Black Bengal Field Unit, West Bengal University Of Animal & Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal

Principal Investigator

Dr. Manoranjan Roy,   Asst. Professor Animal Breeding, WBUAS, Kolkata

Activity assigned and targets fixed for each activity during the period

Apart from implementation of technical programme, he unit was assigned following activities.

1. Identification, selection and rearing of approximately 100 kids for future buck production. The selection of male kids should based on type of birth and weaning weight.
2. Distribution of superior bucks amongst farmers of adopted villages and also to the goat farmers of the state for genetic improvement purpose.
3. Distribution of fodder tree saplings and development of fodder plots at farmers’ door.
4. Organization of animal health, vaccination and deworming camps, trainings to the farmer in the field units.
5. Promote Artificial Insemination in field centres.
6. Processing and preservation of frozen semen. .
7. Development and execution of a health and fodder calendar.
8. Documentation on Impact of the project, production and economic status of  farmers.

Activity carried out during the period

            This is a field based unit. Major work on pedigree and performance recording, bringing upon genetic improvement have been carried out on farmers flock distributed over various clusters. Following are the detail of work carried out and achievements made so far.

Detailed Achievements

            Black Bengal Field Unit is under the West Bengal University of Animal and Fisheries Sciences, Kolkata. The Goat improvement work has been undertaken in this area. The project involved 1672 numbers of registered Black Bengal doe reared by 374 registered goat farmers rearing in four village clusters of four Gram Panchayat of three different blocks in two Districts (Nadia- Ayeshpur and Ganguria, South 24 Parganas – Rangabelia and Murshidabad- Bamunia) of west Bengal.

Flock Statistics

            The flock statistics of Black Bengal goat during the period 2013-14 in 4 village–centers is presented in Table 1. The total population at the end of the year was 1672. Adult number of doe is 623 and male goat was 69 in the population. A total of 1808 kids were born and 1031 goat were sold during the year. Mortality number is 273 contributing 6.80% of the total population. The population growth during the report period was 53.65 %.

Table 1: Flock Statistics of Black Bengal goats during the period 2013-14

Body Weight

            The least squares means for sex wise body weight has been presented in Table 2. The body weight during the year 2013-14 at birth, 3, 6 and 9 month of age were 1.187±0.010, 4.773±0.06, 7.316±0.102 and 9.787±0.114 kg, respectively. While the body weight during the year 2012-13 at birth, 3, 6 and 9 month of age were 1.23±0.01, 4.92±0.10, 7.62±0.12 and 10.60±0.25 kg, respectively. Variation in body weight at different ages is significant for all village units. The highest birth weight was recorded at Ganguria village unit (1.303±0.018 kg), followed by Ayeshpur (1.205±0.015 kg) and lowest at Rangabelia (1.031±0.018 kg). At 3 months of age the highest body weight was recorded at Ganguria village unit (5.241±0.119 kg), followed by Rangabelia (4.614±0.117 kg) and lowest at Ayeshpur (4.418±0.106 kg). But at 6 and 9 months of age the highest body weight was recorded at Rangabelia village unit (7.788±0.172 kg and 10.435±0.197 kg), followed by Ganguria (7.624±0.177 kg and 9.891±0.167 kg) and lowest at Ayeshpur (6.381±0.178 and 8.752±0.242 kg). This probably indicates the higher genetic potential of does and bucks as well as better nutrition received by them due to better care taken by the owners. Body measurements viz. body height; body length, heart girth, paunch girth, ear length and horn length at different ages are also reported.

Table 2: Least Square Means of Body weight growth (Kg) in Black Bengal Goat

Genetic Parameters

The birth weight is low heritable 0.034 ± 0.046 in the population. The heritability increase with advancement  of age and the  highest value  at 9 month  age is 0.648 ± 0.054. Genetic and phenotypic correlation of body weight was also calculated and found that all are positively correlated.

Reproduction

The age at first service and first kidding was 304.47±23.77 days and 439.17±24.67 days respectively in 2013-14, which is higher than in previous years (Table 3). In the report year, the weight of doe at first service and first kidding was 9.67±0.55 Kg and 12.69±0.28 Kg, respectively with 80.49±3.54 days as service period, kidding interval was 234.47±4.56 days with 146.14±0.12 days of gestation period (Table 3). In 2013 -14, out of 521 kidding, 956 kids were born of which twin born kids are the highest (54.51%), followed by singlet (31.86 %), triplet (11.90 %), quadruplet (1.54 %) and quintuplet kids (0.19 %) respectively.
Table 3: Least square Mean for Reproductive traits in Black Bengal Goats

Gaps/constraints/shortfalls/excess and reasons thereof, if any

Not applicable.

PC’s evaluation: very good (A) Good (B) poor (C)

            ------------------Very Good (A) -----------------

Future programme identifying the activities, timeline and targets for each of the activity

            Since, the Unit is actively engaged in brining upon improvement in farmers flock following activities are to done priority basis.

1. Identification, selection and rearing of approximately 100 kids for future buck production. The selection of male kids should based on type of birth and weaning weight.
2. Distribution of superior bucks amongst farmers of adopted villages and also to the goat farmers of the state for genetic improvement purpose.
3. Distribution of fodder tree saplings and development of fodder plots at farmers’ door.
4. Organization of animal health, vaccination and deworming camps, trainings to the farmer in the field units.
5. Promote Artificial Insemination in field centres.
6. Processing and preservation of frozen semen. .
7. Development and execution of a health and fodder calendar.
8. Documentation on Impact of the project, production and economic status of  farmers.

Remarks

 This unit has been doing good work and has been able to show positive impact in farmers flock especially on health, fecundity and body weight growth.