The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has developed world’s first complete parent-wise genome assembly called “NDDB_ABRO_Murrah†of riverine buffaloes. This comes on the back of successful launch of INDUSCHIP, a customized genotyping chip for indigenous cattle and their crosses.
Seen as a milestone for the dairy body, for the first time a trio binning was used for separating haplotypes of a buffalo, using a father-mother-offspring trio aimed at ensuring better accuracy. The genome assembly developed by NDDB has achieved more than 99 per cent genome coverage.
An NDDB statement quoted Dr. Michael Schatz, a renowned scientist in genomics research as saying: “This will certainly be a valuable resource for the world.†This Buffalo genome shall be India’s contribution to genetic improvement of buffalo in the world.
World buffalo population is estimated to be 224.4 million, of which 219 million (97.58 per cent) are in Asia.
And India has 113.3 million buffaloes, which comprise approximately 50.5 per cent of the total world.
Of the 13 buffalo breeds in India, the Murrah, native to central Haryana, is the most sought after and acknowledged as the best ‘breed-improver’ with its gene pool now extending across the globe in South Asia, South America, Mexico and West Asian countries.
The breed is particularly in demand for its milk yield, the highest recorded at 32 litres in a single day.
