THE MMSU-based Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) is trying to conserve the native carabao by increasing its genetic potential so that it can perform better in various farming activities and serve as alternative livelihood animal in the rural areas.

Grace Marjorie Recta, PCC director, said the center recognizes the need to intensify farming activities by improving the breed of the native carabao so that it would also become an excellent source of meat, milk, and draft.

“Every year we are targeting about 5,000 artificial insemination (AI) services to native carabaos in Ilocos Norte’s rural areas, mostly in Marcos and San Nicolas towns, so that their livestock offspring will be improved,” she said.

The PCC chief said the success rate of the AI is 33 percent. Thus, the center has already produced around 800 mestizo breeds of carabaos last year.

Recta said the PCC gives free semen to farmer-beneficiaries but they should pay the services of a private technician who will do the AI. Private technicians usually collect a standard fee of P500 per carabao.

In Ilocos Norte, carabao is still a major source of farm power in small farms. Traditional farmers rely on this animal for draft power for almost all farming operations. At the same time, it provides them income from the sale of milk and live animal for slaughter.

The population of native carabao in the country has been declining since 1980 at an average rate of about 0.37 percent per year next to cattle which declined by 1.43 percent during the same period.

Its low productivity can be attributed to low conception rate caused by poor management and nutrition, lack of good quality breeding bulls, reluctance of farmers to improve the breed of their female carabaos when used for work, and the farmers’ practice of tethering the animals which limits the access of in-heat female carabao to be served by bulls.

PCC records show a significant percentage of female carabaos that has not given birth until the age of five, others even up to 10 years. The calving interval is two to three years, which means that female carabaos can produce only two to three offspring throughout their productive life.

Recta said that this reproductive rate is very low. With this scenario, the productivity of the Philippine carabao will continuously decline if no corrective measures are done. One such measure is through the use of natural breeding which has been proven to be the best alternative in upgrading the native carabao.

“That’s why the PCC has been using good quality breeding bulls that are dispersed in the barangays to breed in-heat local types naturally,” she said.

One major constraint to natural breeding, however, is the limited number of good quality breeding bulls because most of them are usually castrated as work animals while the exotic Murrah buffalo bulls are very limited.

Given this situation, the most logical strategy is the AI technique. With this approach, the problem on silent heat is overcome, thus, production of upgraded carabao, which will be used eventually in the breeding of carabaos in the barangays, is accelerated.

With this technology, a PCC technician induces the female animal to come to heat by injecting it with prostaglandin two times at an 11-day interval. Subsequently, a carabao showing estrus (the period of maximum sexual receptivity) within 72-96 hours are artificially inseminated with semen from good quality bulls.

Previous data on estrus synchronization and artificial insemination in large ruminants, including dairy cattle and carabao, indicated 10-12 percent average conception rate with 2.5 inseminations needed to impregnate the animals.

As mentioned earlier, the application of the AI technology resulted in a 33 percent conception rate of the female carabaos on the first service alone. At this percentage rate per service, repeat breeders bred for the second and the third times, including those pregnant carabaos from the first service, achieved an aggregate 70 percent calf drop.