Sahiwal Cattle

Sahiwal Cattle Latest News

Recently, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research– Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly successfully produced indigenous Sahiwal cattle calves by using ultrasound-guided ovum pick-up, in vitro fertilization, and embryo transfer (OPU–IVF–ET).

About Sahiwal Cattle

• It is considered to be one of the best milch cattle breeds of India.
• The breed derives its name from Sahiwal area in Montgomery district of Punjab in Pakistan.
• Other Names: These animals are also known as “Lambi Bar”, “Lola”, “Montgomery”, “Multani” and “Teli”.
• Appearance

• • The cows are brownish red in colour; shades may vary from a mahogany red brown to more greyish red.
  • Extremities in bulls are darker than the rest of body colour. Occasionally there are white patches.
  • Average lactation yield of Sahiwal cows is 2325 kilo grams. The lactation yield ranges from 1600 to 2750 Kg.
• Characteristics: Its unique traits are, tick-resistant, heat tolerant, high milk production and noted for its high resistance to parasites, both internal and external
• Due to their heat tolerance and high milk production they have been exported to other Asian countries as well as Africa and the Caribbean. 

What is Ovum Pick-Up-In Vitro Fertilization (OPU-IVF) Technology?

• Ovum Pick-Up (OPU) is one of the recent and remarkable technologies in the field of reproductive biotechnology.
• It allows the collection of oocytes from the ovaries of live animals of known pedigree and additionally decreases the interval between generations.
• This procedure can be performed on pregnant animals less than 100 days in gestation.
• In OPU, ovarian follicles are punctured in a live animal with the help of a needle attached to a vacuum pump after visualizing them through ultrasonography.
• The oocytes obtained are then subjected to in vitro maturation (IVM), in vitro fertilization (IVF) and culture (IVC) for embryo production.
• The embryos thus produced can then be transferred to suitably synchronized recipients for producing offspring of known pedigree.

Source: DTE

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