Equine production

1. Enhancement of genetic potentiality of indigenous donkeys

The good quality donkey germplasm produced by the Centre was supplied at the village level equine breeding societies for increasing the production potentials of the indigenous donkeys and to raise the socio-economic status of the poorest of the poor. The enhancement of their income from Rs. 3000-4000 to Rs. 9000-10,000/year per animal has been reported in a feedback.

2. Cryopreservation of equine semen

Donkey
In order to produce superior quality mules in the field, even where the donkey stallion (Jack) is not accessible, the semen of selected donkeys is being collected, cryopreserved employing protocols standardized at NRCE and the same is used in the field for insemination of non-descript mares for production of superior quality mules.The whole process is perfectized by NRCE for use at the farmer's door and field trials showed an encouraging success rate.

Horses
Similar efforts, with slight modification, have been found effective in cryopreservation of Marwari horse stallion semen. Viewing scanty number of true to breed Marwari Stallions in the country, it was decided to initiate collection, processing and cryopreservation of semen of true to breed Stallions at NRCE. Following its standardization in laboratory conditions, the semen of Marwari stallions has also been collected and preserved at the Farmer's door. Successful efforts in this direction have been made by taking the mobile laboratory facilities to Udaipur and Dundlod in Rajasthan and semen of best true to breed stallions was collected and preserved with the help of progressive equine farmers keeping true to breed Marwari horses. This activity is important for preservation of our ancient glory in the form of Marwari horses, which are at the verge of extiction in lack of any starategic breeding policy. The in situ conservation movement of this precious breed of India will definitely gain a momentum through this activity. The farmers will be directly benefitted since the germplasm will be conserved beyond its life-span and farmers can produce true to breed horses in remote areas where the availability of the true Marwari stallions is limited. By taking necessary precautions and making a policy, even probable inbreeding can also be avaoided.

3. Artificial insemination and early pregnancy diagnosis by Ultrasonography and eCG based ELISA in equines

Artificial insemination technique is mainly used as a method for breed improvement as well as for controlling venereal disease in equids.

This technique is safe and more number of foals can be produced in a year by judicious use of the valuable semen of even a single good quality stallion. Early pregnancy diagnosis is very important to get more foals from a mare in its lifetime by reducing the inter-foaling interval.

After initial investment towards purchase of ultrasound scanner as well as semen collection and preservation tools, routine testing cost is very little. Thus, benefits will be high. Since this technique is useful for small and marginal farmers and indigenous horse societies, it can be adopted at all levels.

Economically, the technique is cheap, safe and viable which can increase the work efficiency of equids by their upgradation as well as by production of superior quality mules. Since AI and ultrasound scanning techniques are in common use in other animal species, the adoption and sustenance of these technologies will be easy. Both AI and ultrasonography have already been perfected by NRCE under field and controlled conditions. However, these need to be implemented by well-trained personnel and veterinarians.

Further to make pregnancy diagnosis quick, easy and more practicable under field conditions, an ELISA based on quantitation of equine chorionic gonadotrophin (eCG) in serum of pregnant mare has been developed in the form of a kit. This test confirms the status of pregnancy in mares between 35 to 120 days. This system has been found to be more economical, sensitive, specific, reliable, easy and animal friendly as compared to conventional rectal palpation and ultrasonographic techniques.