executive summary - National Dairy Research Institute

2. RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS
DAIRY CATTLE BREEDING
Genetic Improvement of Milch Animals through
Identification and Dissemination of Superior
Germplasm by Application of Emerging
Reproductive and Molecular Technologies
lactation traits revealing an increase in total milk yield
(TMY) and 305DMY associated with reduction in dry
th
period (DP) and service period (SP) up to 4 parity.
Overall a declining trend was observed in lactation
Multi-trait evaluation of Karan Fries Cattle
milk yield, herd life (HL) and productive life (PL) in
later periods as compared to earlier periods. The
A total of 74 Karan Fries cows (37.2%) were selected as heritability was estimated using raw and adjusted data
elite cows for nominated matings with an average 305- (season and period) and also by adjustment for season
day milk yield as 4711 kg and average EPA as 4589 kg only. It was observed that with adjustment for period
which were 8.3% and 7.4% higher than the herd effect the reduction in sire variance was more in
average (4348 kg) and average EPA (4272 kg). The best comparison to the reduction in error variance without
305 day milk yield ranged between 4070 and 8648 kg
2
adjustment. In first lactation traits (FLTs), h estimates
with an average of 5553 kg. A total of 7 KF male calves
were found to be lower for reproductive traits. In case
were reserved on the basis of EPD and dam's best 305 2
of lifetime traits, the lowest h (0.1 0.04) was found to
days lactation yield, breed characteristics and physical
be for actual lifetime milk yield per day of productive
conformity for selection of young male calves for
life (ALTMY/PL) and the highest (0.64 0.41) for
future breeding. The dam's best 305 days lactation yield
ALTMY. The phenotypic correlations between various
of reserved KF males ranged from 5065-6150 kg.
first lactation traits (FLTs) and lifetime traits (LTTs)
As many as 9 Karan Fries bulls of IX set were were highly significant. The genetic correlations were
genetically evaluated based on 305-day milk yield not much reliable because of higher standard errors.
using BLUP. Three bulls viz. 6479, 6418 and 6558 Prediction equations were developed for prediction of
having genetic superiority of 16.12%, 5.89% and life time performance on the basis of different
4.80% above the average EBV (3460 kg) were selected combinations of FLTs. For prediction of LTMY up to
and declared as proven. The heritability estimates of
2
two lactations, R value of 73.3% was obtained by
FL305DMY, FLTMY, FLL, AFC and FCI were 0.48 using age at first calving (AFC) and first lactation total
±0.14, 0.41 ± 0.13, 0.19 ± 0.11, 0.43 ± 0.13, 0.12 ± 0.11, milk yield (FLTMY) as independent variables. For first
respectively. The heritability estimates of production lactation traits of AFC, FLTMY, 305DMY and
traits and AFC were medium to high. (>0.40 to 0.60) MY/FLL, rank correlations (0.95, 0.99, 0.96 and 0.99)
indicating sufficient additive genetic variability for amongst rankings of sires based on breeding value
these traits in the herd, hence there is considerable estimated by using raw or adjusted data on daughters'
scope for improvement by selection. The phenotypic first lactation records revealed almost similar ranking
trends for FL305DMY and TLMY were positive and of sires.
significant. It revealed that FL305DMY and FLTMY
increased at the rate of 20.74 kg (0.64% of HA) and
Molecular Characterization and Identification of
34.04 kg (0.90% of HA) per year during the period
Polymorphism in Mastitis Related Genes
(1992-2009).The phenotypic trends for AFC, LL and
CI were positive but non-significant.
Identification of polymorphism in S100A8
(calgranulin A) gene and its association with
A total no. of 2747 A.I were performed in KF and as a
mastitis in Murrah buffalo: Calgranulin A (S100A8)
result 50.16 % conception rate was obtained under field
gene of Murrah buffalo was characterized using five
conditions up to December, 2012. A total of 1135 (586 sets of primers to obtain contigs of 449, 489, 514, 557
males and 549 females) KF calves were born in the and 323 base pairs respectively. The changes from the
farmers' herds and test day milk yield data on 104 reference sequence were substitutions at position 154
Karan Fries daughters have been recorded for (G to T) and 194 (A to T) in flanking region and
evaluation of bulls under field conditions.
insertion at position 1352(C_ _T to CTTT) in intron 1
of the gene making it 2069bp long. However, there was
Multiplication of Tharparkar Germplasm
no change in the coding region, no change was found in
Genetic analysis of productive and reproductive amino acid sequence. PCR- RFLP analysis using HinfI,
performance traits, lifetime and its predictability on the AluI, MboII, PvuII, Eco0109I, BsmFI and HaeIII
basis of first lactation traits revealed that the effect of restriction enzymes revealed monomorphism in all 150
season was not found significant whereas, the effect of Murrah animals. Due to monomorphic patterns of all
period was found to be significant on first lactation the RFLP products, it was not feasible to carry out
traits. Parity effect was highly significant on all association with the incidence of mastitis in the animals
Annual Report - 2012-13
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