UNE gives twin boost to Indian shepherds' income

November 16, 2007

Sheep in the Indian State of Maharashtra are having twins thanks to a 14-year collaborative project led by the University of New England.

The project, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), has involved scientists from India and Australia working with traditional Indian shepherds.

Seven scientists from UNE – the commissioned Australian research institution for the project – have participated over the years, together with several from CSIRO and the University of Melbourne. In collaboration with their Indian colleagues, they have demonstrated that an increase in the productivity of Maharashtra's sheep flocks – with a corresponding increase in shepherds' incomes – can be achieved by introducing a "fecundity gene" from the Garole sheep of West Bengal into the Deccani sheep of Maharashtra.

The Indian team involved in the project has just won an important award from the Indian Government in recognition of the project's success. The leader of that team is Dr Chanda Nimbkar who – as part of the project – studied at UNE for her PhD degree in genetics, graduating in 2005. Dr Nimbkar is now the Director of Animal Husbandry at the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in Maharashtra, founded by her father. Her team is joint winner of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Award for 2007 for Science and Technology Innovations for Rural Development, to be presented by the Indian Prime Minister.

"UNE's 'systems analysis' approach, emphasising the importance of understanding the social, economic and biological aspects of traditional shepherding in Maharashtra – including the needs of the shepherds themselves – has guided the project from the start," said Associate Professor Steve Walkden-Brown, who has led UNE's involvement in the project since 1998. "We set about systematically discovering what the shepherds themselves wanted, rather than foisting something onto them. It's been very much a two-way process."

Dr Walkden-Brown explained that Deccani sheep (in common with the vast majority of Indian sheep breeds) have a comparatively low reproductive rate, with ewes producing only one lamb every 10 to 12 months. As the shepherds' income depends largely on the sale of lambs for meat, an increase in the number of lambs per ewe has been the principal objective in this project aimed at raising the shepherds' standard of living.

"One option was the introduction of Garole sheep to Maharashtra," Dr Walkden-Brown said. "Our Indian colleagues found, however, that they did not thrive on the Deccan plateau. Another option was to create a new breed, but our survey of more than 100 shepherds showed that they wanted to retain the characteristics and appearance of the sheep with which they had a traditional association. Our solution, then, was – through a complex cross-breeding process – to retain the appearance and hardiness of the Deccani breed while introducing the Garole 'fecundity gene'."

"While the initial project work was mainly on flocks at research institutes," he continued, "in the past five years the work has been focused on 26 collaborating shepherds' flocks into which the new sheep have been introduced. In these flocks we are undertaking extensive documentation of social, economic and biological indicators to ensure that the new sheep type is appropriate for the environment in Maharashtra and of benefit to the shepherds breeding them."

Since the development of a DNA test for the gene in 2002, it has been possible to select lambs that carry the fecundity gene. This new strain has been named "NARI Suwarna". NARI Suwarna ewes are now giving birth to twins at least every second lambing – a rate that, while being more profitable for the shepherds, is still manageable by their traditional methods of husbandry. A flock of 500 NARI Suwarna ewes has been established at NARI itself, and rams carrying the gene have been successfully disseminated through more than 30 shepherds' flocks.

In the course of their research, the scientists discovered that Garole sheep have better resistance to internal parasites than Deccani sheep, and the breeding program is also capitalising on this characteristic.

"It has been wonderful to have 10 years of ACIAR funding to solve this problem in a systematic way," Dr Walkden-Brown said, "and we are grateful for this. At the end of 2008 we'll have a workshop in India summarising our findings and setting directions for the future. It is likely that the fecundity gene will be introgressed into other major Indian sheep breeds following our success with the Deccani. Although this should not require further Australian funding, there will be continuing links between NARI and UNE and the possibility of collaboration on future genetics-based projects.

"So, if you're travelling through India in the future and see lots of twin lambs by the roadside, they're probably an outcome of this project."

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here expands to show Dr Chanda Nimbkar (right) inspecting twin lambs at a flock near the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Maharashtra.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at November 16, 2007 10:59 AM