Improved productivity, profitability and sustainability of sheep production in Maharashtra, India through genetically enhanced prolificacy, growth and parasite resistance

• Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, India
• National Chemical Laboratory, India
• University of Melbourne, Australia

It is a high priority of the state and national Governments of India to increase production of sheep meat and other livestock products to meet the growing demand for meat by the Indian population. Another priority is to increase supply of meat at reasonable prices in the rural, less affluent sections of society. This project aims to consolidate and field test, under shepherd management, the improved reproductive rate and parasite resistance of Decanni sheep, using genes that have been introduced from other Indian breeds as a result of earlier ACIAR-funded research.

A major finding of the earlier project was that the Australian Booroola fecundity (prolific) gene seems to have originated in the Garole sheep from the Sundabans in eastern India. The Garole also has considerable resistance to Haemonchus contortus, the predominant parasite of sheep in India and Australia. This project will produce and test appropriate genotypes and develop extension models to assist the poorer shepherd communities of Maharashstra.