Bikaner, 20 May (Hindustan Times). Scientists at the Equine Production Complex of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s National Equine Research Center have produced foals (fillets) using embryo transfer technology. In embryo transfer technology, a fertilized embryo at the blastocyst stage (7.5 days after insemination) is collected from a donor mare, which is successfully transferred to a recipient (surrogate) mother. The surrogate mother has given birth to a healthy filly. The filly has been named ‘Raj-Prathama’ and weighs 23 kg. The Horse Production Complex at Bikaner in Rajasthan has become the first institute in the country to complete this process.
The breed population of Marwari horses is rapidly decreasing. ICAR-NRCE is working diligently to conserve the dwindling population of horse breeds in India. In this direction a project was started for snow preservation of embryos of Marwari horse breed. Under a project of National Livestock Mission, Dr. TR Talluri, Dr. Yashpal Sharma, Dr. RA Legha and Dr. RK Dedar successfully carried out embryo transfer in Marwari mare. Dr. Sajjan Kumar, Manish Chauhan also supported the team in this project. Dr. Jitendra Singh assisted in agricultural management. It was informed on the occasion that so far the team has successfully vitrified 10 Marwari horse embryos. Further work will entail cryo-preservation of more horse embryos.
Congratulating the team of scientists, Dr. TK Bhattacharya, Director, ICAR, National Research Center on Equine, said that the population of horses in India is rapidly declining and infertility and non-breeding mares are also one of the reasons. This technique can be very useful for getting calves from such animals and can also facilitate getting more calves from excellent animals. It can also be applied to animals that do not respond to conventional treatment methods of infertility. He informed that this is the first Marwari filly produced through embryo transfer technology in India.
