India Got Its First Calf through Surrogacy

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technology added one more success feather on its hat. In India it happened for the first time that a calf got delivered by a surrogate or recipient cow. The recipient cow underwent in vitro fertilization. It was carried out in a mobile laboratory and the calf was born in Indapur, Pune (Maharashtra). The calf has been named as Vijay.

It was for the first time that the IVF Procedure was successfully applied at farm level and that to be with the help of mobile laboratory. At the lab level, the similar experiment was conducted by National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI). The purpose of this initiative was to protect indigenous cow breeds in its original form which have been destroyed as a result of cross-breeding.

This experiment was successfully under taken by the JK Trust. JK Trust is an organization which works for the improvement of cattle breed. The donor cow in Vijay’s case belonged to the indigenous Gir breed whose population across our nation is nearly around one lakh.

By: Bhavna Sharma

Content: currentaffairs.gktoday.in