To curb sale of fake bovine semen straws, US-based PharmaSecure today said it has tied up with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to provide technology to protect the latter's branded straws, thereby safeguarding the country's indigenous cow population.
NDDB's dairy service division operates five world class artificial insemination (AI) stations in the country and their branded - Superior Animal Genetics (SAGTM) AI straw contains the frozen semen from the best bulls of different breeds available in the country.
"Due to the popularity of SAG brand of AI straws, counterfeiters operating in various states in the country are supplying counterfeit SAG branded AI straws," PharmaSecure, a technology provider, said in a statement.
To address this problem, the company said it provided a brand protection solution as part of the agreement inked with Gujarat-based government body NDDB, it said.
The solution includes that each semen dose supplied will have a Unique Alpha Numeric Code printed on the AI straw.
Cattle owners, stockbreeders and artificial insemination technicians can authenticate the dose by messaging the unique code to a pre-defined phone number 9900399000, it added.
"Counterfeit products not only cause immeasurable damage to brand reliability but also increases risk to life, health and safety of the consumers. Our partnership with NDDB-DS will empower the cattle owners to verify the authenticity of the products instantly," PharmaSecure CEO Nakul Pasricha said.
This technology will weed out the usage of spurious AI straws. The unique codes are generated using an algorithm patented by us and is not possible for any counterfeiter to replicate, he added.
NDDB's dairy service Managing Director Omveer Singh said, "We believe that the menace of counterfeit semen doses will be rooted out through this initiative."
Currently, about 82 million AI straws are produced from graded semen stations and about 7 million counterfeit AI straws are produced from non-graded semen stations in the country, he said.
"We are also going the extra mile with an awareness campaign to encourage the cattle owners to verify the authenticity of AI Straws by making them aware of the codes and authentication procedure. I earnestly hope that this tie- up will play a significant role in safeguarding the high quality indigenous breeds of cow," he added.
According to the PharmaSecure, the calves born using the counterfeit doses are of inferior quality and produce lower milk when compared to their mothers thus causing great economic losses for the farmers.
Further, the use of the counterfeit AI straw can render the animals susceptible to diseases which may then be communicable to humans handling these animals or consuming milk from these animals. Thus the spurious AI straws pose a serious health hazard for the public at large, it said.
India is the largest milk producer in the world but the country is facing a decline in the number of highly productive indigenous cows. Artificial Insemination is a very popular procedure to breed good quality bovine population. Over 30 per cent of cattle owners opt for AI in breeding of animals as it ensures a highly productive breed of cows.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
