Abstract

Author:
Gayatri Bhandari , Priya Shahi, Archana Chand, Prabin B.K, Surya Prasad Sharma

Doi: 10.26480/mahj.01.2024.08.11

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Selective breeding in cows has been practiced in the past for different desirable traits in animals. In recent decades, it has led to a tremendous increase in milk yield. Along with its increase in yielding capacity, it has become one of the prominent factors leading to different diseases, disorders, declining longevity, mastitis problems, increased lameness, and other metabolic effects. On the one hand, selective breeding has been an effective management tool in maintaining diversity in breeds while on the other hand because of several associated effects, has caused many problems. This review thus focuses on the diverse perspectives of selective breeding in cows. This paper aims to address and improve the selection scenarios in various programs. Different journals were searched and studied on related topics before starting the review. The journals were selected from different parts of the world randomly visualizing the overall conditions of cows while doing selective breeding. Generally, people focus on the yielding capacity of cows neglecting other health traits, and the fertility state has been inviting a bigger problem. But now, in many countries, only the yield factor is not considered but rather includes fertility, conformation, efficiency, and health of cows along with the incorporation of many developed technologies. According to the preference of the breed, important differences can be found in farming systems in breeding goals and various breeding scenarios. If it is to consider the breeding programs without leading to the extinction of local breeds then sure there is a chance that breeds can be well preserved effectively but the technologies used must maintain the naturalness of breeding and the breed must fit the existing farming system.