THE STUDENT

Pramila Krishnan

Chennai, March 30: A Punjab-based scientist has come out with a medicine for cattle to bear only female calves. Scientist Balwinder Singh Aulakh (46) said he successfully tested the method in Vellore and Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu and in three northern states. With a major political party announcing free goats and cows in its manifesto and with Tamil Nadu’s relatively low livestock population, the research could prove useful.

Sharing his research with Deccan Chronicle, Mr Aulakh said he worked on his sex-fixing research for 15 years after giving up his lecturer job in Christian medical college at Ludhiana in 1992 and selling his piece of land. “I learnt about the difference in sex ratio in animals in our agrarian country. I wanted to come out with a solution to improve the sex ratio. I decided it should help the poor farmers also,” he said. Mr Aulakh said he read about sex-fixation and started his clinical trails in Punjab in 2008.

He developed oral medicine ‘Aulprofem’ to be administered to the female cow before mating. “Aulprofem will ensure that the zygote formation in the cow’s embryo will be a female calf. Our medicine is prepared naturally, so there will be no side-effects,” he asserted. He also received patents from USA, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. He said he applied for patent in India in 2000 and was still waiting for it.

Mr Aulakh got consent from the governments of Punjab and Tamil Nadu and performed field trails in 2008-10. “In Punjab, 1,056 cows were administered Aulprofem and 574 calves were born. Of this, 408 were female. In Tamil Nadu, we received 75 female calves out of 94 deliveries from 177 cows.”

Animal husbandry secretary M.P. Nirmala told DC the research would be implemented to improve the animal wealth after studying the consequences.