ICAR-CIRB and ISBD jointly organized brainstorming workshop on ‘Use of cloned bull semen for breed improvement’
ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes in collaboration with Indian Society for Buffalo Development (ISBD) organized one day brainstorming workshop on ‘Use of cloned bull semen for breed improvement’ on 29th August, 2019 at NASC, New Delhi under the chairmanship of Dr. T. Mohapatra, Secretary DARE & Director General, ICAR, New Delhi.
Dr. S. S. Dahiya, Director, ICAR-CIRB, welcomed Dr. T. Mohapatra, Secretary DARE & DG, ICAR, other dignitaries invited from ASRB, NASF, DAHD, ICAR headquarter, ILRI, NDRI, NBAGR, IVRI and CIRB. He briefly introduced the purpose of the brainstorming on possibility of best utilization of cloned bull semen for breed improvement and how to fulfill the demand of frozen semen of superior buffalo bull in the country. Dr. T. Mohapatra inaugurated the session and addressed the galaxy of the scientists working with cloning technology and other dignitaries from sister department of animal science and biotechnology. In his opening remarks, he informed that ICAR scientists have brought the cloning technology from lab to land. They successfully cloned both males and females and their exhaustive studies shows normality of clones in terms of health, reproduction and production. He stressed on critical analysis of multiple clones of elite donors before disseminating the technology to the farmers to meet the growing need of the superior buffalo germplasm. Dr. A. K. Misra, Chairman, ASRB, stressed the potential of cloning technology for breed improvement. Dr. J. K. Jena, DDG (F & AS), ICAR, congratulated the cloning team and emphasized the need of superior bulls in the country to increase the artificial insemination coverage in the country.
Theme of the brainstorming session was presented by Dr. P. S. Yadav, Principal Scientist, ICAR-CIRB and he informed that joint efforts of ICAR-CIRB, Hisar and ICAR-NDRI, Karnal produced superior male bulls using cloning technology to meet the demand of buffalo semen for artificial insemination globally. Presently, both institutes have four cloned male bulls which are producing semen and their semen is being utilized for artificial insemination in the experimental herd and performing normal in all parameters of semen quality and conception and has resulted in the production of normal progenies.
There were two sessions on ‘Importance and current standing of cloning technology’ and ‘Strategy for making best use of elite cloned bull semen for breeding’ was thoroughly discussed in the house and advised to produced more cloned bulls from elite bull to meet out the huge demand of semen as well as breed improvement for high milk production that ultimately will help in increasing income of the farmers. Both sessions was moderated by cloning team members: Dr. P. S. Yadav, Dr Naresh L Selokar, Dr Dharmendra Kumar, Dr. R. K. Sharma, and Dr Pradeep Kumar from CIRB, Hisar and Dr. P. Palta, Dr. M. K. Singh from NDRI, Karnal.
More than 30 eminent scientists of the country was participated in this brainstorming workshop, including senior level experts like Dr. M. L. Madan, Dr. M. P. Yadav, Dr. R. R. B. Singh, Dr. Ashok Kumar, Dr. M. S. Chauhan, Dr. R. K. Sethi, Dr. Praveen Malik and several others.
