Sustainable food production is a challenge in Asia due to the huge human population. Agriculture and livestock are the two major sectors in Asia i.e. China, India and Pakistan. In this context, efficient breeding is necessary to overcome the shortage of food production in Asia. Many species of livestock are reared in the subtropical countries, which provide milk, meat, fibres, wool and skin to humans. Among the livestock, goats are considered one of the major livestock species because they can survive in very harsh conditions and are easy to rear at a low cost.
Pakistan is an agricultural country. The livestock population fulfils the requirements of many poor families as well as it contributes 58.33% share in the national economy and about 12% share in GDP of Pakistan. Pakistan is the third-largest goat populated country in the world, contributing 76 million heads (Anonymous, 2019-2020). The demand for goat meat and milk has increased intensively day by day in Pakistan because it is sacrificed on different religious occasions like Eid ul Azha. Many know goat breeds are present in Pakistan i.e. Beetal, Teddy, Nachi and Damani etc. Beetal is known for being one of the best dairy breeds in Asia.
In Pakistan, goats are kept traditionally by poor landless peoples, which ignoring modern husbandry and breeding strategies. There is, however, no breeding characters are established for male breeding breeders in Pakistan. The breeding standers are necessary not only for improving the production and reproduction of goats but also for future breeding plans and strategies. Breeding standers is necessary for the prediction of the age of puberty and to improving genetic potential.
To establish the breeding standers in Beetal male goats, Muhammad Ashraf performed experiments during his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dr Amjad Riaz at the department of Theriogenology, UVAS, Lahore. We reared 52 Beetal male kids from birth to puberty. We learned that anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) exhibits a characteristic profile and its peak at 40-60 days of age. The important male hormone is testosterone; its peak was observed at puberty. The majority of kids showed initiation of sexual behaviours when testosterone level was around 1.3 ng/ml. the active spermatogenesis was observed at 4-6 months of age when high expression of spermatogenic genes (PRM1, STRA8 and ODF2). In male goat kids, the scrotal circumference was 22 cm at the pubertal onset. The pubertal onset in male kids was at 175 days of age. In conclusion, these findings are useful to enhance the reproductive genetic potential of our native goat breed (Beetal). It is strongly insisted that L&DD Punjab should take initiative to regulate and implement the breeding strategy to improve the small ruminants (goats).
MUHAMMAD ASHRAF
Lahore
