A Cumbrian vet practice is helping farmers in Rwanda to improve the quality of their herds and significantly boost their income.
Paragon Vets, based at Dalston near Carlisle and Newbiggin near Penrith, have been implanting Jersey embryos produced at their IVF facility into local indigenous recipient cattle.
The pure Jersey females born from this project will go on to be embryo donors in their own right allowing a rapid increase in numbers.
The pure Jersey Bull calves will go on to potentially enter the national bull stud in order to substantially increase the local production of high genetic value semen which will be distributed throughout the national AI service.
Mark Boland, senior embryo transfer technician at Paragon, has already made several visits to Rwanda since 2018.
Paragon is providing training and technical expertise to facilitate the implanting of embryos that have been produced both in Jersey and at Paragon’s IVF facility using local Jersey donors along with UK and Danish bred donors.
Mark said, “We have produced in excess of 250 frozen embryos and successfully shipped them to Rwanda where they will eventually be implanted into local recipient cows. This allows the resultant calves a much improved survival rate due to the natural immunity to disease and to the ability to better cope with the African climate.”
Implanting of embryos and training is currently carried out on a three-monthly cycle. These trips also include selection of recipients for future sessions.
The results so far have been promising and we are now looking forward to the next batch of embryo calves in the next few months.
Mark added: “Most cattle in Rwanda are from very small farms in often remote locations without the access to genetics available through artificial insemination. One of the aims of the project is to provide trained inseminators to cover the whole country, using imported and locally produced semen.
“This will be a major influence in improving the overall quality and production capability of local cattle.”
Finding suitable recipient cattle is also a challenge. Mark recently travelled to the far north east of the country in order to inspect a potential herd of 50 to 100 cows and heifers that will hopefully enter the ET programme early next year.
The initiative came about following Mark’s long standing connection with the island of Jersey and more recently with Jersey Overseas Aid who are funding this project.
Long term, the training provided by Mark and the Paragon team will allow local veterinarians and technicians to continue this work themselves.
Further training has also been provided for Rwandan Institute for Conservation Agriculture to enable them to use Embryo Transfer in its own breeding programme.
Talks are already in progress with the Rwandan beef industry with regard to using Embryo Transfer to firstly introduce British beef genetics from Aberdeen Angus, Simmental and Hereford breeds in the form of frozen embryos, with the aim to produce bulls and females with the same advantages as with the Jersey Dairy project.
Paragon is recognised nationally for its efforts to protect nature and combat climate change. It has a track record of collaborations in developing nations, having previously worked in Zimbabwe and Nepal.
