BAR TODAY || Official Quarterly Publication of the Bureau of Agricultural Research

This has nothing to do with Britain's best selling monthly magazine or the critically acclaimed war epic movie of Edward Zwick. Glory is the Philippines' first test tube carabao born on 5 April 2002, which incidentally was the 55th birthday of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, hence the name.

Glory's predecessor
In the Philippines, the carabao is the farmer's best friend. Even if there are now farm machineries and other implements, the carabaos still do much of the heavy work for the farmers especially in traditional farming. In fact, carabaos are considered the Filipino symbol for industry and perseverance. The birth of Glory, a genetically superior carabao, could be one triumph for the farmers.

Before Glory came into existence, there was Maganda, the first test tube carabao in Southeast Asia, which was also developed by the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC). She was born on 28 October 1996. Maganda originated from a fresh in vitro embryo and then transferred using a transfer gun to a surrogate mother. In vitro is an artificial environment such as a test tube rather than inside a living organism.

Unlike Glory, the process used to develop Maganda is far less advance since fresh embryos need to be immediately transferred to a mother carabao or it loses its viability and die. Because the embryo of Glory underwent the process of vitrification, it can be stored and transported from one place to another without the constraint of time and without worrying about the loss of its viability.

Conceiving Glory
Glory underwent the process called "vitrified-thawed in vitro produced embryo" which is a first in the field of reproductive biotechnology. This biotechnique was developed by PCC through the project, "Production of high genetics water buffaloes through the use of reproductive biotechniques".

The project is supported by the Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources Research and Development-Department of Science and Technology (PCARRD-DOST) in cooperation with the National Dairy Development Board of India.

Glory was developed in the laboratory of a PCC satellite embryo biotechnology station in Aurangabad, India. Frigorifico Allana Limited (FAL), one of the major meat exporters in India provided the ovaries, which were taken from slaughtered female buffalos. Filipino scientists comprising the team in the India satellite station collected the eggs which were then allowed to mature in the laboratory. The matured eggs were fertilized in vitro with the best semen from selected bulls in India. The result of such fertilization produced a very high genetic quality of embryo, that of Glory.

Glory came from the egg of a Murrah buffalo calf and the sperm cell of superior bulls from India, which makes her genetically superior over other carabaos particularly in terms of milk and meat production.

Through a simplified method of freezing called vitrification, Glory's embryo was transported from the satellite station in India to the PCC national gene pool. The frozen embryo was then thawed and transferred to a surrogate mother carabao.

A glorious moment
The birth of Glory was a celebrated moment for the scientists who developed the reproductive technique that brought her to life. Glory weighed 44 kilos at birth, which is far heavier than the 33-kilo average weight of Philippine carabao babies.

The birth of Glory was also a great leap for the Philippine carabao industry. This technique is a fast way of producing quality carabaos. Compared to other techniques like natural mating and artificial insemination, the technique developed by PCC has a higher rate of success and is much cheaper.

Sources: "Science City's newest test tube carabao named after GMA" by Anselmo Roque October 5, 2001 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer; "World's 1st Buffalo Calf Born out of In-vitro Embryo"
"Agriculture: Philippine Carabao Genome" by the Department of Science and Technology S&T Media Service