Badri Calf Born Through OPU-IVF at Pantnagar in a Boost to Indigenous Cattle Conservation

12 September 2026National

A healthy female Badri calf was born on 11 September 2026 through Ovum Pick-Up and In Vitro Fertilisation (OPU-IVF) at the Academic Dairy Farm of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand. The embryo was produced in the laboratory and carried to term by a Sahiwal surrogate cow. It came out of a three-year programme begun in 2023 with ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, led by then Vice-Chancellor Dr M.S. Chauhan and funded by the Uttarakhand Biotechnology Council, Haldi. Badri, the state animal of Uttarakhand, is a hardy hill breed; the team has also generated cloned Badri embryos.

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OPU stands for Ovum Pick-Up and IVF for In Vitro Fertilisation | ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute is located at Karnal, Haryana, while ICAR itself was set up in 1929 with headquarters in New Delhi | G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, established in 1960, was India's first agricultural university

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