Erap, the test tube carabao, now fully grown

MANILA, Philippines - There is a rising star in Nueva Ecija and his name is Erap. No, not the former movie idol who became president, Joseph Estrada.

The other Erap is one of the most celebrated products of the Philippine Carabao Center based in the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. Estrada, whose nickname is Erap, is the principal author of the law that created the PCC.

Erap is now an adult and is producing good quality semen. Sperm samples from Erap, along with those of other quality bulls, are processed in the PCC’s laboratory, placed in plastic straws, stored in liquid nitrogen tanks and sent elsewhere in the country in frozen form for the government‘s artificial insemination project.

Erap’s job is to help the government improve the breed of Philippine water buffalo and to create a robust carabao-based industry in the country. In the process, the government hopes to lessen the country’s heavy dependence on imported dairy products.

In this job, Erap is joined by Fidel, Cory and Glory. Together with Erap, they are the so-called “Presidential Carabaos,” all born in 2002.

The names of the test-tube calves are in honor of former Presidents Fidel Ramos, Corazon Aquino and outgoing President Gloria Arroyo who have contributed considerably to the cause of carabao development in the country.

Erap, Fidel, Cory and Glory are among tens of thousands of highly improved carabaos produced by the 17-year old PCC which was created to promote the development of the carabao as a source of milk, meat, draft and hide as direct and indirect means of improving the general well-being of millions of rural farming families.

Over the years, about 70,000 good breed of carabao calves have been produced, said Dr. Libertado Cruz, a noted animal scientist, as reported by multi-awarded development journalist Anselmo Roque, a retired professor at the Central Luzon State University (CLSU).

Dr. Danilda Duran, PCC technology commercialization project leader, said the embryo of Glory, who was born on April 5, 2002, which happens to be the birth date of President Arroyo, was assembled by a PCC team in India and flown to the Philippines in cryopreserved form, and transferred to a surrogate mother buffalo in the agency’s gene pool in the Science City of Muñoz.

The technology in producing the new types of Philippine carabaos developed by the PCC is officially called “Propagation of Riverine Buffaloes through Embryo in vitro Production-Vitrification-Transfer Technique.”

“In layman’s term, the calves produced are called ‘test-tube’ carabaos,’” explained Roque.

Roque reported that Cory and Glory have given birth to two quality calves each at the PCC gene pool and as expected, they are high producers of milk.

Glory is said to be unique because one of her horns is curved downward and the other a little upward.

Fidel, on the other hand, is at the dairy farm of the PCC branch station at the CLSU. He is with the herd of the dairy carabaos doing the job of siring quality calves through natural mating, Roque reported.

Other test-tube procedures were also reportedly applied in different settings and also produced successful results.