Kangayam and Kangeyam Bull Cattle

The Kangayam cattle is an excellent draught breed of cattle, distributed with varying densities in Erode district and adjoining areas consisting part of Dindigul, Karur, Tripur, Coimbatore and Namakkal districts of Tamilnadu. Animals true to type are seen in Kangayam, Dharapurm, Perundurai, Karur and Palani taluks. Kangayam calves are generally red at birth and change to grey colour around six months. Bulls are grey with dark extremities. Bulls and cows are grey. Palayakottai Pattakars are known for the development and propagation of this breed.
The estimated total population of Kangayam Bull cattle in the breeding tract is found to be 4,79,200. Of these, breedable females, breeding bulls and working males constituted 43.53, 0.15 and 22.79 per cent respectively. The overall mean fat and SNF percent were 3.93 and 7.21 respectively. The estimated total milk yield in partial milking was 540kg with an average lactation length of 9 months. Kangayam bullocks were heavier, with a mean mature body weight of 473kg. The average age at first oestrus, first mating and first calving were 29.5, 30 and 40 months respectively and calving interval was 16 months. Superior draught quality, tolerance to disease, adaptation to poor nutrition and drought condition and longevity are excellent qualities of this breed.

Kangayam

Assessment of genetic variability in Kangayam breed of cattle in Tamilnadu, South India was carried out using 25 bovine microsatellite markers. The mean number of alleles was 4.04 ± 0.09 with a range of 2 to 6 and the allele size ranged from 94 to 300 bp. The frequency distribution of alleles in the breed was from 0.0104 to 0.9167. The estimated heterozygosity was 0.6183 ± 0.01 and the PIC was 0.5628 ± 0.03. The overall mean within-population inbreeding estimate (FIS) value (–0.084) suggested excess of heterozygotes in the population. In addition, higher PIC value indicated the scope for maintaining variation in the population and strategies to take meaningful conservation.

Kangayam Bull

The Kangayam breed of cattle of Tamilnadu is best known for its superior draught qualities, adaptation to poor nutrition and longevity (Kandasamy, 2001). Bullocks are primarily used for transport of agricultural produce, besides being used for various agricultural operations. As per the estimate of 1996, the size of Kangayam population in the breeding tract was 0.479 million. However, replacement of Kangayam cattle in few areas of the breeding tract with exotic crosses is evident. Though the population size is more, the future of Kangayam breed is secured only if meaningful conservation strategies are followed to ensure genetic variability. The variability at DNA level would provide valuable information on genetic structure of the breed. The genetic variability in different zebu cattle breeds of India like Red Kandhari and Deoni (Sodhi et al., 2005), Hallikar (Naveen Kumar et al., 2006) and Umblachery (Karthickeyan et al.,2007) had already been elucidated. Therefore, the present study was undertaken using the microsatellites, which are powerful genetic markers for biodiversity evaluation, to characterize the Kangayam breed.