The National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal has produced the country’s first cloned female calf of the desi breed Gir which can produce more than 15 litres of milk per day.
Key points
- Under a project by NDRI, Karnal to work on cloning of indigenous cow breeds such as Gir and Sahiwal, India’s first cloned Gir female calf named ‘Ganga’ weighing 32 kg was born.
- Indigenous cattle breeds such as Gir, Sahiwal, Tharparkar, and Red-Sindhi, play a pivotal role in milk production and the growth of the Indian dairy industry.
- Gir cattle are also very popular and have been exported to Brazil, the United States, Mexico, and Venezuela for the development of zebu cows.
- To clone the Gir, oocytes are isolated from live animals using ultrasound-guided needles, and then, matured for 24 hours under control conditions.
- The somatic cells of elite cows are used as donor genomes, which are fused with OPU-derived enucleated oocytes. Following chemical activation and in-vitro culture, the developed blastocysts are transferred into recipient mothers to deliver the Gir calf.
