Indian Farmers Embrace Mutant Multiple-Birth Sheep

The Hindu reports that in Tumkur, a city in the south of India, a new sheep is creating an awful lot of buzz. The NARI-Suvarna breed of sheep, created by NARI (a government-funded agriculture science group called the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute), has proven to give birth to twins far more often than other, more common sheep breeds. Tumkur farmers have gotten first crack at the new sheep, and are already experiencing some impressive results; one farmer bought 10 sheep and has already seen 23 births.

The NARI-Suvarna is the latest in a decades-long quest to come up with a sheep that gives birth to twins reliably. Sheep do naturally sometimes give birth to twins, the rate of which varies by breed of sheep and even by individual flock. The health of the flock and various other conditions we don’t really understand (weather? Diet?) could well affect the twinning rate. A sheep in Moravia even gave birth to quintuplets. But the local sheep in Tumkur, the Hassan breed, has a twinning rate of about 30%, according to the FAO.

NARI has come up with a cross of three varieties of sheep (Deccani, Magdyal, and Garole) that boasts a particular mutation of one gene that triggers multiple births. The gene, called FecB, has been studied extensively in recent decades, and put most often to use with a variety of Merino sheep called the Booroola (haha, good name). The NARI-Suvarna is a new one, but it boasts the same impressive increase in twinning rate: these sheep give birth to twins about 60% of the time.

As you might expect, the NARI-Suvarna costs a bit more than the local Hassan sheep. The NARI-Suvarna costs about $123, compared to $95 for the local variety. But if you get yourself a few sets of twins out of that initial investment, you’ll make your money back pretty quick.

(Image via Wikimedia user Bohringer)