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The present study analyses the effect of age at first calving (AFC) on future fertility and productivity in Murrah buffaloes. The data of 314 buffalo heifers of animal farm section, ICAR-CIRB, Hisar were collected over a period of 9 years from 2010 to 2018. The buffalo heifers were categorized into six groups according to the AFC named as 30-35, 36-41, 42-47, 48-53, 54-59 and 60-65 months. The influence of AFC on standard lactation milk (SLMY), peak yield (PY), days in milk (DIM), calving to first service, service per conception, calving to conception interval (CCI) and calving interval till fifth lactation were studied. The study revealed poor productive traits in buffalo heifers calved at younger age (30-35 months) during first parity. The productive value positively corresponded with increase in AFC. During successive lactations, higher mean milk yield (SLMY and PY) was found in groups with 36-41, 42-47 and 48-53 months. The mean number of services per conception was lower in buffalo heifers with 36-41 and 42-47 months following first calving till fifth lactation. Similarly, the said groups had lower mean calving to first service, CCI and CI up to fifth lactation. The survival rate was higher in heifers with AFC 36-41, 42-47, 48-53 and 54-59 months than with AFC 30-35 and 60-65 months. The buffalo heifers with 36-41 and 42-47 months of AFC had higher survival rate and better productive and reproductive traits till fifth parity in the current study. The study concluded that a minimum ideal AFC of 36-41 months yielded the highest productive gain., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Selection of Murrah buffaloes based on production, reproduction, and health traits play an important role in sustainable genetic improvement. With the aim to construct an index comprising of production, reproduction and health traits of Murrah buffaloes, the production and reproduction data during a 50-year span (1971-2020) and for health traits data of 27 years (1994-2020) were analyzed. Various three, four, five, and six trait combinations of production, reproduction, and health traits were explored for construction of performance indices. The income and expenditure method was used to calculate relative economic values (REV) for traits under consideration. A total of 37 performance indices were constructed using a multi-trait combination of production, reproduction, and health traits. Out of 37 indices, the (ADMY-PY-DO-AFC-FF) based index was identified as the best, with 78%, 2%, and 20% weightage given to production, reproduction, and female fertility, respectively. Furthermore, when REVs of traits were increased by 25% and 50%, there was no change observed in the relative importance of traits in the best index, indicating that the index was robust to substantial increases in economic values. Therefore, it is recommended that the above constructed composite selection index can be employed in selection of female buffaloes to achieve sustainable genetic gain.

Ruminant livestock production processes are the major sources of methane production in agriculture sector triggering global environmental pollution. Above 90% of world buffalo population present in Asian countries, India ranks first and contributes significantly to the environmental pollution by enteric methane emissions. In this study, we examined the effect of dietary composite feed additive supplementation on ruminal methane production, nutrient utilization, milk production and immune status of buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis). Eighteen lactating Murrah (Bubalus bubalis) buffaloes at early stage of lactation were divided into two groups of nine animals and fed a composite feed additive [consisted of (%, w/w) dried and ground leaves of Cordia dichotoma and Holoptelea integrifolia, 31.4 each; garlic oil, 0.6; sodium nitrate, 3.1; magnesium sulphate, 8.4; mustard oil, 12.6 and cottonseed oil, 12.5] which contained an ideal combinations of methane inhibitors, alternate hydrogen sinks and rumen stimulating agents to treatment (CFA) group animals along with basal feed of chaffed green sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) fodder, chaffed wheat straw and concentrate mixture for maintenance and milk production. The results showed a decrease (44.6%) in methane concentration in exhaled air of CFA group buffaloes with increase (p < 0.05) in digestibility of feed in comparison to control (CON). Total digestible nutrient (TDN) content of the ration fed to buffaloes of CFA group was significantly (p < 0.05) increased. The daily milk yield, 6% fat corrected milk (FCM) yield and immune response were also increased (p < 0.05) in CFA group. The study suggests that the supplementation of composite feed additive was effective to reduce enteric methane emissions and improvement in production performance and immune status of buffaloes.

Background: A population is continuously facing the changing environment and its directly influencing the production of animal so to adopt these changes population must be flexible and have sufficient variability to overcome the adverse affects of environment. The evaluation of animals in terms of production performance traits along with impact of inbreeding coefficient is essential to formulate breeding and selection strategies for higher genetic improvement. Methods: Genealogy data of 6429 animals maintained at ICAR-NDRI, Karnal, India was analyzed by web-based POPREP application tool (http:// poprep.tzv.fal.de) and ENDOG V5.8 used to study the population structure and genetic diversity and regression model to study the effect of inbreeding on first lactation productive traits in Murrah buffaloes. Result: The result indicated that 91.91% of the individuals had known pedigree. The maximum generation traced was 13 with mean, full and equivalent complete generation as 5.93, 1.67 and 3.25 respectively. The average generation interval was 8.28 years and longer for the sire-son pathway and 2.16% was average inbreeding in whole population. The average genetic diversity loss was 2.10% indicated that the population has been stable with sufficient diversity. The study also revealed non significant effect of inbreeding on all first lactation traits. The low inbreeding was firstly due to introduction of new genetic variant and culling of animals avoiding mating of related ones and secondly due to incompleteness of pedigree in earlier years. This can be used as a base line information of phenomic needs to be generated before applying genomics tools in particular herd to be used as reference population in future for genomic selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study was conducted to estimate the association of age at first calving (AFC) with first lactation traits as well as lifetime performance traits in Murrah buffaloes. Methods: Data on first lactation and life time performance of Murrah buffaloes (n = 679), maintained at Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, Hisar, India during the period 1983 through 2017, were deduced to calculate heritability estimates, genetic and phenotypic correlation of different first lactation and lifetime traits. The univariate animal model was fitted to estimate variance components and heritability separately for each trait, while bivariate animal models were set to estimate genetic and phenotypic correlations between traits under study. Results: The heritability was high for first peak milk yield (FPY, 0.64±0.08), moderate for AFC (0.48±0.07) and breeding efficiency (BE 0.39±0.09). High genetic correlations of first lactation total milk yield (FLTMY) with first lactation standard milk yield (FLSMY, 305 days or less), FPY, and first lactation length (FLL) was seen. Likewise, genetic correlation of AFC was positive with FLTMY, FLL, first dry period (FDP), first service period (FSP), first calving interval (FCI), herd life (HL) and productive days (PD). Significant phenotypic correlation of FLTMY was observed with HL, productive life (PL), PD, total lifetime milk yield (LTMY), standard lifetime milk yield (standard LTMY). Moreover, positive genetic and phenotypic correlation of FPY was observed with HL, PL, PD, total LTMY and standard LTMY. Conclusion: This study reports that AFC had positive genetic correlation with FDP, FSP, FCI, and unproductive days while, negative association of AFC was observed with FLSMY, PL, total LTMY, standard LTMY, and BE. This suggests that reduction of AFC would results in improvement of lifetime performance traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Murrah breed of buffalo is an excellent dairy germplasm known for its superior milk quality in terms of milk fat and solids-not-fat (SNF); however, it is often reported that Indian buffaloes had lower lactation and fertility potential compared to the non-native cattle of the country. Recent techniques, particularly the genome-wide association studies (GWAS), to identify genomic variations associated with lactation and fertility traits offer prospects for systematic improvement of buffalo. DNA samples were sequenced using the double-digestion restriction-associated DNA (RAD) tag genotyping-by-sequencing. The bioinformatics pipeline was standardized to call the variants, and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) qualifying the stringent quality check measures were retained for GWAS. Over 38,000 SNPs were used to perform GWAS on the first two principal components of test-day records of milk yields, fat percentages, and SNF percentages, separately. GWAS was also performed on 305 days' milk yield; lactation persistency was estimated through the rate of decline after attaining the peak yield method, along with three other standard methods; and breeding efficiency, post-partum breeding interval, and age at sexual maturity were considered fertility traits. Significant association of SNPs was observed for the first principal component, explaining the maximum proportion of variation in milk yield. Furthermore, some potential genomic regions were identified to have a potential role in regulating milk yield and fertility in Murrah. Identification of such genomic regions shall help in carrying out an early selection of high-yielding persistent Murrah buffaloes and, in the long run, would be helpful in shaping their future genetic improvement programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterization of autozygosity is relevant to monitor genetic diversity and manage inbreeding levels in breeding programs. Identification of autozygosity hotspots can unravel genomic regions targeted by selection for economically important traits and can help identify candidate genes for selection. In this study, we estimated the inbreeding levels of a Brazilian population of Murrah buffalo undergoing selection for milk production traits, particularly milk yield. We also studied the distribution of runs of homozygosity (ROH) islands and identified putative genes and quantitative trait loci (QTL) under selection. We genotyped 422 Murrah buffalo for 51,611 SNP; 350 of these had ROH longer than 10 Mb, indicating the occurrence of inbreeding in the last 5 generations. The mean length of the ROH per animal was 4.28 ± 1.85 Mb. Inbreeding coefficients were calculated from the genomic relationship matrix, the pedigree, and the ROH, with estimates varying between 0.242 and 0.035. Inbreeding estimates from the pedigree had a low correlation with the genomic estimates, and estimates from the genomic relationship matrix were much higher than those from the pedigree or the ROH. Signatures of selection were identified in 6 genomic regions, located on chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 5, 16, and 18, encompassing a total of 190 genes and 174 QTL. Many of the genes (e.g., APRT and ACSF3) and QTL identified are related to milk production traits, such as milk yield, milk fat yield and percentage, and milk protein yield and percentage. Other genes are associated with reproduction and immune response traits as well as morphological aspects of the buffalo species. Inbreeding levels in this population are still low but are increasing due to selection and should be managed to avoid future losses due to inbreeding depression. The proximity of genes linked to milk production traits with genes associated with reproduction and immune system traits suggests the need to include these latter genes in the breeding program to avoid negatively affecting them due to selection for production traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation was conducted to analyze the effect of non-genetic factors on milk production traits of Murrah buffaloes. Data were collected from 2,67,599 daily milk yield (DMY) records of 445 buffaloes from 2001 to 2016 and analyzed using fixed linear least-squares analysis. The overall least-squares means for DMY, 305MY, TLMY, LL, PY and DPY were 7.66±0.01 kg, 2258.17±95.73kg, 2465.48±130.72 kg, 340.48±14.14 days, 13.17±0.45 kg and 63.45±7.26 days, respectively. Analysis of variance indicated significant effect (p<0.01) of period of birth, period of calving, parity and stage of lactation on DMY. Increasing trend was observed for DMY across the periods of calving. Parity had significant effect (p<0.05) on all the production variables except TLMY and the buffaloes were found to attain peak average production (10.13 kg) during second stage of lactation. All production traits had increasing trend across period of calving. Season of calving had significant effect (p<0.05) on PY and DPY. The results indicated that accurate estimation of the effect of non-genetic factors on production traits would help in developing effective management and selection strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data on ages at first mating and first calving of Murrah buffaloes to identify the effect of various non-genetic factors on these traits. Period and season were the fixed environmental effects considered for both the traits studied. The overall least-squares means for ages at first mating and calving were 1222.3 ± 11.0 and 1578.7 ± 20.3 days respectively. Period had highly significant (P<0.01) influence on both the traits studied, whereas, season had significant (P<0.05) effect on age at first calving alone. The age at first calving was the lowest in period 1 (1979 to 1982), which was significantly (P<0.05) different from the rest. The heritability estimates for ages at first mating and calving were 0.0499 ± 0.07 and 0.1648 ± 0.12 respectively. The genetic correlation of age at first calving with peak yield, days to attain peak yield, 305-day milk yield, lactation length, lactation milk yield, milk yield per day of lactation, service period, calving interval, dry period and number of services per conception were -0.214 ± 0.32, 0.013 ± 0.31, 0.089 ± 0.33, 0.584 ± 0.47, 0.166 ± 0.35, -0.177 ± 0.30, 0.576 ± 0.53, 0.563 ± 0.55, 0.276 ± 0.49 and 0.944 ± 0.83 respectively. The study revealed that the ages at first mating and calving observed in Murrah buffaloes at coastal region of Tamil Nadu is comparable to those reported in its breeding tract and elsewhere in India. A negative genetic correlation between age at first calving and milk yield per day of lactation indicated that the selection based on milk yield per day of lactation would lead to reduction in age at first calving with consequent increase of milk yield per day of lactation in future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study of lactation curves in graded Murrah buffaloes. It used 665 records of milk yield from three lactations of cattle unit with 23 to 25 female graded buffaloes in grass pasture. It is noted that the quadratic logarithmic expression showed the highest values of adjustment. It is considered that the expression describes best buffalo milk production in the given conditions.

The article presents an analysis of the performance of the Murrah buffalo, a world renowned breed known for its high milk production with high fat percentage, in its home tract India. It states that the breed can efficiently use roughages and crop by-products while its milk products are suitable for a wide range of quality items like butter and cheese. It notes that their performance in its home tract has increased and they were able to maintain their ability to generate the best of breed animals. It also discusses the performance of the buffaloes that were cross-bred with other breeds such as the Surti buffalo cows and the Mehsana buffaloes.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of differences between genetic groups of buffaloes for milk production traits, as total milk yield (TM/kg), protein (Prot/kg), fat (Fat/Kg), lactose (Lact/kg) and total solids (TS/kg), and estimate from them heterosis for TM/kg. To this aim, we used 609 observations belonging to 248 lactations of Murrah (Mu) and Mediterranean buffaloes in the different breed proportions, ½Murrah + ½Mediterranean (½Mu½Me) and ¾Murrah x ¼ Mediterranean (¾Mu¼Me) of from the Rio Pardo's farm, localized in Bocaina city (SP-Brazil). The variance analysis were performed by the methodology of mixed models, considering as fixed effects genetic group and the contemporary groups, constituted for year. The calving age of dams (linear and quadratic effects) and the lactation length (linear effect) was considering as covariates of the model. The animal was considering as random effects. The genetic group had a significant effect (P<0,05) for all traits, except Lac/kg. The mean value for MT/kg were 1947 ± 23.268kg; 2157.4 ± 45.6kg; 2078.6 ± 73.9kg and 2015 ± 63.8kg for Mu, ½Mu½Me, ¾Mu¼Me and Me buffaloes respectively, differences were not statistically significant, except between the means of animals Mu and ½Mu½Me (P<0.05). For the constituents of milk, the estimated average protein, fat and total solids were, respectively, equal to 85.0±1.8Kg, 124.4±3.4Kg and 331.4±6.9kg for Mu; 97.4±2.9Kg, 139 .9±5.3kg e 347.7±6.9kg for ½ Mu½Me (F1); 98.7±5.9kg, 123.7±10.9kg and 374.6±22.1kg for ¾Mu¼Me; e 97.6±4.7kg, 148.1±8.5kg e379.9±17.4kg for Me buffaloes. The estimative of heterosis in F1 (½Mu½Me) was 8.9% to TM/kg, while for animals ¾Mu¼Me was 4.9%. These results shows that the group F1 with the maximum expected heterosis (100%) has the highest TM/kg, according to the assumption that increasing heterozygosity lead to augment heterosis, whilst the retention of heterosis in animals ¾Mu¼Me is 50%. It should be noted, however, that further studies on the performance of crossbred animals are needed, considering, particularly a greater number of observation, beyond the effect of addition of breed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present experiment was conducted on mammary gland of twelve Murrah buffalo dividing into two groups (lactating and nonlactating) having six animal in each group. Mammary tissue was comprised of intralobular ducts draining the alveoli, interlobular ducts draining the lobules and interlobar ducts draining the lobes. The diameter of the of intralobular ducts and interlobular ducts were higher in lactating stage than in nonlactating stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]