Scientists at the Central Institute for Buffalo Research, located in Hisar, Haryana, have claimed to have successfully cloned eight buffaloes. Of these, seven clones calves are of the elite M-29 buffalo breed, while one was produced by recloning the calf of an 'earlier cloned buffalo'.
Commenting on the feat, SS Dahiya, Director, CIRB, said: “We used M-29 male buffalo to clone seven male buffaloes and recloned another from earlier cloned buffalo ‘Hisar Gaurav’.”
The cloned buffalos were born between October 2019 and January from different foster mothers, The Times of India reported.
CIBR believes these buffalo calves will be able to contribute 10 to 15 lakh semen doses when they are fully grown. This could help increase milk production in India, Zee News reported.
Dr Prem Singh Yadav, who heads the CIRB cloning team, said the Murra breed of buffalos -- native to Haryana – have no match in the world when it comes to milk production. At present, there are 11 crore Murra breed buffalos in India, comprising more than 56 percent of the elite breed’s total population in the world.
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