India’s first IVF calf born in Pune

Pune: A test-tube calf of the indigenous Tharparkar species was born in Pune. The Tharparkar cow centre has been trying to use In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) technology for breeding bovines in a bid to increase the number of indigenous cows.

This is country’s first calf of indigenous breed born through IVF. The embryo created from eggs and sperms of indigenous Tharparkar breed cow and bull were transferred to exotic Jersey breed cow.

The test tube calf was born at Vrindavan Tharaparkar Cow Club in Bhukum in Mulashi Taluka of Pune district.

The centre has been conserving cows of Tharparkar breed that are found in Thar dessert on Rajasthan-Pakistan border. As the breed was getting extinct, a few farmers with the help of donation, started the club five years ago. Since then various experiments to increase the population of this breed have been underway.

Dr Shyam Zanwar of J.K. Trust, which developed the technology of IVF for indigenous cows said, “We have been working to give birth to cows through IVF technology. We successfully retrieved eggs from ovaries of three cows of Tharparkar breed and froze them. Later we took out sperms of bulls of the same breed. We mixed sperms and eggs in a special chamber in ideal temperature for fertilisation. The embryo got developed successfully.”

He added, “Then we placed the embryo in Jersey cow that is of the exotic breed. This is the first time we have done this. Earlier surrogate cow used to be only of the indigenous breed. The cow on Sunday gave birth to a healthy calf. The DNA structure and external appearances of the calf are like that of Tharparkar breed cows.”