Artificial insemination carried out in Yak

Itanagar, Apr 02: In a major breakthrough, a group of five senior scientists at the National Research Centre on Yak at Dirang under Arunachal's West Kameng district, has successfully conducted artificial insemination on yak, the first of its kind in the country.

The Centre, located at Nyukmadung, 30 kms from Dirang, is the only Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) patronised institute for conservation of yak germplasm and development of yak husbandry in the country.

Describing the process of artificial insemination in yak, the centre's director Dr Mohan Bhattacharaya informed that five genetically selected superior yak bulls were employed for the purpose.

The bulls were accordingly trained and semens were collected from them using estrus yak cows as dummy following artificial vagina technique, he informed adding semens were collected once a week and a total of 25 ejaculates were used for freezing of yak semen and nearly 250 frozen yak straws were prepared. The post thaw motility was studied after one month, which was found to be satisfactory, the director said.

He said, a total of 10 estrus animals comprising nine yaks and one local cow were inseminated using frozen yak semen straws at late estrus. Subsequently, pregnancy rate was determined on the basis of non-returning to estrus. Five of the inseminated animals were observed to be not returning to estrus and estimated fertility rate was around fifty per cent, he stated.

Scientists were unanimous in agreeing that inbreeding in yak herds was very common due to maintenance of improper herd size, which had been found to be responsible for many reproductive disorders, poor production potential and ultimately rapid dwindling of yak population in India.

Thus, they advocated use of frozen yak semen for artificial insemination in yak pockets in collaboration with state agencies as having tremendous potential to ameliorate the aforesaid problems of yak husbandry. Development of yak frozen semen by the Centre for the first time in India might be considered as a breakthrough in husbandry, the director claimed adding, the scientists involved in the project include, Dr Vinod Dutta Boruah, senior research fellow, Dr. M Sarkar, scientist at the centre, Dr. B C Deka, Dr. B C Sharma and Dr. P C Chakroborty all professors of College of Veterinary Science under Assam Agriculture University.

UNI