Abstract
The current study was carried out to look into the disposal patterns of Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes kept at ICAR-CIRB, Hisar and Sub-Campus Nabha, Punjab, respectively. The purpose of the investigation was to estimate the various non-genetic factors affecting culling and mortality patterns in buffaloes to suggest suitable health management practices, selection, and breeding strategies for enhancing genetic gain in buffaloes. From 1983 to 2017, 1180 data of 679 Murrah and 501 Nili-Ravi were used to calculate the frequency of culling and death. The impacts of several parameters on disposal were explored, including breed, period of disposal, season of disposal, and lactation completed. The findings revealed that in Murrah, 90.72% of buffaloes were disposed of due to culling and 9.28% due to mortality. While, in the instance of Nili-Ravi, animal disposal due to culling accounted for 89.62% of the total, with mortality accounting for 10.38%. The main reason for culling was old age and low production, while the majority of buffaloes died from cardiovascular, digestive, and respiratory problems. Furthermore, the effect of season was highly significant (p < 0.01) on the pattern of culling in buffaloes. Additionally, majority of the animals culled in the winter season, followed by summer and most of the animals culled were old aged (45 and 22%), low yielder (35 and 27%) and affected with mastitis (30 and 28%), respectively in both the winter and summer seasons. Moreover, the effect of period of disposal was highly significant (p < 0.01) on the both pattern of mortality and culling in buffaloes. Further, maximum (34%) number of animals culled in the period 1994-98 due to old age whereas lowest culling rate (3%) was seen during 2014 to 2018. In this sequence, it may be determined that the reason for disposal differs depending on the breed, period, season and lactation completed.As a result, our efforts should be directed towards improving management practices with the goal of lowering the rate of culling and mortality, which leads to higher lifetime performance and, as a result, the overall efficiency of the dairy farm.