New approaches in buffalo artificial insemination programs with special reference to India.

Buffalo farming has made remarkable progress in productivity mainly because of controlled breeding with artificial insemination (AI) that has proved its worth in breed improvement and breeding managements across the livestock species. Artificial insemination is practiced very little in Europe and East Asian countries with coverage of only 5% buffaloes in Italy, 3.7% in Azerbaijan, 0.3% in Egypt, and 0.1% in Romania although in Bulgaria, 80% buffaloes in large cooperative state farms are subjected to AI. In Turkey, it began in 2002 near Hatay with Italian semen provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Network project. In India, where buffaloes are the most valuable livestock species, research on buffalo specific artificial breeding technologies and adoption of AI by buffalo owners are widely acknowledged. Resultantly, average milk yield of buffaloes in India increased from 3.4 kg in 1992 to 93 to 4.57 kg/day/buffalo in 2009 to 10. In the new millennium, mega projects such as the National Project for Cattle and Buffalo Breeding and the National Dairy Plan were initiated with focus on genetic upgradation of bovine and buffalo population through streamlining AI services and support system in the country. Artificial insemination started in India in the year 1939, and the frozen semen was introduced during late 1960s. During the year 2010 to 11, India produced 63 million bovine frozen semen straws including over one million buffalo semen straws through 49 semen stations. Artificial insemination services are provided through 71,341 AI stations clocking 52 million inseminations with overall conception rate of 35% in bovine and buffalo population. Research is being conducted for improved AI conception rates with synchronization programs and improved frozen-thawed semen quality, and success rates are at par with AI in cattle.