Monday, Dec 16, 2002
Monday, Dec 16, 2002 |
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Kerala
By J. S. Bablu
There have been recent attempts to crossbreed the `Malabari' goats, a dual-purpose breed reared for milk and meat, with the South African Boer goat by big private parties and the disbursing the crossbreds to farmers. The Kerala Livestock Development Board (KLDB) is also reportedly interested in propagating the Boer-Malabari crossbreeds. Raghavan of the CASABG of the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences under the KAU who had done extensive research on `Malabari' goats said that the `Malabari' goats were evolved centuries ago by continuous selection and had proved to be most suitable to Kerala conditions. "Hence we should not disturb that breed by crossbreeding it with another exotic breed. If the crossbreeding was conducted extensively, the whole tribe of Malabari goats will become extinct without a trace and finally, like most of our local breeds of animals, they will become part of history.'' Dr. Raghavan said that it had not yet been proved scientifically that Boer goats or their crossbreeds were adaptable to Kerala conditions. "A report from Tamil Nadu says that in a pilot study conducted, it was found that mortality among graded kids was higher than their local counterparts and the main cause was reported to be pneumonia and other respiratory ailments. We must consider the higher humidity percentage of our State and the fact that the main reason for kid mortality in the State was pneumonia. This was especially true during heavy rain and during winter.'' He said that when a native population was crossbred with another, there was going to be an increased production and growth in the first generation as was expected because of hybrid vigour. "The increase in performance we see in any crossbred population was mainly due to the non-additive gene actions like epistasis, dominance and over-dominance. But the hybrid vigour cannot be fixed or an attempt to maintain heterosis by mating those having the highest degree of heterosis will not be successful in most of the cases.'' Dr. Raghavan points out that this vigour cannot be maintained unless one crossbred local goats with purebred Boer each time. He stresses that this was difficult for the farmer, which had already been proved in the case of cattle crossbreeding. "Once the crossbreeds reach the farmer's hands it will be difficult to control the crossbreeding. Only if Boer purebred semen was supplied, crossbreds of high quality were possible. But on the other hand, farmers will be able to just cross half-bred among themselves or half-bred with locals. Then superior performance will not be repeated in those cases. Rather, there will be a reduction in performance because of the segregation of the genes.'' Hence he points out that the farmer will not get the performance promised in the subsequent crossbreds. But now the crossbreeds of Boer goats were being sold at exorbitant rates. This would harm the poor farmers economically and they will be cheated subsequently. According to KLDB sources, the board was not going to introduce crossbreds of Boer and Malabari goats into the market all of a sudden without any experiments. "Certainly the board was not interested in introducing them in Malabar tract where the native goat was prevalent without undertaking proper study. It was the big private agencies that had now moved into this market. The board was interested in confining these crossbreeding to local nondescript goats only so that the Malabari goat was not disturbed.'' Dr. Raghavan said that Malabari goat was mainly found in North Malabar area and its average milk production was around half a litre a day. "But goat milk not only contributes to their income, but also part of their daily use. Any threat to Malabari goat also deprives these people of their livelihood.'' According to him, very few people in the area were aware of this and were easily trapped by the fanciful advertisement concerning Boer goats or their crossbreds claiming magical results to the farmers. Some of the local bodies were also planning to include schemes like disbursing crossbreeds to the farmers. Private companies had already cashed in on the hype created and some of the private farms which claim to have exported these animals from Maharashtra had all their animals which was in a conceived State booked by people. The propagators of the Boer goat have been pointing out its superior quality with regard to meat production. According to them, they were known for their rapid weight gain and heavy muscling. But Dr. Raghavan cautions that such weight gain was being under feedlot experiments, wherein animals were provided with maximum best quality feed to express their genetic potential fully. The comparison of cost of production of per kg of meat of both varieties should be explored to find out the economic nature of managing Boer goats or their crossbreds. The native population often maintain the Malabari goats at a low level of nutrition with minimum inputs. They were reared in semi-intensive system of management with four to six hours of grazing and concentrated on feeding in the evening. Farmers feed mainly concentrates, coconut oil cake mostly, to milking animals, while household waste edible to goats form part of the feed. Raghunathanan, director of the CASABG, observed that in other countries animals reared for meat were put in cages and maximum feed was served to them so that they gained rapid weight. "It was doubtful whether the Boer goat would have the claimed weight gain under conditions provided by the farmers to feed local goats. Also the pertinent question was that whether the crossbred rearing will be beneficial to the farmer if they put in the maximum efforts and money. The KAU scientists point out that huge public awareness campaign was necessary to stop the endangering of the Malabari goat. KAU already have a `Malabari' goat improvement project aided by the ICAR. They cautioned against the hype in this regard and pointed out the `broiler goat mania' that existed a few years ago in the State should not be repeated. The director of research of the KAU had already written to the Director of Animal Husbandry about the emerging trend of disbursing crossbreds of Boer and Malabari goats especially in North Malabar, which would eventually decrease the population of Malabari goats. The Director of Animal Husbandry has been requested to take some initiatives at the Government level to arrest this trend.
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