Central Semen Bank set up in Upper Shillong, Meghalaya

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: A Central Semen Bank has been established at the Intensive Cattle Development Project, Upper Shillong for collection, processing, storage and distribution of semen extracted from elite improved breeds of bulls.

It is a state-of the-art technology set up with the objective to collect and store semen of improved breeds of bulls for upgradation of the local cattle population through artificial insemination.

The semen is collected, analysed and distributed to stockman centres across the State for the purpose of artificial insemination (AI) of local nondescript cattle for breed improvement and increasing cattle population as well increasing milk and beef production.

The Central Semen Bank has a bull farm where elite bulls of popular exotic breeds such as HF, Jersey and indigenous breed such as Red Sindhi, Ongole, Tharparkar, Gir and Sahiwal are maintained for semen collection. Five pure HF bulls were recently imported from Germany to improve local cattle population.

The semen straws are prepared and distributed to field for AI exercise by storing in liquid nitrogen. The Central Semen Bank also has a Liquid Nitrogen Production plant with 10 litre capacity per hour.

During 2020-21, about 20,000 Frozen Semen Straws (FSS) were produced and distributed for AI. So far, artificial insemination has been done in 65,000 local cows.

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