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Indigenous Sex Sorted Semen And Unified Genomic Chip: Livestock Scheme

Indigenous Sex Sorted Semen And Unified Genomic Chip: Livestock Scheme

The Prime Minister of India launched two programs of the Animal Husbandry Department for the benefit of the livestock – ‘ Indigenous Sex Sorted Semen’ and ‘ Unified Genomic Chip’.

  • Unified Genomic Chip is aimed at helping farmers identify high-quality cattle early and enhance dairy farming efficiency in India.
  • The chip comes in two versions
    • The ‘Gau Chip’ for cattle and the ‘Mahish Chip’ for buffalo.
  • It is developed by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), under the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.
  • The purpose of this chip is to help farmers make informed decisions on animal selection by identifying young, high-quality bulls at an early age.
  • The chip is tailored for Indian cattle breeds and will help improve the quality of cattle and enhance the dairy farming sector.
  • Sex Sorted Semen is the ‘gender selected’ semen used by Artificial Insemination (AI) for cattle and buffaloes to produce more than 90% selected gender (females).
  • It is very effective in breed improvement and till now it was manufactured by multinational companies.
  • The National Dairy Development Board under the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, has developed the indigenous technology of sex-sorted semen worth Rs. 250.
  • IVF technology (commonly known as test tube baby technology) is also being used for this purpose.
  • It has now planned to produce a minimum of 10 lakh sexed semen doses annually for the ongoing artificial insemination (AI) programme.