This study focused on finding the critical controlling points in the swamp buffalo milking and storage processes in an intensive farm setting over a 12 months period (between June 2018 and July 2019). The raw milk and pasteurized milk samples were randomly collected once a month for laboratory testing by standard plate count (SPC) and total coliform count (TCC). The model for the investigation and implementation of this study was taken from the dairy cattle industry-which involves similar, though not identical, problems and issues. The first phase of this study was the problem finding phase. The collected raw milk samples showed that both the SPC and the TCC were higher than standard values and both contained environmental bacterial contamination. Escherichia coli contamination was found to be caused by improper hygienic conditions i.e. poor personal hygiene, inadequate techniques and procedures to clean and disinfect the milking equipment and milking area or from after milking issues such as high temperatures during milk storage and transportation. In the problem solving phase, protocols of good hygiene throughout the milking process were suggested and implemented. The collected raw milk and pasteurized milk samples for SPC and TCC decreased to the standard values after hygienic improvements were implemented. The hygiene of the milk workers (such as the hand washing), the lack of staff duty separation and the failure to properly regulate the temperature during, and duration of, the raw milk storage were found to be the critical controlling points of this study. In the follow up phase, the SPC and TCC of the raw and pasteurized milk tested in the standard value range throughout the monitoring period. Our finding suggested that client education and monitoring at least once a month might be necessary in swamp buffalo dairy farms in order to ensure good practices in the milking process. This study could provide guidelines for the development of a hygienic swamp buffalo milk production protocols for private and government farms and as a prototype for future developments in this industry.

The current study was conducted to find out the factors affecting to swamp buffalo production in Songkhram wet land area (consisting of 3 districts: Si Songkhram, Tha Uthen, and Na Wa Districts), Nakhon Phanom province, Thailand. The data were collected from 370 farmers and analyzed by using Chi-square to test association of the studied factors between farm groups (Group I: farmers who produced the swamp for fancy buffaloes and showing, and Group II: farmers who produced the buffaloes for power work and meat production) in the study population. The results showed that many factors that affected to buffalo production, such as source of knowledge used for buffalo production, patterns of buffalo production, kinds of land, objectives for buffalo production, record keeping, types of roughage, person who suggest to select buffalo, mating systems, changing sire, information for considering for replacement dams selection, age at first mating, and problem and obstacle related to the achievement of swamp buffalo production (P LT 0.01) excepted for gender of farmers, educational level and type of labor for buffalo production (P GT 0.05). This information implied the need of increasing efficiency of buffalo production, and also improvement of knowledge, understanding and chance in sire selection of the farmers.

Rumen microorganism community population and diversity in the swamp buffloes (Bubalus bulalis) were assessed by 4 types of treated rice straw. Four, yearling swamp buffalo were randomly assigned to a 4*4 Latin square design. The animals were fed with concentrate at 0.5 percent BW and were offered ad libitum with roughages, rice straw (RS), urea treated rice straw (UTS), yeast treated rice straw (YTS) and urea-lime treated rice straw (ULTS). It was found that intake and ruminal NH3-N were significantly different among dietary treatments and were found higher in swamp buffalo fed with YTS (P LT 0.05). Total VFAs were significantly different with roughage in swamp buffalo. Molar proportions of individual VFA in swamp buffalo were not affected by roughage sources. Feeding with YTS or ULTS increased cellulolytic bacteria population, particularly, the distribution of predominant bacteria, F. succinogenes, R. flavefaciens, and R. albus, respectively. The results from this study suggest that swamp buffaloes fed on yeast treated rice straw could improve rumen fermentation efficiency, rumen fibrolytic microbes' quantity and rumen ecology for the host buffaloes.

The objectives of this study was to compare morphological characteristics and to establish evolutionary relationship of 14 Thai dwarf buffaloes and 21 swamp buffaloes based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop variations. Morphological characteristics could be constructed phylomorphologic tree and showed clearly classified between dwarf and swamp buffaloes. Most of morphologic traits were highly significant difference adult contest swamp buffaloes (P LT 0.01) from 9 contest swamp buffaloes. Only morphological traits of length between eye, length between base of horn, horn length and horn width were not significant difference (P GT 0.05). Average shoulder height of Thai dwarf buffaloes were 108.33+-2.08 cm, whereas average shoulder height of contest swamp buffaloes were 156.78+-4.21 cm. Thai dwarf buffaloes would be defined as disproportional dwarfism. Sequences of mtDNA D-loop (374 bp) of dwarf and normal swamp buffaloes with reference sequences showed 84 polymorphic sites and defined as 12 and 11 haplotypes, respectively. It was noticed that transversion in Thai dwarf buffaloes occurred twice time of normal swamp buffaloes. Phylogenetic tree showed 2 clades of water buffaloes. Swamp buffaloes were classified into lineage A and lineage B, in which lineage A was more predominant than lineage B. Median joining network showed 2 clades of river and swamp buffaloes. Swamp buffalo (SaenCP) in lineage A1 seem to be ancestral node of some Thai swamp buffaloes, Chinese swamp buffaloes and Philippines carabao. Most of dwarf swamp buffaloes were in lineage A2 and dwarf swamp buffalo with no horn, black color- coat was latter evolution.

This study compared the effect of Kisspeptin-10 or GnRH administration on LH release in swamp buffalo during the luteal phase of the estrous cycle. Six animals were treated with a single intravenous injection of 1,000 pmol/kg b.w. of kisspeptin-10 or a single intramuscular injection of 10 µg/cow of GnRH agonist buserelin. For plasma LH analysis blood samples were collected every 15 minutes, 1 h before and 6 h after Kisspeptin-10 and GnRH administration. An increase in LH plasma concentrations was observed after GnRH administration but not after Kisspeptin-10 administration. The results of this study indicate that during the luteal phase of the estrous cycle, administration of GnRH, but not Kisspeptin-10, stimulate LH secretion.

A postpartum swamp buffalo with a high body condition score (4.5/5) that did not show any signs of heat after calving (days open = 122 days) was submitted for reproductive examination. The buffalo was milked every morning and suckled after that the whole day. On examination, an ovarian cyst of about 3 cm diameter was palpated rectally in the left ovary, which was confirmed by transrectal ultrasonography and by measuring the plasma progesterone level 7 days later. The case was treated with a common treatment regimen of gonadotropin releasing hormone followed by prostaglandin F2 alpha 7 days later. The buffalo returned to estrus and was mated with a bull 16 days after the onset of treatment. This case study suggests that a regular postpartum reproductive examination should be performed for a timely diagnosis of problems, and that treatment with a standard hormonal protocol can resolve cases of ovarian cyst in swamp buffaloes.

The ability to utilize low-quality roughage of swamp buffalo has been reported, thus, rumen of swamp buffalo might be a suitable source for isolation of potent fibrolytic bacteria. A total of 165 gram-negative cocci fibrolytic bacteria were screened from rumen contents of 4 swamp buffalo. Six isolates were identified as Ruminococcus flavefaciens and phylogenetically grouped with type strain. Strain OS14 showed the highest fiber digestion alone or combination with non-fibrolytic bacteria and higher than type strain. DM digestibility of cellulose powder in co-culture of OS14 with all strains non-fibrolytic was increased. Moreover, co-culture of OS14 with S137 showed the highest fiber digestion and notably increased of acetate and propionate. These results indicated that possible cross-feeding between R. flavefaciens with non-fibrolytic bacteria could improve fiber digestion but the amount of improvement might be based on the combination of bacteria strains. The in vitro fermentation products and abundance in co-culture need to be quantified in further study.

Vaginal cytology is a simple technique that can be used to determine the stages of the estrus cycle, if there are pathological conditions of the reproductive tract, and the optimal time of mating. There have been many vaginal cytology studies and it's clinical applications have been reported in many species. There have been few reports, however, about its use in buffalo. Buffalo are considered poor breeders as their reproductive efficiency is adversely affected by certain limitations such as: late maturity, seasonality of breeding, silent heat coupled with poor expression of estrus, low conception rates and long intercalving period. Accurate heat detection is one of the key factors to increase the conception rate. Vaginal cytology in combination with other heat detection methods can help in this process. The objective of this review article is to focus on the use of the vaginal cytology technique for estrus detection and other applications in buffalo.

The objectives of this study was to select nonlinear regression model of relationship between body parameters and live weight of swamp buffaloes for live weight estimation. The animals of Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture at Kampaeng Saen, Kasetsart University, Kampaeng Saen Campus were used in this study. A total of 172 animals were 41 male and 131 female 0 to 25 months old of swamp buffaloes. Parameters of body measurements were shoulder height (SH), hip height (HH), shoulder width (SW), hip width (HW), body length (BL) and hearth girth (HG) were measured in centimeters during weighting. Three of nonlinear regression models including exponential, polynomial quadratic and power models were analyzed relationship between body parameters and live weight in each body parameter. The results revealed that power model gave the best fit model of HG and live weight relationship with highest R sup(2) (0.9662, 0.9748 and 0.9702) in male, female and both sex of swamp buffaloes, respectively. In addition, percentage error and accuracy of 3 models were investigated between HG and live weight of swamp buffaloes (n=492). The result revealed that polynomial quadratic model showed highly accuracy (98.92 percent) between actual live weight and calculated weight from the equation of y = 0.0233x**(2) -2.9263x+129.81 with R sup(2) value of 0.9678, when y = estimated live weight (kg), x = heart girth (cm). In conclusion, this model provides a highly reliable and accurate method for estimating weights of swamp buffaloes using a single heart girth measurement which can be easily obtained with a girth tape in the field work.