The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)’s dairy service has developed indigenous sex-sorted semen technology to ensure birth of only female calves. The first female calf from the sex-sorted semen dose, produced at Alamadhi Semen Station (Tamil Nadu), was born in a farm near Chennai in October 2020. Currently, sex-sorted semen technologies are proprietary to a few multi-national companies, which makes the technology expensive for dairy farmers.
Sexed sorted semen is specially processed semen of bulls from which ‘Y’ chromosomes in sperm cells — which lead to the birth of a male calf — are either removed through a ‘sorting’ process or killed. Semen which has only ‘X’ chromosomes can ensure that a female calf is born.
“The field trials of the technology were encouraging. The ability to assure the birth of only female calves provides huge financial advantage to dairy farmers The sex sorted semen dose produced using the indigenous technology is reported to be meeting the industry quality and production benchmarks...This development would lead to a large-scale adoption of the technology,” NDDB Chairman Dilip Rath said on Sunday.
The project to develop indigenous technology for sex-sorting bovine sperms was taken by NDDB Dairy Services Services a few years ago with an objective to significantly bring down the cost of sex-sorted semen doses so that it becomes affordable for dairy farmers in India, he added. Rath also expressed confidence that the new technology would help in achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’’s vision of ‘’Make in India’’ programme and the current quest for an ‘’Aatmanirbhar Bharat’’.
NDDB Dairy Services Managing Director Saugata Mitra said, “The technology will help bring down the cost of artificial insemination using sex sorted semen significantly from the existing Rs 1,000. This will also be a turning point in overcoming the problem of stray cattle in the country”.
NDDB Dairy Services manages four large semen stations in the country -- Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala near Ahmedabad, Animal Breeding Centre near Lucknow, Alamadhi Semen Station near Chennai and Rahuri Semen Station near Pune.
These semen stations together produce about 35 per cent of the total semen produced in the country.