Startup Circle: How is Tropical Animal Genetics using IVF-ET technology to industrially scale cattle?

From a country of acute milk shortage, India has become the world’s leading milk producer. India has transformed tremendously when it comes to the production of milk. We also take pride in having the largest bovine population in the world. Further, over the years, the Government has taken considerable initiatives to counter the emerging challenges in Bovine breeding systems. These include the increasing population, climate change and expanding urbanization. To provide a helping hand to the Government initiatives, Tropical Animal Genetics (TAG) has taken up the responsibility to revolutionize the dairy industry through its biotechnological innovations.

Read Dr Pravin Kini, Founder & Managing Director, Tropical Animal Genetics talk about the startup and the technology helping the company scale milk production.

What is Tropical Animal Genetics (TAG) about? Tell us about the team

At Tropical Animal Genetics, our vision is to improve the genetics of livestock in India. We aim to increase the availability and affordability of the cheapest source of protein – milk. TAG has commercialized assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in the bovine industry. This will increase milk productivity and also double rural farmer income. Our highly experienced and trained staff, researchers, state of the art lab and equipment makes this possible.

Our purposeful team of carefully selected veteran investors, serial entrepreneurs, and renowned scientists. They have come together to work towards this cause. Dr Pravin Kini was the co-founder of a chain of IVF clinics across India and the Middle East in partnership with the UK brand Bourn Hall Clinic. He combined the rigours of human medicine with genomics to build an innovative animal breeding platform.

How did you come up with the idea?

We founded TAG with the vision of bringing a second white revolution to the dairy industry. We used advanced technology and research to meet the exponential growth in demand for milk. Now, we aim to become the leading company in the field of superior genetics. Our singular focus under the brand TBG (Tropical Bovine Genetics) is to secure prosperity for farmers. We have committed to the growth of the Indian dairy industry with a mantra - assured genetics, lactation and revenue.

What are the unique attributes of your technologies and which are the key markets in India that you would like to focus on?

TAG is making technology more accessible and affordable for dairy farmers with higher conception rates, improving cost efficiencies. We provide guaranteed pregnancies which helps dairy farmers outsource breeding. We make AI (artificial insemination) based genetics more valuable through advanced delivery mechanisms such as IGAI (Intelligent gun for AI) to the farmer through TAI (technology-enabled AI)

Apart from Artificial Insemination Services we also provide Embryo Transfer Services (ET) under Gaubryo to dairy farmers at their doorstep at affordable prices using interventions such as embryos from sexed semen, superior freezing technology and advanced ET gun, and Anestrus fixed time ET for better and timely deliveries.

We want to focus on states with high milk production and rural areas and create new entrepreneurial opportunities in breeding generate jobs on farms. India needs 30 million cows per year. Moreover embryo based economy will also create new employment opportunities such as embryologists, ET technicians, veterinarians, paravents.

Can you explain the challenges and the solutions while using the technologies? (Like IVF-ET)

Only a trained veterinarian or an ET technician with apt expertise can do Embryo Transfer. To address this, TAG offers embryo-derived pregnancy as a package of services for the farmers.

With the given resources today, the success rate of embryos is 33%, which means every three embryos transferred into the womb of cow results in one confirmed pregnancy. This is rightly called ‘ET efficiency’, which is the same as AI efficiency today. However, TAG is in progress to increase the efficiency of embryo-derived pregnancy using new interventions.

Please elaborate on how dairy farmers will be benefited from these technologies?

Through assured genetics from IVF embryos, dairy farmers can upgrade the genetics of their future herd and double milk yield per animal through better productivity. This will in turn assure double the revenue and profits for these farmers without too much change in other inputs. More unproductive cattle can be used as surrogates for embryos.

Moreover, through embryos, farmers can select desired traits such as disease resistance, climate resistance, and a higher feed conversion ratio. These traits will in turn help dairy farming become profitable. Other future technological innovations that TAG is working on will also lead to better farm-level efficiencies.

According to you is the current scenario of India in the animal genetic market?

A burgeoning middle class with rapid urbanization has risen the consumption of milk. Further, animal protein is a key driver of the growth of the animal genetics market in India. Although the US is the current leader in this market, India is forecast to grow the fastest in the animal health genetics market. The live animal segment provides significant growth opportunities with the increasing use of milk and meat. There will be an increasing adoption of various techniques such as in In vitro embryo production, artificial insemination which will drive the market for genetic material.

The coverage of artificial insemination in India is about 35% only. Thus, there is a long way to go and our goal is to bring it to 60-70%. In terms of Embryo transfer technology, it is just beginning with TAG producing commercially saleable embryos to Indian dairy farmers. Erstwhile, there have been efforts in terms of incidents for research and trial purposes.

Please throw some light on the challenges faced by animal genetic players in the sector. Are there any government schemes announced for the sector recently?

As part of strategic growth initiatives, leading players are expanding their R&D infrastructure across the globe. However, there are very few indigenous players in India. Foreign giants dominate the space and a lot of them have patents to their name. The technologies they provide are not affordable for a marginal Indian farmer at the current price points. The government is supporting indigenous players by opening up new R&D facilities in India and providing grants to create new genomics projects. However, the industry needs a lot of work as well as investment.

The government is trying to partner with Indian innovators to bringing-in affordable technologies. However, the gradual opening up of the breeding policies, protecting the local Indian breeds, and growing the indigenous milk production are the key challenges that the government faces. However, at the small dairy farmer level, there are many central & state-sponsored schemes to support them with capital, land, subsidy, and interest subvention.

Can you please elaborate on the opportunities and challenges of innovation and infrastructure in the animal genetic market?

Innovators in India face the challenge of infrastructure, both soft & hard. Trained manpower is difficult to be accessed to, as they are mostly US-centric and Europe centric. In terms of localising the innovations and creating extremely affordable technologies, innovators face uphill tasks in terms of patient capital funding opportunities, initial partnerships, and first-mover market entry challenges.

What is the vision of TAG and which new services are you planning to offer in the future?

TAG is positioned to become a leading player in the animal genetics space. We are working on scaling up embryo production as well as new research projects in the pipeline to streamline artificial insemination and embryo transfers for farmers and service providers and increase efficiency and productivity. TAG has plans for future research projects such as Synegg where we produce embryos at the cellular level. These will further drive down costs of embryo technology and convert India from an AI-based milk economy to an embryo based milk economy.

TAG is working on Pregnancy Free Lactation – whereby we induce lactation in older infertile animals mimicking pregnancy state hormonally. This will resolve the issue of large unproductive herds (stray cattle) issue in India. Our research projects will also help reduce the price point of our technologies further through scaled-up production. Moreover, we are also going to launch genomics projects in poultry and aqua in the future.