Non-genetic variables influence disposal patterns in Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2975294/v1

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Non-genetic variables influence disposal patterns in Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2975294/v1

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The current study was carried out to look into the disposal patterns of Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes kept at ICAR-CIRB, Hisar and Sub-Campus Nabha, Punjab, respectively. The purpose of the investigation was to estimate the various non-genetic factors affecting culling and mortality patterns in buffaloes to suggest suitable health management practices, selection, and breeding strategies for enhancing genetic gain in buffaloes. From 1983 to 2017, 1180 data of 679 Murrah and 501 Nili-Ravi were used to calculate the frequency of culling and death. The impacts of several parameters on disposal were explored, including breed, period of disposal, season of disposal, and lactation completed. The findings revealed that in Murrah, 90.72% of buffaloes were disposed of due to culling and 9.28% due to mortality. While, in the instance of Nili-Ravi, animal disposal due to culling accounted for 89.62% of the total, with mortality accounting for 10.38%. The main reason for culling was old age and low production, while the majority of buffaloes died from cardiovascular, digestive, and respiratory problems. Furthermore, the effect of season was highly significant (p < 0.001) on the pattern of culling in buffaloes. Additionally, majority of the animals culled in the winter season, followed by summer and most of the animals culled were old aged (45 and 22%), low yielder (35 and 27%) and affected with mastitis (30 and 28%), respectively in both the winter and summer seasons. Moreover, the effect of period of disposal was highly significant (p < 0.001) on the both pattern of mortality and culling in buffaloes. Further, maximum (34%) number of animals culled in the period 1994-98 due to old age whereas lowest culling rate (3%) was seen during 2014 to 2018. In this sequence, it may be determined that the reason for disposal differs depending on the breed, period, season and lactation completed.As a result, our efforts should be directed towards improving management practices with the goal of lowering the rate of culling and mortality, which leads to higher lifetime performance and, as a result, the overall efficiency of the dairy farm.

Breed

Culling

Disposal

Mortality

Murrah

Nili-Ravi

India is a country in the subtropics. Agriculture employs the majority of the population and accounts for 11.06% of total GDP. Furthermore, the livestock sector accounts for approximately 30.13% of overall agricultural GDP and 6.17% of India's total GDP. At current rates, the livestock sector's gross value added (GVA) is Rs. 11,14,249 crores, the majority of which comes from milk and meat (BAHS 2022). India leads the globe in milk production (221.06 million tonnes), which has climbed by 5.29% over the previous year. In addition, milk availability per capita of up to 444 g/day has also recently been reached. Furthermore, buffalo accounts for around 45.07% of total milk output in the country and are well adapted to subtropical climates such as India. India ranks first in the total buffalo number and accounts for roughly 56.7% of the total global buffalo population. The overall number of buffaloes in the country is 109.85 million, a 1.1% rise from the previous livestock census (DAHD 2019). In India, buffalo is the primary dairy animal, and it continues to be a vital source of revenue, nourishment, and employment for the country's enormous rural population. It is a quadruple-purpose animal, ideal for milk, meat, draught, and leather. The Murrah and Nili-Ravi breeds of milk producing buffalo have the best genetic material in the country. It has been regarded as one of the best global buffalo breeds, capable of producing high fat milk as well as meat. The buffaloes have spread across practically the entire country, with different population densities, with the bulk situated in the north and west. Murrah is a native of Haryana, and Nili-Ravi is found in the state of Punjab, primarily in the Ravi River valley. These breeds, however, have spread practically to every section of the country. But, the success of the dairy sector is dependent on the health of the livestock, since improved health enhances dairy farm output. Furthermore, animal disposal patterns include culling as well as mortality for a variety of reasons. Culling is the process of eliminating animals from a herd for specified purposes, most notably to remove undesirable qualities from the herd while retaining profit. Animals that are less productive or have health issues are culled through auction. Culling based on the poor output allows for the retention of high yielders for faster genetic improvement (Gupta et al. 2015). In addition, the main cause of the decrease in lifetime productivity and longevity is culling and adult mortality (Ilieva and Peeva 2007). Further, low milk yield was cited as the primary reason for culling in 31.3% of Murrah and 27% of Nili-Ravi buffaloes (Rao 1982; Ahmad et al. 1992). According to some reports, the biggest reason for culling (44%) in dairy cattle is failure to conceive during the first lactation (Do et al. 2013). Animal disposal owing to mortality diminishes productive and herd life, which has a negative impact on their lifetime production performance (Taraphder et al. 2011). Moving further, there are numerous reasons for disposals, which vary according to breed, period, season, and number of lactations completed. Knowledge of disposal reasons and their management is critical for a healthy and profitable dairy enterprise. An examination of the literature revealed that observations on the effect of several characteristics such as breed, period of disposal, season of disposal, and number of lactations completed on the disposal patterns of Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes are limited, particularly in Northern India's humid subtropical climate. Hence, this study was done to analyse the influence of various non-genetic factors on the culling and mortality patterns in buffaloes in order to recommend appropriate health management practises, selection, and breeding approaches for the genetic improvement of the buffaloes.

2.1 Data collection

The data on reason of disposals pertaining to Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes was collected from the history sheet of animals for a period from 1983 to 2017 (35 year) maintained at ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, Hisar and Sub-Campus, Nabha, Punjab. The data for all the buffaloes born and calved in the farms was recorded up to the date of death/ disposal. The animals completed minimum of three lactations with minimum lactation length > 150 days and production > 1000kg for first lactation were selected. The data was collected on disposal records of 1180 adult buffaloes which included 679 Murrah and 501 Nili-Ravi. The reasons for culling of adult buffaloes were classified as old age, low yielder, mastitis, reproductive, health problems and other. Whereas, reasons for mortality were categorized as digestive, respiratory, reproductive, cardiovascular disorders, accidental deaths and other.

The data was uniformly classified according to breed, period of disposal, season of disposal and number of lactations completed. The complete data were grouped into Murrah and Nili-Ravi breed. Period of disposal (1989 to 2018) was divided into six groups each consisting of five consecutive years. Each year was further delineated into four seasons of disposal according to geo-climatic conditions in the area viz; summer (April to June), rainy (July to September), autumn (October to November) and winter (December to March). The data on disposal traits were further classified according to the number of lactations completed into five categories viz; Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven & above.

2.2 Model and statistical analysis

The IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0 software (Snedecor and Cochran 1994) was used to estimate the effects of various non-genetic factors and the results were interpreted in the tabular form. The rates of animals disposed from the herd were calculated by frequency distribution using descriptive statistics. The following General linear model was applied:

Y_ijklm = µ + B_i+P_j+S_k +R_l+ e_ijklm

Y_ijklm = the m^th observation in i^thbreed, j^thperiod, k^thseason and l^th parity

µ = Overall population mean

B_i = Fixed effect of i^thbreed (i = 1 to 2)

P_j = Fixed effect of j^thperiod of disposal (j = 1 to 6)

S_k = Fixed effect of k^thseason of disposal (k = 1 to 4)

R_l = Fixed effect of l^th parity (l = 1 to 5)

e_ijklm = Random / residual effect assumed to be NID (0, σ²₁)

The statistical significance between various reasons of culling and mortality with different factors was assessed using Chi-square test. The statistical significance was considered if P < 0.05.

3.1 Disposal in Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes

Out of 679 Murrah buffalo 616 (90.72%) disposed due to culling and 63 (9.28%) due to mortality. In total 449 (89.62%) Nili-Ravi buffaloes were culled whereas mortality accounted for 52 (10.38%) out of 501 animals disposed during the same period of the study (Table 1). However, Bangar et al. (2014) reported mortality rate of 7.98% in buffaloes of Maharastra region and overall mortality rate in bovine was reported 9.14% by Chaudhary et al. (2013) in Himanchal Pradesh.

Table 1

Overall culling and mortality pattern in Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes
Breed	Total	Culling	Died	Culling rate (%)	Mortality rate (%)
Murrah	679	616	63	90.72	9.28
Nili-Ravi	501	449	52	89.62	10.38
Total	1180	1065	115	90.25	9.75

3.1.1 Culling and mortality pattern in buffaloes

The reasons for culling and mortality in the buffaloes during the period from 1989 to 2018 are presented in Table 2. Among the buffaloes, out of culled animals (1065), the major reason of culling was old age and low milk production which accounted around 27 and 22%, respectively of total culling. Further, reproductive problems constituted 19% followed by mastitis (18%) and other health problems (6%). The other health problems comprised of lameness, abscess on knee joints, rheumatic arthritis, chronic arthritis, weakness, eye blindness, severe chronic eye injury, hide bound condition, tumour, hip deformity, pelvic deformity, fracture, herniation of reticulorumen and nervous symptoms etc. In all about 9% animal culled by miscellaneous factors which includes off breed, wide horn, loose horn and white star on forehead in Murrah while, off breed and drooping horn in case of Nili-Ravi breed. Reproductive problems cover metritis, infertility, post-partum anoestrus, pyometra, cystic ovary, post-partum prolapse, cervical tumour, abortion and retention of placenta. Similar to our findings, Chhikara et al. (1978) in buffaloes and, Malhotra and Parmar (2005) in dairy cattle found that highest numbers of animals were culled for low milk yield. Similarly, Rao (1982) and Ahmad (1999) also reported that low milk yield accounted for 31.3% of Murrah buffaloes and 27% in Nili-Ravi buffaloes as the main reason for culling. The culling rhythm was also studied by Gupta et al. (2015), they reported proportion of buffaloes culled for low milk production was the highest (30.77%), followed by reproduction related problems (30.39%), old age (14.76%), disease (9.64%), health type (8.89%) and miscellaneous condition (5.55%). This showed that nearly two third of culling (61.06%) was due to low milk production and reproduction related problems. The results of Peeva and Ilieva (2007) illustrate that the buffaloes culled for gynecological reasons were highest (41%), followed by low productivity (19%), prolapsed (11%), short lactations (7%) and old age (9%). Similarly, Taraphder et al. (2011) reported that reproductive problems (38.62%), low milk production (24.01%) and udder problems (22.76%) as the three major reasons of culling. Also, Cady et al. (1983) reported mastitis and failure to let down milk as main reasons for culling on Nili-Ravi buffaloes. On the other hand, Do et al. (2013) noticed that the primary reason for culling (44%) was due to failure to conceive in first lactation in dairy cattle. In addition, Upadhyay et al. (2014) concluded that most of the adult cows were culled because of teat, udder and reproductive problems from the herd.

The different reasons of mortality in the buffaloes are depicted in the Table 2. Out of total 115 animals disposed due to mortality in buffaloes, the maximum mortality occurred due to cardio-vascular (31%), followed by digestive (27%), respiratory disorder (23%), reproductive (6%) and accidental deaths (5%). Additionally, the animals died due to miscellaneous factors accounted 23%. Further, respiratory disorder includes pneumonia, adhesions in lungs and tuberculosis. Cardio-vascular disorder consists of haemorrhagic shock, traumatic pericarditis and septicaemia. Digestive disorder includes hepatitis, gastro-enteritis, peritonitis, tympanitis and traumatic reticuloperitonitis. The reproductive disorders comprise of endometritis, dystocia, post-partum prolapse and rupture of uterus. Furthermore, accidental deaths cover electrocution, drowning, trauma and snake bite. Whereas, nervous disorder, paralysis, parasitic diseases, nephritis and old age were included under the miscellaneous factors. In conformity with the finding, Taraphder et al. (2011) in Murrah buffaloes observed that the maximum mortality occurred due to digestive problems which accounted for 30.89% followed by cardio-vascular problems (26.02%), respiratory problems (21.14%), parasitic problems (8.13%) and uro-genital problems (5.69%). In some other studies, the highest adult mortality occurred due to respiratory disease which accounted 29.28% of total mortality in buffaloes (Rathore 1998).

Table 2

Various reasons of culling and mortality pattern in buffaloes
Culling pattern			Mortality pattern
Reason	Number	%	Reason	Number	%
Old age	287	26.95	Digestive	27	23.48
Low yielder	237	22.25	Respiratory	23	20.00
Mastitis	187	17.56	Reproductive	6	5.22
Reproductive	202	18.97	Cardiovascular	31	26.96
Health problems	61	5.73	Accidental	5	4.35
Miscellaneous	91	8.54	Miscellaneous	23	20.00
Total culled	1065	100.00	Total died	115	100.00

3.1.2 Culling of buffaloes based on various factors

3.1.2.1 Breed wise culling

Highly significant (p < 0.001) effects of breed were noticed on the culling pattern of buffaloes (Table 3). The number of animals culled due to old age was significantly higher in case of Murrah when compared with Nili-Ravi. Similarly, Waldner et al. (2009) also reported that rate of culling increases with the advance in age of animals. While, the number of animals discarded owing to low milk production and mastitis were greater in the Nili-Ravi breed. Furthermore, greater number of animals among Murrah breed were removed from the herd as a consequence of reproductive, health problem and miscellaneous factors in comparison with Nili-Ravi breed of the buffaloes.

3.1.2.2 Period wise reason of culling in buffaloes

Period wise reason of culling in the buffaloes is presented in the Table 3. Effect of period of disposal was highly significant (P < 0.001) on the culling pattern in buffaloes. Further, maximum (34%) number of animals culled in the period 1994-98 due to old age whereas lowest culling rate (3%) was seen during 2014 to 2018 depicting decreasing trend of culling across the periods which may be attributed to the fact that the different aspect of management practices was improved with the passage of time in the dairy farm. Moreover, highest number of buffaloes culled owing to low milk production between 1999 to 2003 while, the number of animals discarded because of mastitis were more from the period 2004 to 2013. Moving further, the buffaloes removed on account of reproductive problems accounted major proportion between 1999 to 2008. Moreover, highest number of animals (31%) culled due to health problems during 2009 to 2013. Additionally, majority of the culling occurred due miscellaneous factors from the year 2004 to 2008 besides other group of periods. However, according to some reports no definite rhythm of culling between periods in the herd of crossbred cattle was found (Juneja et al. 1991).

3.1.2.3 Season wise incidence of culling in buffaloes

It is evident from the Table 3 that the effect of season was highly significant (p < 0.001) on the pattern of culling in buffaloes. Further, majority of the animals culled in winter season, followed by summer. Most of the animals culled were old aged (45 and 22%), low yielder (35 and 27%) and affected with mastitis (30 and 28%), respectively in both the winter and summer seasons. Furthermore, the other causes of culling were reproductive and health problems, observed to be highest in the winter and autumn season, respectively. In this line, miscellaneous factors accounted major reason of culling during both winter and summer seasons. The results were in accordance with the findings of Shivahre et al. (2014) in Murrah buffaloes.

3.1.2.4 Reason of culling in different groups of lactation completed in buffaloes

The perusal of the Table 3 revealed highly significant (p < 0.001) influence of lactation completed on the culling patterns in buffaloes. In addition, old age constituted major cause of culling among the animal completed 7 and above lactations while, the animals culled due to low milk production were mostly from the parity 3 as well as 4. Further, the majority of the animals discarded due to mastitis (24%) and reproductive problems (27%) had completed 3 lactations. Moreover, removal of the animals because of health problems were of mostly 7 and above parity. Whereas, maximum number of animals culled due to miscellaneous factors were from the set of animals completed 4 lactations. In this line, similar culling pattern was observed in Hariana cattle (Kumar 1999). Major reason of culling was old age, low production, mastitis, reproductive and health problems in all the set of parity. Additionally, similar rhythm of culling was also reported by Rawal and Tomar (1998) in Tharparkar breed.

Table 3

Factors associated with culling pattern (%) of Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes
Factor	Old age	Low yielder	Mastitis	Reproductive	Health problems	Miscellaneous	Chi-square
Breed
Murrah	90.59	35.86	36.90	50.99	54.10	72.53	219.10**
Nili-Ravi	9.41	64.14	63.10	49.01	45.90	27.47
Period
1989-93	27.87	14.35	1.60	3.96	1.64	0.00	354.66**
1994-98	34.49	8.86	8.02	10.40	3.28	0.00
1999-03	15.68	24.47	22.46	23.76	13.11	18.68
2004-08	12.20	23.63	23.53	23.27	24.59	47.25
2009-13	6.62	12.24	23.53	18.81	31.15	29.67
2014-18	3.14	16.46	20.86	19.80	26.23	4.40
Season
Summer	21.95	27.00	27.81	23.76	24.59	32.97	32.53**
Rainy	16.72	18.14	23.53	21.78	11.48	20.88
Autumn	16.72	19.83	18.18	24.26	34.43	13.19
Winter	44.60	35.02	30.48	30.20	29.51	32.97
Lactation
3	24.04	34.18	24.06	26.73	14.75	24.18	87.99**
4	14.63	31.65	21.39	21.29	19.67	28.57
5	13.24	12.24	16.04	16.83	14.75	24.18
6	12.89	10.55	16.58	16.34	19.67	15.38
7 & above	35.19	11.39	21.93	18.81	31.15	7.69
Total	287	237	187	202	61	91
**Significant at 1% level

3.1.3 Mortality of buffaloes based on various factors

3.1.3.1 Breed wise mortality

The perusal of the Table 4 indicates that the number of animals died due to digestive problem was numerically higher in Murrah as compared to Nili-Ravi breed. While, the animals deceased due to respiratory problems were more in Nili-Ravi as compared to Murrah buffaloes. Further, the number of animals died due to reproductive, cardiovascular disorder and miscellaneous factors were greater in Murrah relative to Nili-Ravi breed. Whereas, among the accidental deaths, majority of the animals were from the Nili-Ravi breed.

3.1.3.2 Period wise reason of mortality in buffaloes

The effect of period of disposal was highly significant (p < 0.001) on the pattern of mortality in buffaloes. It is clear from the Table 4 that among the buffaloes died as a consequence of digestive (59%) and respiratory disorder (48%), significantly more number were observed during the period 2009 to 2013 in comparison with other group of periods. Further, the buffaloes deceased on account of reproductive disorder were higher from the period 1999 to 2003. Moreover, the deaths as a cause of cardiovascular problems and accidental injury were noticed to be maximum from the year 2004 to 2008. In this sequence, majority of the deaths observed during 1989 to 1993 were as a result of miscellaneous factors and this reason of mortality was also higher relative to other class of periods. In conformity with our results, Prasad et al. (2004) also reported variable mortality pattern during different periods in dairy cattle breeds.

3.1.3.3 Season wise incidence of mortality in buffaloes

The perusal of the Table 4 indicates that the buffaloes deceased as a result of digestive, respiratory and cardiovascular problems were comparatively higher in winter season when compared to other time periods. Furthermore, reproductive problems were more pronounced during summer and caused greater number of deaths. The reason could be associated with the aspect that buffaloes are more susceptible to heat stress than cattle due to their dark body colour, lack of sweat glands, and thick epidermal layer of skin, resulting in silent heat and a negative influence on buffalo reproduction performance. However, the other cause of mortality was cardiovascular and accidental injury, which was noticed more at the time of winter and rainy, respectively. Electrocution, trauma, and drowning cause accidental deaths. This could be caused by rain-dropped wires, defective wires, lighting, or gnawing on cords. Fallen electric transmission wires in water are especially dangerous (Aiello 1998; Radostitis et al. 2000; Bae 2008). Additionally, the deaths on account of miscellaneous reasons were seen numerically higher during rainy and autumn seasons. Similar to our results, highest mortality in winter season was observed by Shivahre et al. (2014) in Murrah buffaloes.

3.1.3.4 Reason of mortality in different groups of lactation completed in buffaloes

It is evident from the Table 4 that the digestive disturbances comprised of major cause of mortality among the buffaloes completed both 3 and 5 lactations. In addition, the animals died as a consequence of respiratory and cardiovascular disorder were mostly from the parity 3, 4 and 5, while the deaths due to reproductive problems were higher (50%) among the animals which completed 6 lactations. Moreover, greater number of animals died on account of accidental injury and miscellaneous factors were from the set of buffaloes completed 5 and 3 lactations, respectively.

Table 4

Factors associated with mortality pattern (%) of Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes
	Digestive	Respiratory	Reproductive	Cardiovascular	Accidental	Miscellaneous	Chi-square
Breed
Murrah	51.85	34.78	66.67	58.06	40	73.91	8.12^NS
Nili-Ravi	48.15	65.22	33.33	41.94	60	26.09
Period
1989-93	3.7	4.35	0	3.23	0	39.13	66.52**
1994-98	3.7	8.7	0	25.81	0	26.09
1999-03	11.11	13.04	50	3.23	20	4.35
2004-08	14.81	17.39	16.67	32.26	40	4.35
2009-13	59.26	47.83	16.67	16.13	20	13.04
2014-18	7.41	8.7	16.67	19.35	20	13.04
Season
Summer	14.81	26.09	50	22.58	0	13.04	14.11^NS
Rainy	25.93	26.09	16.67	19.35	60	30.43
Autumn	18.52	17.39	33.33	16.13	20	30.43
Winter	40.74	30.43	0	41.94	20	26.09
Lactation
3	29.63	21.74	0	22.58	20	39.13	20.82^NS
4	3.7	30.43	16.67	22.58	20	13.04
5	29.63	30.43	33.33	22.58	40	8.7
6	18.52	13.04	50	16.13	20	21.74
7 & above	18.52	4.35	0	16.13	0	17.39
Total	27	23	6	31	5	23

**Significant at 1% level; NS: Non-significant

In Murrah breed, 90.72% buffaloes disposed due to culling and 9.28% due to mortality. While in case of Nili-Ravi, disposal of animals due to culling accounted 89.62% and mortality 10.38%. Major reason of culling was old age and low production whereas, majority of animals died due to cardiovascular, digestive and respiratory disorders in both Murrah as well as Nili-Ravi buffaloes. Buffaloes are generally culled for low production, fertility problems and other health complications, which decreases longevity. The high involuntary culling rate not only makes the dairy enterprises economically less profitable but also reduces the genetic improvement for milk production by lowering the selection differential. The results obtained from this study may be utilized to develop improved management practices for decreasing rate of disposal of high yielders.

Acknowledgement

The authors are highly thankful to the Director & Scientists ICAR-CIRB, Hisar for providing the research facilities and immense support to undertake this study. We would also wish to acknowledge ICAR-NDRI, Government of India, for granting funds and rendering essential assistance throughout the research work.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest: The authors affirm that they have no conflict of interest.

Statement of animal rights: There are no clinical studies or patient information in the manuscript.

Funding status

The animal study did not require funding because the investigation was based upon livestock data from disposals of Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes. The information was gathered from animal history sheets kept at the ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, Hisar and Sub-Campus, Nabha, Punjab, over a 35-year period.

Data availability statement

The livestock data was recorded from the animal history sheet over a 35-year period, and the data will be made available as requested by the respective authors, without undue reserve.

Author's contribution

PT contributed to the collection of data, data curation, and drafting of the manuscript. AB contributed to the design of the experiment. AKC contributed to the interpretation of results and revision of the manuscript. YB contributed to the statistical analysis. SK contributed to the collection of data and curation. KPS contributed to the data classification. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

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Editorial decision: Major revision with re-assessment
04 Sep, 2023
Reviewers agreed at journal
05 Jul, 2023
Reviewers invited by journal
07 Jun, 2023
Editor assigned by journal
02 Jun, 2023
First submitted to journal
01 Jun, 2023

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Non-genetic variables influence disposal patterns in Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes

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Abstract

1. INTRODUCTION

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Data collection

2.2 Model and statistical analysis

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Disposal in Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes

3.1.1 Culling and mortality pattern in buffaloes

3.1.2 Culling of buffaloes based on various factors

3.1.2.1 Breed wise culling

3.1.2.2 Period wise reason of culling in buffaloes

3.1.2.3 Season wise incidence of culling in buffaloes

3.1.2.4 Reason of culling in different groups of lactation completed in buffaloes

3.1.3 Mortality of buffaloes based on various factors

3.1.3.1 Breed wise mortality

3.1.3.2 Period wise reason of mortality in buffaloes

3.1.3.3 Season wise incidence of mortality in buffaloes

3.1.3.4 Reason of mortality in different groups of lactation completed in buffaloes

4. CONCLUSION

Declarations

References

Status:

Version 1