Recent Advances in Animal Genetics for Enhancing Dairy Animal Productivity in India

摘要

India ranks first in cattle and buffalo population in the world with 199.08 million cattle and 105.34 million buffaloes (Livestock Census, 2007). India is the number one producer of milk in the world since 1997. During 2011-12, India produced a totalmilk of 127.9 million tonnes. In India, about 70% of milk is produced by marginal and small farmers owning 2-4 animals. Buffaloes, cows and goats contribute 53.4%, 43.1% and 3.5% to the total milk output (Fig. 1). The annual average growth rate in milk production in India stood at 4.29 per cent during 2001-02 to 2011-12 with the milk production rising from 84.4 million tons in 2001-02 to 127.9 million tons in 2011-12. India has 37 well defined indigenous breeds of cattle and 13 indigenous breeds of buffalo. The indigenous breeds of cattle and buffalo in the country are the result of thousands of years of natural selection, evolution and development of the wild species in the process of domestication suiting to the local agro-climatic conditions. They are bestowed with high heat tolerance, disease resistance, high quality milk with varying degrees of medicinal property, drought power and more over adaptability to low input management system. Many countries had imported Zebu cattle from India and were playing important role in meat industry as well as dairying like Australian milking zebu. Presently Brahman cattle are found in 45 countries while Sahiwal breed is found in 29 countries (Ramesha et al, 2007).