The Ongole breed of cattle, which thrived in the fertile plains between the rivers Musi and Paleru in Prakasam district for centuries, had been on the verge of extinction in the land of its origin owing to various reasons, including farmers replacing the Ongole bull with tractors for agriculture.
However, better days are in the offing for the indigenous breed with State-owned Cattle Breeding Farm at Chadalawada stepping in to produce this breed of cattle using In-vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) technology. A pilot taken up by the farm under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission has paid off with a surrogate cow delivering a Ongole breed calf in the field level on September 12. Surrogacy calves had hitherto been bred mostly in labs.
‘’We have successfully taken the advanced reproductive technology to farmers for the first time for faster multiplication of the Ongole breed superior germplasm,” says deputy director of the farm B. Ravi. Showing the surrogate cow and the Ongole breed calf it delivered at Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Goshala at Bollapalli village near Martur, he told The Hindu, “So far, 10 veterinarians have been trained on IVF-ET, and we are getting positive results.”
Last year, a cow from an indigenous breed was implanted with Gir embryo using ET technology and it gave birth to a high-genetic value calf at the Chadalawada farm.
The animal husbandry department is planning to produce over 250 head of the Ongole breed cattle using the IVF-ET technology in the district this year. The technology enables production of calves with desirable genetic features in a short period of time and thereby help farmers increase milk production and leverage the demand for Ongole ‘A2 cow milk’ (A2 allele of Beta Casein), which fetches a premium price in the market owing to its purported health benefits.
Giving the chronology of IVF-ET initiative, he said an Ongole cow (D664) was subjected to oocytes aspiration through trans-vaginal ultrasound guided ovum-pick up at IVF-ET lab, Lam Farm. These oocytes, after maturation, were invitro fertilized with semen of an Ongole bull (O2299).
Following the in-vitro fertilization and in-vitro culture (IVC), embryos were frozen, preserved and transported to the field under controlled conditions. The surrogate cow of the goshala in its natural cycle (heat) was selected for embryo transfer. On November 21, 2022, the frozen Ongole embryo was transferred into the cow, which was confirmed pregnant 90 days post the embryo transfer.
The team of veterinarians involved in the process are: Dr. T. Sreemannarayana, VAS, APLDA (oocytes collection); Dr. N.R. Srikanth, scientist at Livestock Research Station (in-vitro embryo production); Dr. Madhavi Latha, VAS, Kolalapudi (recipient selection); Dr. M. Somasekhar, VAS, Chadalawada (embryo transfer).
Notably, Brazil has already taken steps to preserve this versatile breed.
