By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 24.09.2020 (SciDev.Net): Selective breeding of water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) and cattle with the help of genomics could help increase livestock productivity, thereby improving food security, nutrition and incomes for millions of smallholder farmers in Asia, says a new study.

The study is one of the first to examine multiple water buffalo genomes. A genome is an animal or organism’s complete set of DNA. The study was published in Nature Communications on 21 September by The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, UK, with collaborators from Asia and Africa.

The researchers found that improvement via domestication in a species’ key traits, including milk production, coat colour, body size and disease resistance, leaves detectable signals in their genomes. This paves the way for improved farm animal health and production for smallholders through selective breeding.

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