Cow Sparks Row Between India,
Britain
OTC 03.10.98 18:09
NEW DELHI (Oct. 3) XINHUA - A controversy has broken out between India and Britain over
the patent of a nearly extinct Indian cattle breed called "Vechur cow," an
Indian daily reported Saturday.
The Times of India said the Roslin Institute of Scotland, which produced the world's first
cloned sheep "Dolly," has applied for the patent right to the genetic material
of this rare cow, which India said draws its name from Vechur, a village in India's
southwestern state of Kerala.
Environmentalist Vandana Shiva said that of the 14 applications filed by Roslin Institute
and its associate, PPL Therapeutics Ltd., in the European patent office, one is for the
Vechur cow.
However, in a letter to the Kerala Agricultural University where research on the Vechur
cow has been conducted, the Roslin Institute denied that they applied for patent rights to
the Indian cattle breed which the Times of India said is associated with Hindu mythology
since time immemorial.
Kerala Agricultural University authorities reportedly said the Roslin director wrote to
the university saying the institute does not possess any genetic material of the Indian
cattle breed.
But Shiva said investigation carried out by her institute, Research Foundation for
Science, Technology and Ecology, had found Roslin's application for the patent right to
the Indian cattle breed (Bos indicus).
"All Indian breeds, in spite of their diversity, are called Bos indicus, " she
said, adding that this confirmed that an Indian breed was named in the patent claim.
They are mainly interested in the Vechur breed because it eats less fodder and gives more
milk and it can bring more profits, she said.
According to the Indian environmentalist, the basic research which was done on the Vechur
cow in India might have been smuggled out of the country.
The so-called Vechur cow is the smallest variety of cattle in the world, with its average
height of 87 centimeters and length of 124 centimeters.
The cattle is said to give more milk in relation to the meager amount of fodder it eats
and its milk has a high fat content of between 6.02 and 7.86 percent while Europe's
high-yielding varieties have 3.5 to 4.5 percent.
The Kerala Agricultural University has a research center for the Vechur. Local people say
the milk from the cattle has medicinal value. Enditem
=10031703 03/10/98 17:07 GMT
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