Red Chittagong
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The Red Chittagong or Chittagong Red , Bengali in India , is a Bangladeshi and Bengali breed of zebu . The breed is well adapted to the region's climate and extensive animal husbandry and is both dairy cattle and beef cattle. The name is derived from the coat color and the proper name of the city of Chittagong , which is the center of the Chittagong district and the distribution area.
Origin and Distribution
In Bangladesh, more than 24 million cattle are kept for the production of milk and meat and as draft animals, the cow dung serves as fuel and natural fertilizer. Of these, 85 percent are hybrids or belong to races that originated in Bangladesh. These breeds, which also include the Red Chittagong, are significantly less productive than a number of exotic breeds, but they are adapted to the climate of the country and the conditions of extensive animal husbandry and they have a high resistance to the native diseases. Among these native breeds, some such as the Red Chittagong, Pabna, North Bengal Gray and Munshiganj are characterized by the fact that they perform comparatively very well even under extensive husbandry. These breeds have the typical hump of the zebuss and it is assumed that they emerged in their areas of origin over centuries through inbreeding and systematic selection for use as draft animals. This also resulted in the inferiority to specialized dairy cattle or meat breeds.
The Red Chittagong is particularly common in the Chittagong District , both in the coastal plain and in the Chittagong Hill Tracts , where it is the numerically dominant cattle breed. The frequency of posture also varies within the district, with a large number of Red Chittagongs being held in the Upazilas Anwara, Banshkhali, Chandanaish, Hathazari, Patiya and Raozan. In other parts of Bangladesh it is less common or rare. In northern India , the Bengali breed is mainly kept in the state of West Bengal .
description
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The Chittagong Red is a short breed with a weight of 150 to 400 kilograms for bulls and 150 to 200 kilograms for cows. The physique is strong, with a relatively small head. The coat color of the Red Chittagong is light to dark red, mouth, eyeballs, eyebrows, tail base and hooves are pale red to brick red. Both sexes have short horns, a little more than ten centimeters in length.
| gender | Weight | Height at withers | body length | Chest circumference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| male | 150 to 400 kg | 124 to 126 cm | 132 to 136 cm | 166 to 170 cm |
| Female | 150 to 200 kg | 107 to 109 cm | 113 to 116 cm | 138 to 141 cm |
use
The meat and milk of the Red Chittagong are considered to be particularly tasty. With an average of 3.2 kilograms per day, the Red Chittagong offers only about a quarter of the daily milk production of the Holstein cattle and its crossings with local breeds. In addition, the lactation period is three to over four months shorter, so that the annual milk yield is only a fraction of the yield of a high-performance breed. The Red Chittagong is also inferior in performance comparison with the other native breeds, but this is not due to the daily milk yield, but to the short lactation. Because of its frugality, the resistance to parasites and diseases, its fertility and the high quality of milk and meat, the farmers around Chittagong prefer to keep the Red Chittagong, most of the keepers are small farmers without their own land. The Red Chittagong is equally suitable for stalls and grazing.
reproduction
In contrast to the other native cattle breeds, which are mated at the age of one and a half to three years, the Red Chittagong is only mated at three to four years. After a gestation of nine to ten months, a calf with a birth weight of 14 to 17 kilograms is calved. The next pregnancy follows after twelve to 17 months. Overall, the Red Chittagong has a slightly higher fertility than the other native breeds.
Endangered livestock breed
The rapid growth of the population in Bangladesh and the increased demand for agricultural products prompted a series of attempts to achieve higher milk and meat yields through the targeted crossing of imported breeds. In doing so, a higher level of performance was often striven for and achieved without adequately considering the other characteristics such as adaptation to the climate and frugality. In addition, the farming population is often ignorant of the importance of purebred breeding lines. Purebred Red Chittagong and other indigenous breeds have been lost, intentional or unintentional, across the country. In order to counteract the feared extinction of some of these breeds, programs for conservation breeding, for increasing yields and for training the owners are being developed.
Efforts to conserve endangered livestock breeds face a number of obstacles in Bangladesh. Cattle farming is generally characterized by the insecure feed supply, the lack of availability of vaccines and medicines and the resulting disease outbreaks and sharp fluctuations in the prices of cattle and their products. There is no effective national strategy to increase agricultural productivity and preserve the old breeds of livestock. Measures to preserve the indigenous cattle breeds always have the goals of securing food supplies, combating poverty and creating jobs. Various initiatives, some with foreign development aid or under the direction of the Integrated Development Foundation (IDF), try to combine the preservation of the Red Chittagong and the improvement of the living conditions of the rural population.
In 2005, the number of Red Chittagong held in Chittagong District was projected to be just over 10,000. Because of ongoing breeding programs, the breed is currently classified as safe. There is concern, however, that it could be endangered at any time as a result of the lax application of breeding guidelines, changes in agricultural production conditions, or any interference with conservation breeding programs.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g M. A. Hamid et al .: Cattle Genetic Resources and their Conservation in Bangladesh . In: Asian Journal of Animal Science 2017, Volume 11, No. 2, pp. 54-64, doi: 10.3923 / ajas.2017.54.64 .
- ↑ a b c d e M. M. Hossain et al .: Characterization and distribution pattern of Red Chittagong cattle of Bangladesh . In: Progressive Agriculture 2006, Volume 17, No. 1, pp. 103-110, ISSN 1017-8139 .
- ↑ AF Nivsarkar, PK Vij and MS Tantia: Animal Genetic Resources of India Cattle And Buffalo . Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi 2013, pp. 216-217, ISBN 978-81-7164-125-3 .
- ↑ a b M. KI Khan et al .: Study on the Performance of Red Chittagong Cows under Different Production System . In: Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 2000, Volume 3, No. 2, pp. 318-319.
- ↑ a b Sharmin Nahar et al .: Animal performance of indigenous Red Chittagong cattle in Bangladesh . In: Acta Scientiarum 2016, Volume 38, No. 2, pp. 177-182, doi: 10.4025 / actascianimsci.v38i2.28718 .
- ^ MA Halim et al .: Economic analysis of Red Chittagong Cattle farming system in some selected areas of Chittagong district . In: Journal of the Bangladesh Agricultural University 2010, Volume 8, No. 2, pp. 271-276, digitized .
- ^ Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (ed.): National Livestock Development Policy . Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Department of Livestock Services, Dhaka 2007, pp. 14-15, digitized .
- ↑ a b Rawlynce C. Bett et al .: Cattle Breeds: Extinction or Quasi-Extant? . In: Resources 2013, Volume 2, pp. 335–357, doi: 10.3390 / resources2030335 .
- ↑ Integrated Development Foundation (Ed.): Annual Report 2016 . Integrated Development Foundation, Dhaka 2017, pp. 23-25, digitized .
- ↑ Mohammad Shamsul Alam Bhuiyan et al .: Community based livestock breeding programs in Bangladesh: Present status and challenges . In: Journal of Animal Breeding and Genomics 2017, Volume 1, No. 2, pp. 77-84, doi: 10.12972 / jabng.20170009 .