What does the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute actually do?

After "38 chickens for research" were stolen from Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) earlier this year, news media covered the event with gusto. It also produced a lot of curiosity about the institute's functionality: What does it actually do with chickens?

So, recently, we visited the BLRI headquarters in Savar to see firsthand what takes place there and what the officials do. 

Built on over 490 acres of land in Savar near Jahanginagar University, it doesn't look anything like a farmhouse hosting chickens from its entrance. Inside, BLRI houses many more animals including hundreds of cows of different breeds, buffalos, goats, Garole sheep (a small-sized breed reared for meat and mostly known for high reproductive performance), ducks, Aseel chicken (a type of game chicken) and even ostriches. 

The information officer told us that most of the local animals are researched based on the "purity of local breeds" and the "best kinds" are mated to achieve perfection passed down the generations. 

Besides, BLRI also improvises animal raising techniques and feeding. They have 10 divisions including animal and poultry production research, animal health, farming systems, training etc. 

The key areas in their research revolve around genetics and breeding of animals and poultry, feeds and nutrition, biotechnology, environment and climate, animal and poultry health and diseases and socio-economic farming systems.

On the day we visited the facility, although its DG and additional DG didn't give us an interview, Dev Jyoti Ghosh, an information officer at the BLRI, gave us a tour of the farm section. 

They have three major local breeds of cows. The breed locally known as 'Pabna cows' is named BLRI Cattle Breed-1 or BCB-1. 

"We have increased their productivity over the years. The Pabna cows here produce 3 to 3.5 litres of milk per day than the usual 1.5 to 2 litres per day because we have maintained purity, mating, feed and housing environment," Dev told The Business Standard. 

"We do crossings of animals with advanced breeds, but this is not the only thing here. The pure breed of our cows is not maintained on the field because of unplanned crossing. So, we strive to maintain that here by 'best to best' mating. It means the largest and healthiest of male and female are mated for best results," he said, adding, "By doing so over the years, their purity and productivity increases." 

Red Chattogram Cattle (RCC) is a red cow locally known as Laal Goru, Ashtomukhi Laal Goru etc. 

"With best-to-best mating practices here, some RCCs are recorded to produce up to nine litres of milk per day whereas they produce up to two litres of milk daily elsewhere. On average, the RCCs here produce three to four litres," he said. "This improvement happened because of food and housing."

A Holstein Friesian (an international breed of dairy cattle) might give you 20 litres of milk whereas the locals will produce three to four litres. But the basic difference is that the locals will consume 1/3 of what a Holstein does. The housing capacity will be expensive with Holstein, besides health and treatment costs. 

"I can have two RCCs with the budget of one Holstein," said Dev. 

There are other different local breeds like Mirkadeem, North Bengal Grey etc. All these animals are kept deeper inside the facility in a dozen sheds. 

On the side of the facility that is adjacent to the Dhaka-Aricha Highway, we saw the buffalo, ducks, sheep, ostrich and pheasant farms. 

The official objectives with these animals are more or less the same: the development of more efficient breeds while keeping the purity of the local ones intact. 

The BLRI ordinance was formed in 1984 but it started its operations in 1987. Its accomplishments are listed in a document on its website. According to it, the institute has developed 91 technologies and 'packages' in animal and poultry production, animal health, feed and nutrition. 

Among the accomplishments are developing the BCB-1 or Pabna breed, RCC, Mirkadeem and North Bengal Grey breeds, cow feeding technologies, improved varieties of grass like Napier 1, 2 and 3, salinity-tolerant grass, vaccines for lumpy disease, PPR (Peste des Petits Ruminants, or goat plague) and goat pox, bio-electricity from farm wastes etc. 

It is evident that the BLRI is not just about chickens. But the media's coverage of the theft with all seriousness is rational too because it questions the facility's overall security system. What else could be stolen from such a large open area?

We had these questions ready for the DG and additional DG. But both officials did not respond to our calls.  

Other than struggling to keep the chickens safe, as Dev Jyoti Ghosh told us, the BLRI researches three different local chicken breeds: chickens with comparatively longer throats, bare-throat chickens, and the hilly breed. 

"We have developed commercial egg-producing BLRI Layer Strain-1 named Shuvra and Layer Strain-2 named Shorna. And there is the meat-producing breed [MCTC- from the BLRI document we got from the website] that we developed," Dev. 

The information officer doesn't think the stolen chicken issue is important to talk about with respect to the overall work BLRI does.

He said where the local breeds produce 140 to 150 eggs per year, their breeds produce up to 280 eggs annually. "Our main objective is to conserve the native breeds and improve their productivity in egg and meat production."