean pulse rates of Vechur cattle for different seasons Category
May to July Pulse rate/ Minute Forenoon Afternoon
August to October Pulse rate/ Minute Forenoon Afternoon
Cows (30)
61.7 ± 0.47
66.9 ± 0.60
64.8 ± 0.46
68.4 ± 0.43
Heifers (19)
61.3 ± 0.83
67.5 ± 1.24
65.2 ± 0.89
69.1 ± 0.62
Bulls (9)
65.3 ± 1.20
70.4 ± 0.85
64.3 ± 1.07
70.3 ± 1.04
* Number of observation given in parenthesis
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Table 3. Mean Respiration rate of Vechur cattle for different Season Category
May to July Respiration rate/ Minute Forenoon Afternoon
August to October Respiration rate/ Minute Forenoon Afternoon
Cows (30)
20.7 ± 0.18
23.1 ± 0.21
21.3 ± 0.27
23.6 ± 0.29
Heifers (19)
20.3 ± 0.22
22.8 ± 0.26
21.3 ± 0.32
23.7 ± 0.33
Bulls (9)
20.8 ± 0.45
23.4 ± 0.32
21.7 ± 0.52
24.3 ± 0.48
* Number of observation given in parenthesis Table 4. Mean Physiological parameters of calves (up to one year of age) before and after exposure to Sunlight Category
Temperature Before After
Pulse/Minute Before After
Respiration rate/ Minute Before After
Male
100.9 ±0.01 102.4 ± .10 64.4 ± 0.7 73.3 ± 0.8 25.9 ± 0.3
29.8 ± 0.4
Female
101.3 ±0.06 102.6 ± 0.6 67.3 ± 0.9 76.8 ± 1.1 27.5 ± 0.4
31.2 ± 0.5
n = 10 The animals did not show symptoms of heat stress even after exposure to sunlight.There had been only slight increase in body temperature after exposure to sun. But pulse and respiration showed increase.The heat stress occurs from 800F for dairy cows in US.The signs include rapid shallow breathing. Beyond 900F there is generally open mouth breathing with panting. In Kerala panting is observed in crossbred cows in summer even within sheds. Summer temperature rises to beyond 100 in Thrissur area where the studies were made. But the fact ther was no signs of stress and not much change in body temperature indicates the heat tolerance of native cattle. Samuel Brody (1956)observed that the higher heat tolerance of the Indian cattle seemed to be due to lower heat production, greater surface area per unit weight, shorter hair, and other body-temperature regulating mechanisms not visually apparent. The larger the animal and the higher her productive level, the lower was the “comfort zone” temperature. At 105° F. environment the near-lethal temperature of 108° F. was reached in the Holsteins, 106° F. in the Jerseys, and 105° F. in the Indian cows of the same weight as the Jerseys. At environmental temperature of 105° to 107°F the European cows were near collapse. The observation with
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Vechur cows was that body temperature did not vary much with higher rise in body temperature.The studies indicated the high heat tolerance of Vechur cattle and this trait is one to be preserved for future. References: 1. Annual Report :2000-01 of ICAR project on “ Molecular characterization and adaptability studies on Vechur cattle of coastal area and other dwarf cattle of high ranges of Kerala� College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy. 2. Iype Sosamma and R.T.Venkatachalapathy,2000 Vechur cattle of Kerala, monograph published by Kerala Agricultural University 3. Samuel Brody (1956):Journal of Dairy science Vol.39, P 715-725 June
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INTEGRATED FARMING WITH A SINGLE COW UNIT P.Biju, Veterinary Surgeon, Parathodu,Kottayam. INTRODUCTION A Vechur cow and its calf are maintained for producing, milk and biogas, maintenance of vermi compost and vegetable cultivation including mushroom production. The animals are stall fed with green grass and straw. Activities The Vechur cow is selected based on the observation I have made in a previous work. It was observed that the aorta of the Vechur cow cannot favor the growth of Onchocerca armillata (Biju et al, 1997). The urine of indigenous cow is said to be having medicinal properties. The fermented urine was prepared as per traditional methods and the product thus obtained was subjected to anti microbial activity. Th animals are provided with clean drinking water always. Only locally available green grass was given during the period of urine collection to rule out the possibility of insecticides that may be present in straw. The cow is hand milked at 6 am and 6 pm. The quantity of green grass is restricted to approximately 5 kg, if straw is also given .Half the quantity of the total dung is used for biogas production and the rest is used directly as manure. The vermi compost is made in earthen container, with facility for collecting vermi wash. The compost thus obtained is used for making potting mixture along with sand and dung powder. The wash is properly diluted and used to sprinkle on vegetable plants. The milk is used to make curd, butter and paneer. Breeding History 1.
Date of birth.
22-11-2003
2.
Age at first heat.
Two years
3.
Date of first breeding.
22-04-2006
4.
Date of first conception.
22-04-2006
5.
Date of first calving.
26-01-2007
6.
Date of second breeding and conception.
08-09-2007
7.
Date of second calving.
14-06-2008
8.
Date of third breeding and conception.
30-11-2008
9.
Date of third calving.
03-09-2009
10.
Date of fourth breeding and conception.
12-04-2010
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Observations made 1. The cow has not developed any diseases till date. 2. The dung is voided at regular interval and is of uniform consistency. 3. The animal does not lie down in dung generally. 4. No reduction in milk yield till fifth month of gestation. 5. The fermented urine can prevent the growth of fungi or inhibit the growth of coliform bacteria in vitro. 6. The colostrum can be consumed as such. 7. No change in yield when fed on grass alone or grass and straw together. Conclusion A single Vechur cow is sufficient to meet the requirement of both milk and bio-gas fuel for a family consisting of about seven members. The dung obtained can be used for fertilizing an area of about 50 cents. References Biju, P; Madhavan Pillai, K; Vigil Anbiah, S; and Jacob Alexander (1997) Prevalence of Bovine Aortic Onchocercosis in Kerala. J.Vet. Anim.Sci 28(1), 66-68
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CAN KASARGOD COW BE AN IDEAL HOMESTEAD COW? AN EXPERIENCE Manmadhan Nair M. K., Muttath House, Periyappuram P. O., Ernakulam, Kerala Pin686667 Kasargod cows are seen in the Northern parts of Kerala state, mostly in Kasargod District. Studies conducted at the Veterinary College, Mannuthy showed that Kasargod cows had low milk yield, mostly less than one litre per day. So the questions raised from some quarters regarding the feasibility of considering the Kasargod cow as one which meets the milk requirements of an average family is justifiable. This prompted me to discuss my experience with you. I have been engaged in cattle rearing traditionally. From the 80’s onwards the crossbred cows are there in my house. I had been a Director Board member of the local milk society several times. In April 2009, I got a Kasargod cow named Radha from the Vechur Conservation Trust. I purchased her for getting dung and urine for ‘Zero Budget’ natural farming. At that time, I had a crossbred cow in my house for milk production. I would like to compare my Kasargod cow Radha with the crossbred cow in the following aspects. 1.Milk production The crossbreds had an average milk production of seven litres per day. Radha was in her second month of her third lactation when she was bought. She gave one litre milk in the morning and half a litre in the evening. When she became pregnant, milking was stopped in sixth month of pregnancy i.e . in January2010, at that time she was giving half a litre per day. On 31st March 2010, she gave birth to a female calf. She gave a peak yield of 1.5 litres in the morning and 0.5 litres in the evening. Now that yield has decreased. So the average production can be taken as 1.5 litres per day for this lactation. 2.Feeding a. Concentrates : Crossbred cows need an average of five Kg of pelleted cattle feed. In addition wheat bran and oil cakes were given (also purchased). Radha was given the leftovers of the house like the rice gruel, rice bran etc. no feed was purchased from outside. b.Roughages: Straw at the rate of 7-8 bails were given per day for the crossbreds whereas two bails were given to Radha.
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Grazing facility was available to both. Crossbred had a tendency for selective grazing which avoided coarse roughages while Radha was not choosy and ate all kinds of grass. Milking:The crossbred were milked by an expert milker at a monthly salary of Rs. 500.00 Radha was milked by my wife or me. 3.Diseases Crossbred cows had contracted various diseases like indigestion, skin diseases, diarrhea, and worm infestation and udder infections several times. No diseases were yet noted for Radha. 4.Cleanliness Crossbreds have semisolid dung and they have the habit of lying down in the dung, so daily washing and cleaning were essential. Radha: The dung is pellet like and she doesn’t lie down in the dung. So the body is clean, so washing done only once a week. 5.Calving interval For the crossbred the average calving interval was 15 months. Radha had a calving interval of 13 months. Inference Milk requirements of an average family could be met by a Kasargod cow like Radha. So my experience suggests that Kasargod cows can be reared for milk requirements also. I have sold my crossbred as I could meet my milk demands through Radha.
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THE CUTE LITTLE ‘KAMADHENU’ Sharmila Saraswathy K.G Paliakkara madom,Chittissery,Pudukkad,Thrissur
INTRODUCTION
‘Kamadhenu’, the Sanskrit word literally means, the Goddess who fulfills all our wishes. ‘Kamadhenu really means ‘the Adhimatha of cows’, ie, the cow mother, who is bestowed with special Godly powers. In India, ‘Kamadhenu’ is reverently worshipped as ‘Gomatha’, from time immemorial.’Kamadhenu’ also has 2 other names, they are ‘Surabhi ‘& ‘Nandhini’. In Amarasimhan’s ‘Amarakosha’, ‘Surabhi’ is also referred to as ‘Surabhirghavi’,which means the cow of God’s, whose milk formed the ‘Ksheerasagara’ or the ‘Palazhi’-‘The ocean of milk’,which is the abode of the ‘Lord Mahavishnu’ History of origin & heredity of the present day cowsA glimpse through the great epics According to Puranic Encyclopaedia : 1. Surabhi ,is the daughter of Kashyapa (grandson of Brahma & son of Marichi) and Krodhavasi (daughter of King Dhaksha). Surabhi gave birth to two daughters namely ‘Rohini’ and ‘Gandharvi’ .The progenies of Rohini are the present day cows on our earth.The progenies of ‘Gandharvi’ are the present day horses. This is stated in Valmiki Ramayana-Aranyakhandam-14th Sargham. 2. According to another view , it was a special boon given by Brahma- ‘The Creator which lead to the creation of a Goddess Surabhi ’. Brahma also blessed Goddess Surabhi that her progenies would be. worshipped by mankind always 3 In the light of MahaBaratha-Aadhiparvam-18 th chapter a) It is believed that ‘Goddess Kamadhenu’ originated from Palazhi, when it was curdled by the Gods & Demons’ (Devas & Asuras) b) Based on another belief, ‘Goddess Kamadhenu’ originated from Brahma’s face. 4. Devibhagavatham, Navanamaskandha (9th Chapter) says Goddess Kamadhenu originated form Lord SreeKrishna’s left side.’Gopooja’ or ‘Pasupooja’ on earth, was first conducted by the Lord Krishna himself 5. The word ‘ Pasu’ also means, the Embodiment of innocence
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6.
The bulls are the incarnation of God ‘Nandhi’ – The sacred vehicle of lord Shiva.
From all the above references we can conclude that our ‘Vechur cows’ are the real off springs of Goddess Kamdhenu.This becomes more obvious, when you compare the morphological features of Vechur Cow, with an ageold picture of Goddess Kamadhenu. Some similarities between Goddess Kamadhenu’s picture and Vechur Cow, that I have noticed are 1. The short stature . 2. Shape of horns 3. Prominent hump. 4. Length of tail.
So these tiny creatures created by God are really indigenous to our Land. VECHUR COW-MY AFFECTIONATE COMPANION The famous saying in English,’Small Things are Beautiful’ is quite apt for our cute little darlings the Vechur Cattle.Although they are so short & small in stature,they have a very big heart.It is my personal experience.I really cannot express it.These tiny herd are so affectionate. In this ultra modern world, we human beings, the highly intellectual, busiest creatures on Earth, have everything in immense except a lovable heart! . Although our brain has developed, our heart has become so shrunken. These days, parents do not find time to fondle their kids, huband and wife; do not get time even to talk with eachother. All these are some examples of the deterioration of relationships seen now- a- days. But contrary to this, when one gets acquainted with these Vechur Cattle, we can experience the great joy of real love & affection. That is what I have felt OUR INFATUATION TOWARDS VECHUR COWS The first infatuation towards the Vechur breed of cattle, for my husband, arose during the Vechur Cow Germplasm Transfer controversy. My husband, was then associated with the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishid. Gradually he developed a curiosity towards Vechur Cows, which made him to study more about them. Thus mere curiosity and infatuation , turned out into a flair and true love towards Vechur Cows, which made him rear this tiny breed.
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There were also some other factors, which made him buy and rear Vechur Cows. I may quote some of them:First of all, our compound which extends about one and a half acres of land , became almost infertile, due to lack of proper manuring. Secondly, for many of our sacred rituals we need milk, butter, ghee, curd, cowdung and cow’s urine ( Gomoothram) . These cow products are also used for making Panchagavyaan elixir for many ailments. It is also important for many religious purposes. For the above mentioned, the cow products should be good and hygienic. The milk and milk products that are purchased from outside are not at all up to the mark. The cow dung and cow urine which were also purchased from outside, generated a stink. Its loose composition made the compound filthy. So, fed up with all of these, my husband seriously thought of owning a Vechur Cow, whose milk and milk products, dung and urine – all possessed standard characteristics. In this context I have to specially mentioned, a very important feature that we have noticed. As ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’, so are Vechur Cattle, who are so clean. This feature of Vechur cattle, emphasizes their sanctity and pedigree. Later on, in the year 2005, a State Conference of the Kerala Government Veterinary Doctors’ Association, was held at Chalakudy, Thrissur. A livestock exhibition, was also held then. There, my husband happened to see, a Vechur Cow, which was kept as an exhibit. Then in the year 2006, on August 17th – Chingam 1st, the first day of the Malayalam Year, the first Vechur Cow came into our house. It was the same cow, which was kept as an exhibit, in the 2005 exhibition. This really was an , ‘Irony of fate’!. Later some new additions came and now we have about 3 cows and 2 calves. The charming behaviour of vechur cattle The Vechur breed of cattle, show a very high level of attachment and affection. They provide immense fun and frolic to us. We have noticed once that one of our cow gives milk, even to another cow’s calf. This is the extent of maternal love shown by Vechur breed. The Vechur bulls are so charming ,cute and playful. They are also well built and apt for tropical ploughing. Economic viability Vechur cattle are not so much viable economically, in a commercial materialistic aspect, but a milking Vechur cow is more than enough for a small familiy. Then it is also very economical. Although the quantity of the milk is less compared to other cross breeds, the milk quality of Vechur cow is very high. Many medicinal properties also have been attributed to the milk of
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Vechur cows. From an adult cow at peak time, we get about three litters of milk per day. Later on it becomes about 2 ½ - 2 litters per day. The feeding pattern of our Vechur cows mainly consists of grass, bran, straw etc. – all of these are from our own land. A little amount of artificial feed is also given to them. For an adult milking cow approximately, 200 gms of feed is given twice daily. This amounts to about Rs. 5 per day. CONCLUSIONAs human beings, it is our duty to protect and conserve these little lovely treasures on Earth. In this world of changing climate and eroding biodiversity,it’s really a great endeavourer done by the Vechur Conservation Trust,headed by Dr.Sosamma Iype.They have really come a hard way to protect and conserve this wonderful species. As’ Mother Theresa’ is to destitute here is Dr Sosamma for ourVechur darlings. Let us ,all stand together and join hands,to this great effort. All of us are really lucky, to be a part and parcel to this mission. So let us all join hands to protect and conserve Vechur cattle and Mother Earth. My special and humble request to all is that we should give special emphasis to protect and conserve the Vechur bulls.
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MY EXPERIENCE WITH SUSTAINABLE USE OF NATIVE BREED CATTLE S.Thomas Varangalakudiyil (H), Kizhakkambalam P.O., Ernakulam. INTRODUCTION My motivation for rearing Vechur cattle was not for a “financial” profit, but the high “value” I give to such animals. I also have native breed hens, dogs, etc at my home, and trying in my own ways to live “as native” as possible. I have seen people “appreciate” it in a Formal conversation but – in a more personal conversation I used to get below listed questions too. ♦ Why did you go for this “low yield” native breed, while the whole world is promoting “high yield” hybrid varieties ? ♦ Is it profitable to keep such a “low yield” breed now a days? I will try to answer these questions, from my understanding, belief and experience. Answering one will partially (or some-times fully) answer the other too. The first question is subjective, whereas the second one is more of an “objective” type question, but supporting data would make it more convincing. My little experience with farming and cattle I belong to a village near Thodupuzha, and we had cattle, goats, poultry etc (all native breeds) at home as part of our integrated farming system. In my school days, we bought a cow which was inseminated with (then new) “Swiss- brown” breed. We were all eager to see how a “swiss-brown” calf would look like, and the cow got a VIP care. It was at that time – there was an agricultural exhibition in the town, and the indo- swiss project had a stall there where a “swiss brown” bull was put for display. I too went to the exhibition, mainly to see how a swiss brown cattle loks like. I remember seeing the “giant” bull with a big steel ring on the nose and tied with large ropes etc.. There was two big fans blowing air (cooling the giant). I heard people talking there that at Mattupetty farm, these bulls are kept in “Air-conditioned rooms” . That made a bit worry - how will we keep our calf when it is bourn? Do we need Airconditioners ? or at-least some fans ? (we did not had fans even at home then ). When I asked my father about it, he said- what we will be having is “Indo-Swiss” hybrid variety – which will have high yield and large size inherited from the swiss breed, but can live in our environment and climate. Oh that was big relief! Finally, as we all wished, it was a female calf. The special “ear ring” put by the veterinary doctor (breed identity?) etc was all new surprises for us. It grew well with our “special
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care”, and in 1979 (I was in 10th then) – she had her first baby (second generation “swissbrown”) and we had up to her third generation calves. In 1981, I went out for studies, and there after working and staying in city type of places and so did not had much opportunities for farm activities. I completed one cycle of “roaming” from Shimoga through Bangalore, Calicut, Kochi, California and finally back to Kochi in 2005 (after about 25 years). When I was in California, I read about the “Vechur conservation” program initiated by Dr Sosamma and her team, and got very interested in getting a calf of such a native breed. That search ended last year when I got one set through the Vechur conservation trust (V91) cow “Seethamma” along with a young bull “Manikkuttan”. Seethamma, who was pregnant when we got, gave birth to “Manikyan alias Bamby” (name chosen by my daughters) in Sept 2009. Seethamma, manikkuttan and Bamby are very-much part of our life now. It is very satisfying to see my children enjoy taking care of them. When my relative’s and friend’s kids come home, they too enjoy playing with the calf. It is not just the emotional values, but these animals also add economical values too. We get the direct material benefits through Milk (we did not had to buy milk since Bamby was born), and excellent manure for our small farm (I don’t buy or use any fertilizers / other manure since Seethamma & Manikuttan arrived. Sustainability: The Title chosen for the seminar “Native Livestock Breeds and their Sustainable Use “ is very appropriate and relevant to our present day life style and society as a whole. A Google search for “sustainability” will lead us to a formal definition of it as follows: “Since the 1980s sustainability has been used more in the sense of human sustainability on planet Earth and this has resulted in the most widely quoted definition of sustainability and sustainable development, that of the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations on March 20, 1987: “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In my opinion the second part of the above definition (“without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”) itself is a compromise. I would re-define it (for me) as “protecting conserving all natural resources to ensure the ability of the future generations to meet their needs”. Today, we pollute and exploit our environment and nature around us, in the name of “meeting our “needs of the present”, we are in-fact compromising the ability of the future generations (ie our own children and grand children – not too far !) to meet their own needs.
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In our eco-system – Humans have the most dependency on the plants and other animals, and the humans (supposed to) have the most developed capability – the intelligence. The “creator” would have expected that humans will use his intelligence to realize this dependency and take the responsibility of protect the ecosystem for at-least his own sustenance. But we (may be the current generation mostly) have proven that creator was wrong. (there was a cartoon showing angels standing by side of the god and appreciating – while he creates the beautiful world with plants/ trees and animals etc. but at-last when god created man and woman, the angels looks each other with worry and wispers “for this creation he will regret for sure” – We are proving that the angels were right. The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into three constituent parts: economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and sociopolitical sustainability. From a practical point-of view – the economical one comes first even though the others are equally or more important from a long term value. The term “profit” can be interpreted from different perspectives – a general accepted one from a business perspective is pure financial gain – that too short- term (annual balance sheet for eg.). However, the industrialist and business community around the world have recognized the importance of “sustainable” profits and have various forums & bodies to promote the message of need for Sustainable developments and business growth. In this context, sustainable use of native breed cattle form each of this dimensions are worth assessing. Economic sustainability: To answer the “second” question (Is it profitable….?), let’s have a look at typical “Balance sheet”. These balance sheets from my individual experience and understanding – just for a quantitative assessment – not for an accurate auditing . typically, Balance sheet “Inputs” to the cattle are the “expenses” – which is mainly the Fodder and Feed. We use grass & hey from own farm/ paddy field, rise barn (“thavidu”), and extra items from kitchen like rice, snacks, fruit skins etc. as feed along with “Kanjivellam” (the water in which we cook rice) and “kaady” (the water in which we wash the rice) etc. We actually purchase only some “Ground-nut cake” as a supplementary feed. The (material) out-puts we get from thyem are: milk, cow dung and cow urine. We egt enough milk for our use. The cow dung and urine are used as manure in the field – directly and as “jeevamrutham” etc. (nothing is sold out).
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From a commercial perspective, there is lot of opportunities to do “value addition” to these products and get good revenue. With the special qualities and medicinal values of the milk of Vechur cow, it can be easily sold at a premium price for domestic use as well as medicinal use. It is a well known fact today that the urine of native breed cow have special medicinal value and can be converted into a major revenue generating item, through proper processing. (Distilled and specially filtered urine of native breed cow is sold for up to Rs 120+ per litre). “Jeevamritham”, made from cow dung and urine of native breed cows) is a nature friendly, value added manure, with good market potential. Three cases, with different levels of commercial value addition to the outputs, are considered and corresponding estimates are shown in the balance sheets below. Note: 1: “normalized average yield per day” – I got about 3.5 L of milk from the cow, during early lactation stage, and about 2+ L even now. So an average of 2.5 Litre is taken. Considering 25% non lactation period further reduction of 25% done to normalize average yield per day – to 1.9L /day. Rate of milk: If I buy milk, I have to pay Rs 23 per litre. If I compare the “utility factor” of 2 liters of milk I buy and what I get from our cow – I can very well put more than Rs 30 Per litre for the milk “seethamma” gives. But to be on a moderate estimate- I have accounted only Rs. 25 / L here in case 1. However, if done on a commercial sense, it is definitely possible to get more yield and premium price for the milk as shown in Case 3. For manure also – I have just taken a minimum estimate (almost what I used to spend to buy cow dung and such manure earlier). This also – in reality will be more than what I have accounted in case 1. 1) Actual data from my accounts Receipts Item
Milk
Qty/ day Normalised Avg (Ltr or KG) 1.9
Manure 10
Expenses Rate Total Item (Rs) (Rs/Yr)
25
17,190
Grass/ Hay
5
18,250
GN Cake
Misc exp Total
35,440
Net (profit)
27,140
Qty (Kg) Rate (Rs) Total
0.8
25
7,300 1,000 8,300
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2) Balance sheet with simple value addition Receipts
Expenses
Item
Qty/day
Rate (Rs)
Total (Rs.Yr)
Milk
1.9
25
17,190
Grass/Hay 15
Cow Dung 7
5
12,775
GN Cake
Cow Urine 7
10
25,550
Misc exp
Total
55,515
Net (profit)
29,527
Item
(Rs) Rate Qty (Kg) (Rs) 2.50
0.8 25
Total (Rs.Yr) 13,688 7,300 2,000 25,988
1) Balance sheet with more value addition Receipts
Expenses
Item
Qty/day
Rate (Rs)
Total (Rs.Yr)
Milk
2.3
35
28,744
Grass/Hay 20
2.50
18,250
Cow Dung 7
12
30,660
GN Cake
25
9,125
Cow Urine 7
10
25,550
Misc exp
Total
89,954
Net (profit)
Item
Qty (Rs) Rate (Kg) (Rs)
1
Total (Rs.Yr)
10,000 37,375
52,579
With this data, I can confidently answer to the second question – that keeping a native breed cow is not only just “financially” profitable but can be made as sustainable profit.
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Social value & sustainability Home is our first level micro-society. I see lot of social values in having the cattle at home. When my children takes care of these cattle (feeding them, playing with them etc.) they get a very good experience and exposure. In addition to the entertainment, they also experience and appreciate the inter -dependency with nature etc. I am sure this helps them to be a more responsible and caring individuals. I give lot of value for it. My relatives and friends and their children also enjoy seeing and playing with the cattle, whenever they get an opportunity, and I am glad if our efforts adding value to them also. I will add one such incident here. Similar to the attachment we feel towards the cattle, they too have attachments back to us. I have observed that the native breed cattle have much more emotional “attachment” among themselves as well as to human beings – especially to the ones takes care of them. In fact at my home, it is my wife who takes care of them most of the time. Even if she call them from within the house, We can see that they raise their ears and starting looking , tracing the voice. We can clearly recognize them acknowledging our interactions. Environmental sustainability: Now a days, the environmental value of the native breed cattle and its dung/ manure etc are very well known and recognized. After started using the manure from our cattle directly as well as in the form of “jeevamrutham” I can clearly see the increase in “life” in the soil - lot of earthworms etc. This I am sure meets more than the second responsibility mentioned in the definition of sustainability “ without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” By making the soil naturally rich and lively, and retaining it , for sure, will enable the future generation to meet their own needs from this soil. I believe that the profit and loss is not only to be seen from the economical perspective, but also from the social as well as environmental perspective. (to be truly sustainable) As shown in the graph above, my experience makes me to strongly believe that the native breed cattle can be very effectively used for sustainable profits in all three aspects, and that is my answer to the first question. It is a “Win – Win – Win”scenario
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Profit (Gain)
Economical
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Social
Environmental
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Loss
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DOMESTIC ANIMAL DIVERSITY CONSERVATION AND LIVESTOCK KEEPERS RIGHTS Sosamma Iype , Jayan K.C & Joby George Vechur Conservation Trust, A-37, Indira Nagar Street - 2, Mannuthy Thrissur, Kerala. It is a well known fact that the livestock keepers are the ones who have developed different breeds of domestic animals and birds. Breeds were developed for a variety of traits and production environments, resulting in the development of over 6000 breeds of livestock (CBD 2001). FAO (2005), recorded over 6900 breeds in 35 species from 180 countries and over 700 are already extinct. 1. Who are livestock keepers? They are Creators of breeds and custodians of Animal Genetic Resources .Interlaken conference on Animal Genetic Resources (2007) as well as Global plan of action for Animal genetic resources have recognized this role of livestock keepers i.e. local farmers, pastoralists and animal breeders all over the world. Indigenous livestock keepers include all communities which have cultural association with their livestock and have developed their breed in association with a specific territory or landscape. Ecological livestock keepers are those who sustain their animals and the environment, where these animals live relying largely on natural vegetation or homegrown fodder and crop byproducts.70% of the poor in the world keep livestock. 640 million subsistence farmers keep livestock. 190 million Pastoralists and Agro Pastoralists depend on livestock. They have been maintaining their animal breeds for hundreds of years In spite of hardships the breeds are conserved by livestock keepers in different parts of the world especially the developing countries. The extensive production system, the harsh climate where other breeds cannot survive, the ceremonial importance, beliefs, religious reasons are all probably the reasons. Some do not have any other livelihood esp. in areas where even agriculture is not possible. Ada Ram Raika of Rajasthan was telling that his wife complains that he looks after the Camels properly, but not the family. His response was: with the meager income how can I do justice to the family. It is a sharp question to the society. Lingappa a marginal farmer of Karnataka and his five member family follow the migratory system. They look after the livestock of many other farmers under community grazing and provides males for natural service. They maintain Amritamahal., Khillari and also sheep and goats. There are hundreds of others like them. They conserve the animal genetic resource.
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It is to be remembered that even the Military farms with all government sponsorship replaced the Indian Sahiwal, Red Sindhi and other breeds almost fully with Holstein crosses. But the Livestock keepers of the developing world do this great job (true they have no other option) for the whole world -the present and coming generations. We have to remember traditional breeds are collective property, Products of indigenous knowledge and Cultural expression 2. What is Domestic Animal Diversity? It is the genetic differences within each breed, and between breeds within species, and between species. It is seen that DAD in the respective countries contributes to improve human nutrition. Food security and economic returns. improved disease resistance; product diversity and income opportunities, maximizing effective use of resources and the environment and conserve ecosystem structure and other things. Domestic animal diversity has evolved as an outcome of relating animals in a different manner and accord them variable social status and ceremonial roles. 3. Who conserves the breeds all over the world? It is the livestock keepers who conserve the animal genetic resources all over the world. Scientists define a particular group as breed, recognize specific breeds. Others are all nondescript because they are not described by the scientists and approved by the concerned agency. The livestock keepers majority of them poor and or illiterate have their own animal varieties apart from the defined breeds. Eg. scientists consider that India’s donkey population as one group, but local donkey experts have identified at least three distinct types of donkeys belonging to three different areas — making them, probably three breeds or at least three strains. Similarly, pastoralists had long known a camel breed from India with high milkproduction potential before it was reported scientifically for the first time (Köhler-Rollefson and Rathore 1995). Stock raisers evaluate breeds different. It is not the production potential alone but, ‘feed and system efficiency is of greater relevance to farmers who raise animals under severe harsh environment. In addition, many breeds are appreciated for characteristics that have little to do with productivity, such as ritual significance, social role and aesthetic aspects.’ Traditional breeds are the collective property, products of indigenous knowledge and cultural expression. 4. Why diversity decreases? 4.1. Technological advance Technical innovations in transport, communication and reproduction facilitate the use of few breeds on a world-wide basis and their representation in the livestock population is increasing The development of high-performing livestock and poultry breeds has greatly
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contributed to the increase of food production in temperate regions .Since the mid-twentieth century, a few high-performance breeds, usually of European descent – like Holstein-Friesian and Jersey cattle; Large White, Duroc and Landrace pigs, Saanen goats, and Rhode Island Red and Leghorn chickens have caused the narrowing of genetic diversity in the temperate areas. They have replaced the other existing breeds. They also have literally invaded most part of the world, and is a threat to traditional breeds. 4.2. Governmental policies and programmes in developing countries. In developed countries Breed associations (eg.Jersey, Holstein) wherever existed had strong view points and decisions about their animals and their breeding and selection. The imports of exotic germplasm are subsidized or sponsored by development programs. The indiscriminate export of exotic animals to tropical countries has not been generally succesful.FAO has noted this with regret. The animals cannot stand the heat, they need optimal inputs and more easily develop diseases. Crossbreeding projects were also not successful. The Indo Swiss projects in Hyderabad, Rajasthan and, Kerala have not yielded expected results. Many other crossbreeding projects were replaced by genetic improvement of Indigenous breeds. Local breeds are disappearing in Vietnam, the percentage of indigenous sows declined from 72 percent of the total population in 1994 to 26 percent in 2002. In Kenya, introduction of the Dorper sheep has caused the almost complete disappearance of pure-bred Red Maasai sheep. In other places like India, trend is the same. Kerala witnessed the near extinction of local animals. Vechur cow being the best example. Lack of good breeding programmes for the native animals and over expectation about crossbreeding with exotic breeds was a faulty step. Rightly David Steane stated “Unfortunately governments (being made up of politicians) are interested only in quick solutions rather than sustainable systems. This attitude is supported by the ‘developed’ world which is happy to provide such ‘solutions’ without proper regard to the whole story and or the consequences. But the necessity for the valuable genes as an insurance policy for the future is to be borne in mind. Australia has utilized the Tuli and Boran cattle from Zimbabwe and Zambia to improve its Friesian stock in regards to fertility, docility and environmental stress resistance. The threatened N’dama cattle were used to create a new hardy, disease resistant breed called Senapol that is now raised in the southern US. Sahiwal, Ongol and other breeds are used in many parts of the world in the pure form as well as in developing new breeds. 4.3. Economic and market driven threats are among the major threats to the preservation of biodiversity The demand for milk, meat and eggs is now much more than for other livestock products and services as such as hair, wool, animal traction and transport In
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the competition camels, donkeys, horses, buffalo, elephants, llama’s, yak, wool sheep, etc are loosing . Gradually nomads and farmers replace traditional species and breeds by species and breeds that have a greater productivity and therefore higher economic value in the short term. For example in India, during the early 50’s draft animal power was more important and as such native breeds with better draft capacity were preferred. Families had large land holdings and AnGR were managed mostly under extensive production systems. 4.4 Climate change has caused populations decrease or vanish. 5. How can domestic animal biodiversity be saved? 5.1 Evaluation of economic values of indigenous animals Total economic values of indigenous breeds (i.e. beyond just meat and milk production, but also including manure, traction, finance and insurance functions, socio-cultural values and future option values - e.g. for confronting future climate change and new diseases, etc.) 5.2. Improved marketing and value-addition to the products of local livestock breeds has been identified as a means of supporting local livelihoods and the conservation/ sustainable management of livestock biodiversity. A bright example of improved marketing being a powerful tool in conservation is that of the camels in Rajasthan. the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development (LPP) helped the pastoralists to get more money from value added milk products like ice cream (Desert dessert) which fetched the camel owners more money leading to increase in the number of camels. Products from local breeds and “minor” species are still available. Niche products are products with specific qualities sold for a price higher than comparable goods that do not have the specific qualities. Examples: camel milk, Vechur cow milk, Cashmere wool, Karoo lamb. Many local products in India are still delicacies. And these are to be promoted. 5.3. Effective support to the Livestock keepers of the endangered breeds to multiply and maintain herds at low risk level. Some are less productive, many breeds at risk of extinction have unique characteristics, such as disease resistance or tolerance to climatic extremes, and These are to be saved for future as insurance. emerging animal diseases and rising demand for specific livestock products,” 5.4 Participatory approach. The livestock keepers are to be equal partners in conservation. They should have protection from exploitation by big corporates 6. Livestock keepers’ rights 6.1. Breed the breeds they maintain and make breeding decision 5.2. Participation in policy formulation and implementation
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6.3.Have right to appropriate training and capacity building and equal access to relevant services enabling and supporting them to raise livestock and to better process Access to relevant services enabling and supporting them to raise livestock and to better process and market their product 6.4.Participation in identification of research needs and designs with respect to genetic resources as is mandated by principle of prior Informed Consent 6.5. Effective access for information on issues related to local breeds and diversity But when we examine the scenario of animal genetic resources of the livestock keepers it has been very depressing. Till recently they were not able to exercise any of these rights .Decisions were thrust on them. Now FAO and other organizations are heading towards recognition and legalization of livestock keepers rights. Some of the land mark outputs were from Sadri declaration 2000 Rajasthan, India Forum for food sovereignty -2002 Rome-Italy Karen Commitment 2003 Karen, Kenya Bellagio Brief 2006 Bellagioo-Italy Workshop in Addis Ababa Ethiopia 2007 Livestock keepers rights currently correspond to development of principles that would help livestock keepers continue conserve biodiversity. 7. Conclusion In this global warming period, changing market trend and unilateral breeding policy, technology changes, communication acceleration the chance of narrowing of biodiversity is all-time high. While the Livestock keepers have all their rights and be able to exercise them, and there is enough support, there is hope for conserving domestic animal biodiversity for this generation and the generations to come. As the FAO acknowledges, the sustainable management of AnGR is only feasible with the active participation of farmers and pastoralists. “The most rational and sustainable way to conserve animal genetic resources is to ensure that locally adapted breeds remain a functional part of production systems� (FAO, 1999). The conception of animals as commodity producing machines and ignoring other vital traits has been a villain in genetic resource erosion. 8. Summary Livestock keepers are creators and custodians of breed .They are the stewards of domestic animal genetic resources..Traditional breeds are collective property, Products of
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indigenous knowledge and Cultural expression. Biodiversity is narrowing due to changing trends in agricultural land use, priorities about the production traits, cultural, religious and social changes, marketing trends, Governmental policies , technology development including transport and communication. But most of the available biodiversity is in the developing countries like India and Africa. The rights of the livestock keepers -the custodians of the rich animal genetic resources- are to be legalized. FAO and other organizations are working in this direction. The main rights of livestock keepers are five and are on breeding and making breeding decision, participation in policy formulation and implementation, right to appropriate training and capacity building and equal access to services,participation in identification of research needs and access for information References: Sosamma Iype ,Jayan K.C 2009 Role of livestock keepers in domestic animal resource conservation. Compendium of papers of National symposium of the Society of Animal genetics and breeding Ilse Kohler –Rollefson and lifenetwork 2007 Keepers of genes pulished by Life Network Life Network 2008 Herders care for Diversity Vechur Conservation Trust 2010 booklet “Aadumadu valarthukaarude avakasha prakhyapanam”(a translated version of the booklet “Rights of livestock keepers” Kabir Bavikatte,Harry Jonas,Ilse Kohler –Rollefson 2009 Biocultural community protocols UNEP publication)
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VALUE ADDITION OF GAVYA Y.V .Krishnamoorthy Shreeramachandrapura math, Haniya-577418,Hosanagara,Shimoga,Karnataka
Cow rearing is a age old life style in India. Every farming house was having a herd of native cows. From morning to evening, all farming activities were dependent on cows or bullocks. Cows give highly nutritive, natural food in the form of Milk. Milk by products were prepared to feed the family and for medicinal purpose also. Dung is mixed with the available greens or dry leaves to make compost manure. Urine is used as pest repellent in the field. In the course of time, the farming procedures changed, chemical fertilizers were used in heavy quantity, mechanized farming kept bullocks away from field. Milk is available in the open market. Total cow rearing scenario changed to milk based economy called dairying. Exotic breeds were introduced without time testing, but only to increase the milk output. The side effects of chemical, mechanized farming is coming to lime light in these days as increased diseases, decreased resistance power, increased environmental hazards etc. More and more farmers are turning back to natural farming through cow based agriculture. Maintaining native cows is becoming unavoidable to continue agriculture. The grazing land has diminished considerably or in some areas there is no grazing land at all. The time has come to shift over to cow based agriculture or organic farming. For the organic farming Indigenous cows and their products are essential. As the grazing land is very less, maintenance is becoming costly. Every farmer is looking for returns from cows through other sources. Value addition of milk, milk products, urine and dung are necessary to support the farmer. Some efforts done in this li Indigenous cow’s economy in Indian perspective is different from the exotic economy thinking. It is as follows — 1] agriculture – manure Pest repellent Bullock ploughing 2] Bullock power – bullock cart Oil extraction 3] Sale of bullocks ne and some more new ideas are discussed here 4] Panchagavya medicines 5] Milk and milk products In recent years Gobar gas is used extensively as fuel for cooking. Panchagavya products are the new source of income in recent years. Milk, Curd, Ghee, Urine and Dung are called Pancha Gavya . It is possible to manufacture more than
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100 products from this Panchagavya. It is to be noted that only Indigenous cows Pancha gavya can be used as medicine. Tooth cleaning powder, Shampoo for bath, Scrubber for bath, Hair toner, Dhoopa sticks to purify atmosphere, Ointments for cracked heals/for skin diseases, Pain oils, Head ache balms, Floor cleaning lotions, Dried dung cakes for Havan/Agnihotra, etc products are for general uses. Distilled Goumutra , Panchagavya Gritha, Eye drops, Ear drops, tablets, ointments, tailas etc are for medicinal purposes. A small farmer having 5-10 cows can manufacture all above products in his house itself. If a cooperative setup is formulated, collective marketing can be done. This cooperative network will help the farmer as he cannot market all the above products by himself. A cooperative Gobar gas plant is also a new trend. By using 2000kgs of cow dung, 15 KV electric power for 10-12 hours can be produced. A village having 800- 1000 cows can construct this plant. Electricity Produced power can be distributed to the farmers again. Here 2 examples are given to put the truth behind this idea. 1] A Goushala having 30-40 Kasaragod cows at Perla is producing Panchagavya products. Last year’s account says that there is Rs 5000.00 income from sale of Milk. At the same year, income from sale of Panchagavya products is Rs 2, 80,000. Monthly expense is around Rs 25,000. That is to say, that expense is met by Panchagavya products. 2] Basavaraj , a farmer from Arasikere Karnataka is having 5.5 acres of land. He is producing all essential cereals, grains and vegetables in his farm. He is maintaining 12 cows and 6 caves of Hallikar breed. He is purchasing nothing from shop to feed these cows. All the left over from his agriculture is fed to cows. The cows are very healthy. He is not selling milk. All dung and urine is used as different type of manure to agriculture. In his opinion, the organic, best products from his field itself are the profit. Zero input for cows and maximum output from agriculture is the positive economy which is to be noted by every farmer. Small breeds like Vechur or Kasaragod are suitable for Zero budget farming. Indigenous cows are not milk producing machines , which is expected by almost everyone due to the exotic economy thinking. Exotic and Cross breed cow rearing is going to back seat because most of farmers are facing the unending problems of exotic blood. The milk dependent economy is failing in all states. In this crucial moments, a rethinking about cow rearing, cow based agriculture is very much necessary to help the farmers. Value addition of Panchagavya through better manure management , production of daily usage products and production of medicines can help the economy of farmer and thereby economy of nation also. Training in Panchagavya products can be taken from Shree Ramachandra pura Matha.
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VECHUR COW- OUR FAMILY’S FOOD SECURITY. Kochurani Joseph and Jimmy George Puthenpurackal, Ettumanoor. It was about eight years back, while we moved to our new house in Ettumanoor, that we thought of having a cow at home for our everyday need of milk. We came to know about the Vechur cow from an article in a daily. Now we have three Vechur cows and two female calves. To say about our experiences as a Vechur cow farmer, we can put everything in one line. ‘It is a good experience worth every moment you spend for it’. Our two children grew up with them since last eight years. A pet can do wonders in the physical and mental growth of children. Our Vechur cows are the best pets our children have. Above all, thanks to their ‘cure-all’ milk, visits to the pediatrician are a rare. The milk from the Vechur cow is rich and tasty. Usually it is difficult to feed children with milk, but our children enjoy drinking it. We, the grownups too prefer to drink the milk as it is. The taste is so good that we prefer plain milk rather than using it for tea or coffee. Our younger child, who is nine year old, wants curd for all his meals. But the funny thing is, that he doesn’t take curd at all when he eats from outside. The elder one, who is a fifteen year old, when has to stay in the school hostel, is nostalgic about the milk at home. We can vouch for sure, that the milk from the Vechur cow is especially healthy. Our family’s health security is rested entirely on wonderful milk from the Vechur cow. Another thing we have noticed is that these animals, have their own individuality. Each of our cows are different, in their nature, in the way they respond, in the way they look at us, in the manner they do things. For an example, the eldest cow we have, we call her ‘Karambi’, is a born mother. Each and every calf born in our house, goes to sleep with her every night. The calves go to their own mother only to drink milk and prefer to spend the rest of the time with the foster mother ‘Karambi’. When we started rearing the cow breeding was a problem ,but it was our luck that the Vechur Conservation Trust started a germplasm centre in our neighbourhood.This has helped us to do purebreeding and have original Vechur calves.Our children when they go to the bull station of the Trust they say they recognize the fathers of our calves and they happily pronounce that to their friends. Now, the economy part of rearing a Vechur cow. The milk production is low per animal compared to other cows. But considering the low expense for feeding, it is as economical as that of rearing any cow. Unlike the larger breed of cows, which give us milk
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only in proportion to the amount of pellets we feed, Vechur cow can live on the vegetation from everyone’s back yard. We have a domestic bio gas plant. Earlier, one LPG cylinder used to last average 25 days. But with the bio gas supplement, we change the cylinder only once in six months. The daily cooking for all four of us, one helper woman and a Rottweiler dog is done easily with bio gas supplementing to LPG. The slurry from the plant is used for cultivation. We have not used a drop of chemical fertilizer or pesticide since last eight years, for our forty odd nutmeg plats in our land of half a hectare. We also have a variety of mango trees, avocados, guavas, passion fruit and other fruit trees all getting fed by the slurry from the plant. While planning for the bio gas plant, instead of the conventional inlet of the plant where we manually mix the cow dung with water in a chamber, we made the inlet right from the cow shed. Here we do not need to mix the dung. All the water from the cow shed along with the cow dung is naturally fed to the plant. The result is that each and every drop of cow’s urine, the dung, the waste water from bathing the cow, washing the cowshed floor, all go the plant directly. The result is a very hygienic cow shed and a manure rich in cow dung as well as urine. The Vechur cow can be one of the solutions for self sufficiency in milk in our society. Milk market is a place where we see many forms of adulteration. We are taking a chance every time when we buy milk for our children from the market. Every small household can accommodate a Vechur cow and it will suffice the need for milk for that family and the immediate neighbor. Most of the guests, who visit our family, end up asking us one Vechur cow or calf. Most of our neighbors ask us if we can lend them one. Even some strangers simply ask us if we can spare one while the see these cute beauties. Collective efforts should be made so that these special animal spread among our households. This wonderful, tiny, cute animal should become a part of every neighborhood.
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TOWARDS A PASTORAL POLICY: FOR PROTECTION OF PASTORALISTS RIGHTS & FOR CONSERVATION OF LOCAL ANIMAL BREEDS
Vivekanandan P. Seva, 45. TPM Nagar, Virattipathu, Maduari, Tamil Nadu - 625010
Role of Pastoral Communities in India Pastoralists are people who predominantly depend upon livestock keeping for their livelihood and graze their animals on common property resources. Pastoralists are often nomadic or transhumant, but they can also be settled, depending on the ecological conditions. Pastoralists often believe that they are looking after animals out of a God given duty (Raika caste was created by Lord Shiva to look after camels; Yadhavas and Gujjars are regarded as descendants of Lord Krishna to take care of cattle ; the life of the Toda tribe is unimaginable without the daily rituals associated with the buffalo they are rearing). In pastoralist cultures animals are regarded as co-creatures and there is a spiritual relationship with them which is a far cry from the western concept of regarding animals merely as a means of production. India’s indigenous pastoral communities, such as Raika and Gujjar in Rajasthan, Maldhari in Gujarat, Gaddi in Himachal, Van Gujjar in Uttaranchal, Konar of Tamil Nadu, are guardians of native animal breeds (camels, Kankrej cattle, Gir cattle, Nari cattle, Malaimadu cattle, Neeli Ravi buffalo, Kachakatti black sheep, Pulikkulam cattle, Toda buffalo, etc). Over generations, they have been nurturing these breeds that can cope with difficult environmental conditions, harbour disease resistance, and retain reproductive vigour–traits that are no longer present in high performance or exotic breeds. These communities use indigenous knowledge in animal breeding, adopt seasonal and spatial grazing system that are holistic, complementary to forest ecology, and symbiotic with agro-ecosystems. They benefit farmers by supplying organic manure (through penning), plough bullocks or means of local transport of agricultural produce. Animals control excess growth of grasses which prevents the spread of forest fire .Gradually evidence is also accumulating that pastoral livestock is linked to the conservation of wild animals species. Often there is a long history of coevolution between wild species and livestock and eviction of livestock from wild life reserves may lead to exodus of predator species or result in changes to the habitat and make it unattractive for wild life. Are Domestic Incompatible with Wild Life Conservation? Once again, the breeds stewarded by pastoralists represent biological diversity just as the tiger does. But this domestic biodiversity is seen as an enemy or antagonistic to wildlife
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conservation by many environmentalists, although the animals kept by pastoralists retain many of the characteristics of their wild progenitors. Ecological research in the Sahara about the effects of camel feeding on desert vegetation demonstrated that grazing by this species actually stimulates plant growth. In the US, there is recognition that predator species such as the wolf depend on livestock as prey and there is a move to compensate pastoralists for livestock they loose. The survival of pastoralism is crucial for sustainable land use. Besides conserving domestic biodiversity, it is a means of producing food in dry lands without depleting groundwater resources – which is maybe the most important aspect to consider in such a state as Rajasthan. A report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an UN agency, entitled “Pastoralism in the new millennium” concludes that the politically popular development of range lands by mining fossil water is not a long-term development strategy and that this land may eventually be reclaimed by pastoralists. Reduction of Population of Native Animal Breeds According to the FAO, one-third of the world’s livestock breeds are endangered. Search is underway for legal frameworks that create an appropriate context for the sustainable use of animal genetic resources. Livestock breeds are linked to cultural diversity, and there is often a link between ethnic or social groups and specific breeds. For livestock (unlike plants), only in situ conservation (in the original production context) achieves all conservation goals. There is a consensus that ex situ conservation should be used only as a backup. In India, one of the main factors for the reduction in animal breeds is the fact that forests are being closed due to declaration as wildlife sanctuaries or national parks or the implementation of Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme. Together with the conversion of common property resources for other development purpose, this puts pressure on pastoralists and jeopardizes their traditional life style. As pastoralists are unable to sustain their animals without access to common property resources they are forced to dispose of them to slaughter houses. Thousands of female camels are sold for slaughter each year and one of the reasons is the grazing problems created after the declaration of Kumbhalgarh Sanctuary in Rajasthan; In Tamil Nadu, Malaimadu / Pulikkulam cattle owners are disposing of thousands of cattle every year because of harassment of livestock keepers due to Joint Forest Management programme implemented adjoining to Srivilliputhur Squirrel Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu state. In Virudhunagar District of Tamil Nadu state, an individual traditional cattle herder has to spend a minimum of Rs.5,000 to 10,000 annually to sustain their traditional profession through paying penalties, bribery, detention in custody, court cases implicated by Forest Department. Such harassment discourages the herders from, their customary life style and they end up as unskilled laborer or wage earner or migrant in cities.
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The following points highlight the alarming scale of reduction of native animal breeds and species: · The population of Malaimadu cattle (undocumented breed) has come down to 55,000 from the original population of 3,00,000 between 1989 and 2004 because of declaration of Srivilliputhur Squirrel sanctuary and Tamil Nadu Afforestation Programme (TAP) /JFM . · The population of camels in Rajasthan reduced by 25% between 1997 and 2003, according to government figures, although a survey conducted by an NGO suggests even more drastic decline. The Kumbhalgarh Sanctuary in Rajasthan, which represents a traditional summer grazing ground is a major causal factor. · The population of Pulikkulam cattle has diminished to 40,000 because of declaration of Srivilliputhur Squirrel sanctuary and Tamil Nadu Afforestation Programme (TAP) / JFM. · The population of Neeli Ravi buffalo has drastically diminished to 11,000 because of forceful evacuation of Van Gujjars (buffalo pastoralists) from the proposed Rajaji National Park in Uttaranchal. · The population of Toda buffalo has declined to 1,500 because of Mukurti National Park in Ooty and encroachment of grazing land by promotion of eucalyptus plantation in the original grazing land by forest department in 30,000 ha . · The population of Kachakatti black sheep has come down from many thousands to 1400 because many herders disposed of sheep due to denial of grazing permit in Vaguthumalai forest in Madurai district upon tree plantation programme undertaken by the Forest Department under Tamil Nadu Afforestation Programme (TAP) / JFM since 1998. · The population of Umbalachery cattle has been reduced considerably because of encroachment on revenue grazing land, animal drinking water ponds in coastal wetland tracts in Nagapattinam, Thanjavur districts of Tamil Nadu. Problems Faced by the Pastoral Communities The problems faced by indigenous pastoral communities / herders are summarized below: 1 Grazing permits are denied in traditional grazing sites that have been converted into protected areas/wildlife sanctuaries, national parks / Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme 2 Original pasture lands or stipulated animal drinking water ponds are encroached or converted in to other purpose. Bio diesel (Jatropha) planting is being promoted by state agencies without seeing the consequences. Migration route of animals are blocked or herd-passing pathways are encroached. 3 Exclusion of pastoralists from forestry programs such as Joint Forest Management and Biodiversity Conservation. Long-standing customary rights or Zamindari given grazing tenure are ignored in the ambition of greening or introducing wilderness concept borrowed
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from west without considering our rich spiritual knowledge and cultural traditions which comprise all forms of life and accommodate a holistic conservation of biodiversity. Forests are closed completely for tree planting and rotational grazing systems are not adhered to for providing alternative grazing sites through participatory processes. Once forests are closed for planting, they are not reopened for animal grazing even after the stipulated period of 5-7 years has passed. 4. Bribing is common at the field level for allowing the animals to enter into the protected areas for grazing purpose. Those who are not bribing to lower level forest officials, are harassed and have penalties imposed upon them; false cases are booked against pastoral communities by implicating them in hunting, putting fire to the forests and man handling with officials etc leading to court cases and agonies. Because of these factors, pastoral communities are unable to continue their life style, leading to a reduction in our domestic animal breeds and the loss of the indigenous knowledge that sustained them. Under such circumstances, pastoralists are forced to sell cattle and camels to slaughter houses. This matter has been brought to the notice of the Government at state and central levels, but there is no genuine enquiry on this issue. Legal Frameworks for Pastoral Rights Pastoralists are conservers of domestic animal biodiversity and their way of life contributes to the ecology and economy of our nation. There is a strong need to recognize their role in conservation. Instead of marginalizing pastoralists and stigmatizing them as destroyers of forests, they should be integrated in forest management programmes in a holistic manner and their knowledge in natural resource management should be made use of. India is obliged to this in the context of both national legislation and international agreements that it has signed. Biological Diversity Act - 2002 stipulates “conservation, sustainable use of biological diversity including in-situ conservation of breeds of domestic animals under their surrounding natural habitat� (Section 36 & 41) where the breed has been evolved or maintained by communities. This calls for recognizing the role of pastoralists or indigenous livestock keeping communities who conserve native breeds by using indigenous knowledge in livestock breeding. As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, India has committed itself to respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. India also recognizes the Right To Food in the context of national food security and therefore should adhere to the voluntary guideline 8d: Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture which stipulates that States, taking into account the importance of biodiversity and
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consistent with their obligations under relevant international agreements should consider specific national policies, legal instruments and supporting mechanisms to prevent the erosion of and ensure the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources for food and agriculture including, as appropriate, for the protection of relevant traditional knowledge and equitable participation in sharing benefits arising from the use of these resources, and by encouraging, as appropriate the participation of local and indigenous communities and farmers in making national decisions on matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources for food and agriculture. As a member of The Durban Action Plan (2004) – which is outcome of Vth IUCN World Parks Congress (September 2003) our country has the mandate of “securing the rights of indigenous peoples, including mobile indigenous peoples, and local communities in relation to natural resources and biodiversity conservation “. National Farmers Policy 2007 approved by Govt. on 23 Nov. 2007 (section 6.2 insists grazing rights for pastoralists in forest areas, issuing of permanent grazing permit card ) The Scheduled Tribes and other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights ) Act, 2006 (chapter II d provides grazing rights for pastoralists in forests including protected forests / sanctuaries / national parks ) The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (sec. 36 and 41 insist for in-situ conservation ) FAO – Global Plan of Action (outcome of Interlaken Conference on Animal Genetic Resources held during Sep. 2007 ) recognizes the role of pastoralists for sustainable use, development and conservation of local livestock breeds. Therefore, Government of India is obliged to seriously consider recognizing and protecting the role of pastoralists / herders and for conferring the following rights which will support both livelihoods and community conservation of domestic animal biodiversity: 1. To restore traditional grazing rights and camping rights in forest areas including wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, and also those areas earmarked for grazing purpose in village common lands. 2. Formalizing entitlements (including issue of permanent grazing cards) for the traditional pastoralists / herders maintaining native animal breeds and who depend upon them for their livelihood for enabling their free access to notified or demarcated grazing sites and migration routes. 3. Whenever a tree planting programme is to be implemented, alternative grazing land and drinking water resources for animals should be allotted by concerned authorities. It should be made mandatory for the implementing agency before initiating afforestation to seek prior consent from forest dependant communities including
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4
5
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pastoralists. Rotational system of grazing should be encouraged instead of complete closing of forest zone for tree plantation purpose and it should be facilitated by participatory discussion with the livestock keeping communities. In-depth documentation, characterization of indigenous livestock breeds should be carried out to recognize and protect intellectual property rights of the local communities/ individuals conserving these local livestock breeds. Pastoralists should be involved in all local natural resource management programmes including village forest committee, community conservation approaches to address the fodder and drinking water requirements of their livestock. Common land assigned to forest departments and unutilized or encroached land should be retrieved and brought under the control of village level committees or grassroots institutions for pasture land development.
The above note has been prepared by P. Vivekanandan with additional inputs from Dr Ilse Kohler Rollefson and Indian Pastoralists Network members.
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RESOLUTIONS TAKEN AT THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NATIVE LIVESTOCK BREEDS AND THEIR SUSTAINABLE USE SPONSORED BY NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY AUTHORITY OF INDIA. HELD AT MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KOTTAYAM ON 27TH & 28TH, SEPTEMBER, 2010.
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The delegates of National Conference on ‘ Native Livestock Breeds and their Sustainable Use’ unanimously resolved the following: Resolved that introduction of exotic breeds/ breeds from other parts of India, to the home tracts of indigenous breeds of livestock should not be done by the state and central governments and also such actions should be discouraged. Resolved that necessary amendments to Livestock Improvement Act,1961 of Kerala Government should be made to protect the interests of livestock keepers of indigenous breeds(e.g. maintenance of purebred indigenous bull of his/her choice as in the case of other species) Resolved that for critical and endangered breeds of livestock, subsidy for rearing up to the age of sexual maturity in females may be given and free insurance cover may be ensured. Resolved that the Government may create avenues for marketing of indigenous breeds of livestock and their products. Resolved that inclusion of diversity of domestic animals, their conservation and sustainable use as a part of biodiversity education curriculum of school and college students. Resolved that the Veterinary of Council of India may make it mandatory to include conservation of indigenous breeds of livestock in the internship programme by including one week training in their conservation centres/home tract to sensitise the veterinary students and uphold the spirit of veterinary oath with regard to conservation. Resolved that in recognition of the contributions made by Vechur Conservation Trust in resurrecting a nearly lost Vechur breed of cattle ,the Trust should be made the nodal agency for conservation of native livestock breeds of Kerala State and the government should provide financial support to the Trust to continue and expand its conservation programmes.
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Resolved that breeds in Kerala which are not registered should be registered with the NBAGR. The Vechur Conservation Trust may initiate necessary steps in this regard. Resolved that the Trust should initiate action for the formation of Breed Societies and registration of animals. Resolved that the Government may legalize Livestock keeper’s rights as envisaged in the translated version released in the National conference. Resolved that the keepers of native animals should be recognized as keepers of genetic wealth of the nation and they should be given due recognition in terms awards and financial support by the govt.
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