By Dr. Pravin Kini, Founder & Managing Director, Tropical Animal Genetics (TAG)
Although India is the largest producer of milk, the milk yield per animal is lower compared to other countries. In order to assure a dairy farmer of profits and revenue, there has to be assured milk yield. The solution is to increase per capita productivity in bovines. This is possible only through genetic gains. Poor genetics of the herd results in low milk productivity per animal. Through artificial reproductive technologies such as embryos, the herd can see genetic gains doubling milk yield and revenue, without much change in costs and input which ultimately leads to improved profits for dairy farmers.
Our goal at TAG (Tropical Animal Genetics) is to double rural dairy farmer income. TAG is the first Indian player to produce high merit sexed bovine embryos on an industrial scale. To facilitate the provision of ET within the country and to maximize the use of this technology in the Indian set up, TAG has also developed an in-house bovine embryo production facility in Ahmedabad. There are two clear objectives to this production facility.
Ensuring 100 per cent genetic gain: Genetic improvement occurs when the genetic merit is improved through selection. The improvement in genetic merit refers to the overall improvement in an animal brought about by selection for a number of traits that contribute to the flock’s breeding objective, such as high growth rate or carcass yield, or sex of offspring. Embryo Transfer will also help farmers refocus on breed selection, in order to select traits such as better milk productivity, better heat and disease resistance, higher feed conversion ratio. Genetically superior gains will ensure higher profitability for the dairy farmer. Moreover, embryo ensures 100% assurance of genetics and a sexed embryo ensures a female calf which provides higher monetary value for dairy farmers.
Cost-effective embryo production: An in-house embryo production facility will not only help us to be self-sustainable but will also help to bring in a cost-effective technology for production of embryos. TAG is able to provide this technology at a lower cost due to efficiencies gained through industrial production. TAG is able to provide this technology at a lower cost due to efficiencies gained through industrial production.
ET (Embryo Transfer) fertilization process involves sperm infusion into an egg (ovum) to fertilize it. The sperm carries the genetics of the male parent and ovum genetics of the female parent. The product – embryo obtained through the fertilization process carries the genetics of both the father and the mother donor. The embryos are transferred to a surrogate female cow for pregnancy. The calf is of high merit. The current method of breeding is natural service and AI (Artificial Insemination). In AI, semen is derived from high merit bulls but ET has a benefit over AI, as the genetic gain obtained using AI services is only 50% whereas through ET the chances of genetic gain becomes 100% in the first progeny. Moreover, embryos produced from sexed semen can also ensure 100% genetic gains along with a guarantee of female offspring.
Embryos are used predominantly around the world in USA, Brazil, and Australia, but are still new to India. Embryos can provide 5x more revenue than using artificial insemination because embryos assure 100 per cent genetics. The added benefit of embryo transfer allows the production of multiple calves through high genetic dams and sires. The aim is to deliver targets for genomic selection and have an elite cattle herd. Each pair of donors can produce 35 to 70 viable embryos that are transferred into a recipient resulting in an exponential multiplication of desired cattle and replacement of the existing ones. This is also beneficial for not just herd development but also conserving indigenous breeds.
Genetic technologies can also provide ripple benefits to the economy by creating more jobs such as artificial insemination and embryo transfer technicians, para vets, embryologists etc. The superior technology offered by TAG helps bovine breeder farmers to convert sexed embryo to embryo derived mulch cow for sale to a dairy farmer, thus creating a new breed of rural entrepreneurs. TAG is working on rural entrepreneurship programs to support young entrepreneurs and provide technical training with the help of NGOs. We also offer market linkage programs to provide our technology to rural farmers.
