BackRelease of prolific three breed cross ‘AVISHAAN’ by ICAR-CSWRI, Avikanagar

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ICAR-Central Sheep & Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar released a high performing prolific three breed cross developed by it on 04.01.2016 on the occasion of Institute foundation day for testing in the farmers’ field. The prolific cross is a composite cross having 12.5% Garole, 37.5% Malpura and 50% Patanwadi blood. The cross named as ‘Avishaan’ was released by Dr. V.K. Taneja, Chairman, RAC & Ex-DDG, ICAR & former Vice Chancellor, GADVASU, Ludhiana in presence of Dr. K.M.L. Pathak, Ex-DDG (Animal Science), ICAR , Dr. S.M.K. Naqvi, Director, ICAR-CSWRI, Dr. Arun Kumar, Head of Division, Dr. R.C. Sharma, Scientists, farmers and others. The prolific sheep project conceived and inspired by the guidance of Dr. Taneja at the time of his tenure at ICAR headquarter in 1997. He advocated the introgression of FecB gene responsible for prolificacy in Garole sheep into native Malpura sheep after prescreening of the gene by PCR-RFLP technique. It took almost 18 years to develop this cross having the unique capabilities of producing more lambs per lambing, higher body weights, more milk and survivability at par with native breeds. Dr. Taneja hailed the efforts and achievements of the Institute in developing this unique three breed cross. The average growth performance of “Avishaan” in farm condition is 3.30 kg at birth, 16.80 kg at 3 month, 25.90 kg at 6 month and 34.70 kg at 12 month age. “Avishaan” excelled by about 30% over native Malpura sheep in terms of Ewe Productivity Efficiency (EPE) at six month of age. In the current female population 47% females produced 2 lambs and 2% produced 3 lambs in a lambing leading to overall 49% prolificacy. It is  accepted with an enhanced growth, farmers can get 1.5 times income from rearing of “Avishaan” without extra investments. The enhanced milk production will lead to sustenance of more lambs, fulfillment of domestic requirement, thus adding up to the nutritional security of the sheep farmers. During the occasion five elite “Avishaan” breeding rams alongwith data recording aids were distributed to five registered farmers of five different villages around Malpura for extensive field evaluation for validation of the genotype. A technical bulletin ‘Pride of CSWRI Avishaan: a prolific sheep’ containing detailed morphometric, production, reproduction and survivability characteristics was released along with a Hindi folder for farmers’ use.