MUÑOZ, Nueva Ecija—Researchers at the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) are developing a novel, potentially more reliable technique in determining the fertility of carabao sperm for use in artificial insemination (AI), one of the primary technologies used in carabao breeding.
The Department of Agriculture (DA), through its Biotechnology Program, currently supports a PCC research that looks into improving further carabao breeding efficiency. This is in line with PCC’s and the DA’s goals of improving livestock productivity and helping with the challenge of food security.
The researchers, led by Dr. Eufrocina Atabay, are exploring a newly discovered protein originally found in mice, phospholipase C zeta (PLCz).
Recent advances in animal fertilization technology have identified PLCz as the major trigger in egg fertilization and the development of embryos in mammals.
PLCz can only be found in sperm, and has already seen some success in determining male fertility in humans. Furthermore, it can easily be detected with the western blot technique, a well-established method for determining the presence of proteins in a biological sample. The research is divided into two phases and targeted to be completed in 2016.
The first phase deals with developing the procedure for detecting and characterizing buffalo PLCz. The second phase aims to develop and subsequently utilize an anti-buffalo PLCz antibody for screening PLCz in buffalo sperm.
Antibodies are proteins that complement the structure of its protein pair, much like a keyhole to a key. An anti-PLCz antibody will make it even easier and more reliable to detect the protein PLCz, thereby, identifying which bulls are more fertile for having a high content of PLCz.
In a process called fertility indexing, better performing bull semen will be chosen as semen donor for calf production.
The study stands to benefit breeding programs for carabao and other livestock species, which is already generating interest from breeding centers, livestock raisers and farmers, being the biggest potential beneficiaries.
There is potentially major impact toward overall increase in animal population, meat and milk production, and economic benefits for livestock raisers because of potential improvement in the success of AI, following the use of semen from carabaos with known fertility.