Elite bulls cloned

Tribune News Service

Hisar, July 18

The Central Institute for Research on Buffalo (CIRB) has made a significant breakthrough in buffalo cloning by producing seven cloned copies of an elite breeding buffalo bull, M-29, besides recloning the calf of an earlier cloned bull, ‘Hisar Gaurav’. Officials said all eight cloned calves as well as offspring sired by cloned bulls had normal growth.

Dr SS Dahiya, Director, CIRB, stated that it was a huge success and they aim to develop and propagate high-yielding elite buffalo germplasm across the country. “India holds 109 million buffaloes, which accounts for over 56 per cent of the world’s buffalo population. To increase milk productivity of buffalo, the CIRB has been exploiting advanced scientific methods and produced a record 10 cloned elite bulls,” he stated.

Dr PS Yadav, head of the cloning project, maintained that they had aimed at producing genetic copies of elite stock. “We are working to make stakeholders aware of this technology before wider application. Bulls are selected on the basis of pedigree and progeny record. Cloned bulls can be used to upgrade population of nondescript buffaloes,” he said.