Animal Science Division

Animal Science Division of ICAR coordinates and monitors research activities in its 19 Research Institutes and their Regional Centers/Stations. The Division has 2 Deemed Universities, 8 National/Central Research Institutes, 1 Bureau, 1 Directorate, 1 Project Directorate and 6 National Research Centers. The Division coordinates 7 All India Coordinated Research Projects and 6 Network Research Programmes. In addition, 4 Outreach Programmes and 3 Mega Seed Projects (poultry, sheep and pig) are also being operated in different parts of the country at different ICAR institutes, State Agricultural / Veterinary Universities/ State Animal Husbandry Departments and Non-Governmental Organizations.

Vision

Development of technologies to support production enhancement, profitability, competitiveness and sustainability of livestock and poultry sector for providing food and nutritional security to Indian masses.

Mission

Facilitating need based research in ongoing and emerging areas of livestock and poultry sector to denote productivity increase, reduce gap between potential and actual yield, and to prepare the country for the challenges of globalization.

Thrust Areas

• Molecular signatures for indigenous livestock resources
• Markers for disease resistance and selection
• Livestock/poultry genomics
• Allele mining for abiotic/biotic stress and development of molecular markers
• Stem cell research for animal health and production
• Improvement of reproductive efficiency
• Improvement of utilization of low quality roughages through in vivo and in vitro manipulations
• Biochemical markers to assess the micronutrient status of animals
• Nutrigenomics, Nutraceuticals and Functional foods
• Probiotics/ prebiotics for enhancing nutrient utilization
• Mitigation of green-house gas emissions from livestock
• Adaptation strategies for climate change
• Development of diagnostics and immuno-prophylactics for various diseases using biotech and nanotech tools
• Recombinant/ DNA/ Novel vaccines
• Monitoring and surveillance of animal diseases including transboundary and zoonotic diseases
• Forecasting and forewarning of animal diseases
• Anti-microbial resistance
• Pharmacogenomics for design of new generation and indigenous drugs.
• Residual analysis of environmental and industrial pollutants; mycotoxin and drug residues.
• Development and improvement of technologies for value addition, shelf life enhancement and quality assurance of livestock and poultry products
• Embryo biotechnology/cloning technology

Strengths

Manpower

Total number of Scientists as per cadre strength: 1019
Total number of Scientists in position: 648

Infrastructure

Farms and animals

Research farms for cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig, camel, equine, yak, mithun and poultry exist in species specific institutes spread all over the country.

Laboratories

State of-the-art laboratories are established at the Institutes for carrying out basic and strategic research in cutting edge technologies in the areas of animal genetics and breeding, nutrition, physiology and reproduction, animal health and animal products technology.

Specialized facilities

Bio-safety and bio-containment laboratories, nuclear technique laboratories, semen evaluation and quality control, residue analysis, feed analysis, embryo transfer laboratories, molecular biology, rumen biotechnology, milk and milk product processing unit, meat and meat processing unit, wool processing unit, model dairy plant, vaccine production unit, germplasm and DNA banks, natural serum bank.

Human Resource Development

Two Deemed Universities offer graduate, post graduate and doctoral degree programmes in various disciplines of veterinary & animal sciences and dairy science & technology including national diploma. For details visit www.ndri.res.in and www.ivri.nic.in)

Advanced tailor made training programs are offered for researchers, extension personnel, teachers, students and farmers periodically.

(For details contact species specific Institutes through website)

National and International Collaboration

Collaborative programme in some of the advanced and cutting edge areas like biotechnology and molecular biology in animal science, are taken up with premier National and International organizations.