Built on over 490 acres of land in Savar, near Jahanginagar University, the key research areas of Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) revolve around genetics and animal breeding, housing among others a variety of poultry, even ostriches.
After “38 research chickens” were stolen from the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) earlier this year, the media covered the event enthusiastically. It also sparked a lot of curiosity about how the institute works: what does it actually do with the chickens?
So, recently, we visited the BLRI headquarters in Savar to see for ourselves what is happening there and what those in charge are doing.
Built on over 490 acres of land in Savar, near Jahanginagar University, it looks nothing like a farm housing chickens upon entry. Inside, BLRI is home to many other animals including hundreds of cows of different breeds, buffaloes, goats, Garole sheep (a small breed raised for meat and best known for its high reproductive performance), ducks, Aseel chicken (a type of game) and even ostriches.
The information officer told us that most local animals are sought based on “purity of local breeds” and that the “best species” are bred to achieve perfection passed down from generation to generation.
In addition, BLRI also improvises animal breeding and feeding techniques. They have 10 divisions including research on animal and poultry production, animal health, agricultural systems, training, etc.
Key areas of their research revolve around animal and poultry genetics and breeding, feed and nutrition, biotechnology, environment and climate, health and disease animals and poultry and socio-economic agricultural systems.
On the day of our visit, although its DG and other DGs did not grant us an interview, Dev Jyoti Ghosh, information officer at BLRI, took us on a tour of the agricultural section.
They have three major local breeds of cows. The breed locally known as “Pabna cows” is named BLRI Cattle Breed-1 or BCB-1.
“We have increased their productivity over the years. The Pabna cows here produce 3 to 3.5 liters of milk per day instead of the usual 1.5 to 2 liters per day because we have maintained purity, mating, food and housing environment,” Dev told The Business. Standard.
“We do crossbreeding of animals with advanced breeds, but that’s not the only thing here. The purebred of our cows is not maintained in the field due to unplanned crossbreeding. So we strive to maintain this here by doing ‘best for best’. This means that the largest and healthiest males and females are mated to achieve the best results,” he said, adding: “In doing so, over the years, their purity and productivity increase.”
Red Chattogram Cattle (RCC) is a red cow locally known as Laal Goru, Ashtomukhi Laal Goru etc.
“With best mating practices here, some RCCs produce up to nine liters of milk per day while they produce up to two liters of milk per day elsewhere. On average, RCCs here produce three to four liters” , he said. “This improvement happened because of food and shelter.”
A Holstein Friesian (an international breed of dairy cattle) can give you 20 liters of milk while locals will produce three to four liters. But the fundamental difference is that locals consume 1/3 of what a Holstein consumes. Housing capacity will be expensive at Holstein, not including health and treatment costs.
“I can have two RCCs on the budget of one Holstein,” Dev said.
There are other local breeds like Mirkadeem, North Bengal Grey, etc. All of these animals are kept deeper inside the facility in a dozen sheds.
On the side of the facility adjacent to the Dhaka-Aricha highway, we saw buffalo, duck, sheep, ostrich and pheasant farms.
The official objectives with these animals are essentially the same: to develop more efficient breeds while keeping the purity of local breeds intact.
The BLRI Ordinance was established in 1984 but began operations in 1987. Its accomplishments are listed in a document on its website. According to him, the institute has developed 91 technologies and “packages” in the fields of animal and poultry production, animal health, animal feed and nutrition.
Achievements include development of BCB-1 or Pabna breed, RCC, Mirkadeem and North Bengal Gray breeds, cow feeding technologies, improved grass varieties like Napier 1, 2 and 3, salinity tolerant grass, vaccines against lumpy lumpy disease, PPR (Peste des Petits Ruminants and caprine pox, bioelectricity from agricultural waste, etc.
It’s clear that BLRI isn’t just about chickens. But media coverage of the theft with the utmost seriousness is also rational because it calls into question the overall security system of the establishment. What else could be stolen in such a vast space?
We had prepared these questions for the DG and Additional DG. But the two officials did not respond to our calls.
In addition to fighting to keep chickens safe, as Dev Jyoti Ghosh told us, BLRI is studying three different local chicken breeds: the relatively longer-throated chickens, the bare-throated chickens, and the hilly breed.
“We have developed the commercial BLRI Layer-1 strain named Shuvra and the Layer Strain-2 named Shorna. And there is the meat producing breed (MCTC- from the BLRI document we got from the website) which we developed”, Dev .
The information officer does not think it is important to address the issue of stolen chickens in relation to the overall work of the BLRI.
He explained that where local breeds produce between 140 and 150 eggs per year, their breeds produce up to 280 eggs per year. “Our main goal is to conserve indigenous breeds and improve their productivity in egg and meat production.”
