Indian Council of Agricultural Research

Animal Science Division of ICAR coordinates and monitors research activities in its 18 Research Institutes and their Regional Centers. Deputy Director-General (Animal Sciences), Dr KML Pathak is the Head of the Division assisted by three Assistant Director Generals (ADGs), Dr SC Gupta, Dr Gaya Prasad and Dr BS Prakash in disciplines of Animal Production & Breeding, Animal Health and Animal Nutrition & Physiology respectively and supported by four Principal Scientists, Dr Rajan Gupta, Dr Vineet Bhasin, Dr (Mrs) Neelam Gupta and Dr (Mrs) Jyoti Misri. The Division has 2 National Research Institutes which are also Deemed Universities, 5 Central Research Institutes, 1 National Bureau, 4 Project Directorates and 6 National Research Centers. The Division coordinates 7 All India Coordinated Research Projects and 8 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 and Non-Governmental Organizations.

The Division also coordinates and monitors the Results Framework Document (RFD) Coordination Unit of DARE/ICAR.  The Unit has one Principal Scientist, Dr. R.K. Tomar as the RFD Coordinator and one Scientist, Dr. VH Gupta.  This Unit closely coordinates with the Subject Matter Divisions (Resource Centres) at ICAR headquarter and Resource Sub-centres (institutes) under each SMD for the preparation and timely submission of RFDs, Citizen's Charter for each financial year, Strategic Plans (2011-16), monthly, half yearly and yearly achievements of Resource Centres (RCs), Resource Sub-centres (RSCs) and of DARE/ICAR to the Performance Management Division (PMD) of the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India.

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

Facilitate 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
• Embryonic losses and improvement in reproductive efficiency
• Exploitation of genetic resistance through marker assisted selection for disease management
• Buffalo and goat genomics
• Stem cell research for animal health and production
• 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, Functional foods
• Probiotics/ prebiotics for enhancing nutrient utilization
• Manipulation of green house gases emission from livestock
• Adaptation strategies climate change through shelter management
• Development of diagnostics and immuno prophylactics for various diseases using biotech and nanotech tools
• Recombinant DNA vaccines.
• Monitoring and suvillance for transborder diseases.
• Zoonotic diseases.
• Pharmacogenomics for design of new generation and indigenous drugs.
• Transgenic chicken and pigs for pharmaceutical / nutraceutical production
• Allele mining for abiotic stress and development of molecular markers
• 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

Strengths

Manpower

Total number of Scientists as per cadre strength: 1019

Total number of Scientists in position: 778

Infrastructure

Farms and animals

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

Laboratories

State of-the-art laboratories were 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.

Human Resource Development

Two Deemed Universities offer graduate, post graduate and doctoral degree programmes in various disciplines of veterinary, animal sciences and dairy science 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 areas like biotechnology and molecular biology in animal science, are taken up with premier National and International Institutions.