Factors Affecting the Milk Production Traits and Lactation Curve of the Indigenous River Buffalo Populations in Bangladesh
Abdullah Ibne Omar,
Md. Yousuf Ali Khan,
Xin Su,
Aashish Dhakal,
Shahed Hossain,
Mohsin Tarafder Razu,
Jingfang Si,
Alfredo Pauciullo,
Md. Omar Faruque,
Yi Zhang
Affiliations
Abdullah Ibne Omar
National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Md. Yousuf Ali Khan
National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Xin Su
National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Aashish Dhakal
National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Shahed Hossain
Buffalo Breeding and Developing Farm, Dhaka 1341, Bangladesh
Mohsin Tarafder Razu
Buffalo Development Project (2nd Phase), Department of Livestock Services, Farmgate, Dhaka 1215, Bangladesh
Jingfang Si
National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Alfredo Pauciullo
Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Torino, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy
Md. Omar Faruque
Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh
Yi Zhang
National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Household buffalo dairy farming is gaining popularity nowadays in Bangladesh because of the outstanding food value of buffalo milk as well as the lower production cost of buffalo compared to cattle. An initiative has recently been taken for the genetic improvement of indigenous dairy buffaloes. The present study was carried out to determine the influence of some environmental factors like age, parity, season of calving, calving interval, dry period on the lactation yield, and lactation curve of indigenous dairy buffaloes of Bangladesh. A total of 384 indigenous dairy buffaloes from the 3rd and 4th parity of seven herds under two different agroecological zones covering four seasons were selected and ear tagged for individual buffalo milk recording. A milk yield of 300 days (MY300d) was calculated following the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR) and the data were evaluated using the generalized linear model (GLM). In production traits, the mean of calculated lactation period (CLP), calculated lactation yield (CLY), and milk yield of 300 days (MY300d) of the overall population were 267.28 days, 749.36 kg, and 766.92 kg, respectively, whereas calving interval (CI) and dry period (DP) as reproductive traits were 453.06 days and 185.78 days, respectively. The season of calving, age of buffalo cows, population or herd, agroecological zone, calving interval, and dry period had significant effects on production traits (p p p p p p < 0.001). Positive and high correlation was found within milk traits and reproduction traits, but correlation was negative between milk traits and reproduction traits. Therefore, these non-genetic factors should be considered in the future for any genetic improvement program for indigenous dairy buffaloes in Bangladesh.
