Directorate of Livestock Farms, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana has been selected as one of the centres at all India level for the
improvement of Sahiwal breed. The department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries (DADF), Govt of India has started the Rashtriya Gokul Mission Program under which indigenous breeds of cows like Sahiwal, Gir and Tharparkar has to be conserved and propagated through Embryo Transfer Technology (ETT). It has been envisaged to establish or strengthen 50 ETT laboratories in the country. In the first phase, 15 ETT centres have been selected for strengthening, which are already doing ETT work. In order to create mass awareness about ETT, DADF has planned to transfer 1000 indigenous Breed Embryos during 2nd to 10th October 2017.
To initiate the programme Dr H K Singh, Deputy Registrar, Central herd registration scheme, Rohtak participated in the inaugural programme as a nodal officer of this mission. Dr JPS Gill, Director of Research, GADVASU and Dr P S Brar, Dean, College of Veterinary Science, Dr BK Bansal, Director Livestock Farms, Dr G S Toor, Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry, Ludhiana, faculty members, research scientists and PG students participated in the program. Dr H K Singh told that Sahiwal is considered as the best milch breed of tropical world. However, the number 
of Sahiwal cows and bulls have declined drastically over the years. Sahiwal cows being the native breed are better adapted to tropical climate, having high heat and disease tolerance and have better ability to use poor quality feed & fodder.
Dr JPS Gill informed that to harness the inherent advantages of Sahiwal cows for sustainable milk production, efforts are on to conserve their precious germplasm, which could only be possible through its propagation at farmers level. Dr PS Brar told that the availability of genetically superior Sahiwal cows and production of future breeding bulls is the major concern to promote this breed. The reproductive biotechnique like Multiple Ovulation & Embryo Transfer (MOET) in association with transfer of embryos to recipients have the potential and could facilitate the propagation of superior Sahiwal germplasm at faster rate. Dr B K Bansal revealed that during this Gokul Mission Week, 6 high genetic potential Sahiwal donor cows will be flushed and around 50 embryos will be transferred in crossbred surrogate cows. He further told that directorate has very good team of experts comprising of Dr V S Malik, Dr Narinder Singh and Dr S Singhal in the field of embryo transfer and biobanking to carry out the work and train field veterinarians. Dr A S Nanda Vice Chancellor, GADVASU, Ludhiana congratulated and conveyed his good wishes to the team for successful carrying of program.
