Krishna Valley cattle in India: status, characteristics and utility
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Date
2006
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Abstract
The Krishna Valley breed of cattle is a
draught breed able to withstand extremely
hot, humid climatic conditions and which
has the capacity to undertake heavy work in
the black cotton soil in the valleys of the
Krishna river in India. Their home tract is
restricted to a few taluks (divisions within a
district) of the northern parts of Karnataka.
The distinguishing morphological features of
the breed are the presence of a
black-coloured muzzle and black shades
dispersed over the body with the lower half
of the scrotum also being black in colour. The
average values for height, body length and
chest girth are 116.4±1.2, 128.4±2.0 and
144.7±2.0 cm in cows; and 150.5±0.5,
146.0±3.0 and 191.0±1.0 cm in bullocks,
respectively. The cytogenetic investigation
revealed the normal characteristics of cattle
chromosomes (2n=60). The microsatellite
alleles occurred at frequencies of
0.0208 (ILSTS005) to 0.7604 (ETH152) with
the polymorphism information content (PIC)
values in the range of 0.3856 (ETH152) to
0.7725 (ILSTS034). The breed has a relatively
long productive life as the number of
calvings can go up to twelve. As the number
of animals of this breed remaining is only in
the order of a few hundred, conservation
measures are to be taken to avoid the
extinction of this valuable germplasm.
Description
TNV_AGRI_2006_39(25-37)
Keywords
Veterinary Science