New Delhi

ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI)-led researchers have produced a healthy female calf of the Badri cattle breed using in vitro fertilization technology, in an effort to preserve and multiply a native breed found in Uttarakhand, the agriculture ministry said on Saturday.

The calf was born on September 11 at an academic dairy farm after an embryo created through Ovum Pick-Up and In Vitro Fertilization (OPU-IVF) was implanted in a Sahiwal cow, a different breed used as a surrogate, it said.

Badri cattle are a small, hardy breed adapted to hill terrain and are designated the state animal of Uttarakhand. Breeders have sought new tools to expand their numbers as indigenous cattle breeds face pressure from crossbreeding and shrinking herd sizes across India.

The project was carried out by the ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute in Karnal and G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in Pantnagar, with funding from the Uttarakhand Biotechnology Council. It began in 2023 under then Vice-Chancellor M S Chauhan.

Scientists collected oocytes (egg cells) from selected Badri donor cows using ultrasound-guided extraction, then fertilized them in the laboratory with semen from a Badri bull sourced through the Uttarakhand Livestock Development Board. The resulting embryos were transferred into surrogate cows after a maturation period.

"Advanced reproductive technologies such as OPU-IVF can help multiply elite female germplasm at a faster rate," said ICAR-NDRI institute Director Dheer Singh, adding that the birth lays groundwork for broader breed-improvement programs.

A second surrogate cow is expected to give birth to another Badri calf within five to seven days, the ministry statement said.

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The team is also working on cloning high-yielding Badri cows and plans to transfer both IVF- and cloning-derived embryos into a range of surrogate cows in the next phase of the project, it added.