Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 7.15. Water buffalo in the Philippines.
Buffalo are quite different from the American bison. The misnaming of bison as
buffalo is attributed to early French explorers calling them “le boeufs,” which was
later mispronounced to form “the buffs” and “the buffels.” 15 Similar to cattle, buffaloes
are ruminants with many of the same nutritional needs and management practices. In
contrast to cattle, buffaloes are adapted to wet environments, as evidenced by the
two main types: water buffalo (shown in Fig. 7.15) and swamp buffalo. Most breeds
have a sparse hair coat and do not tolerate cold well. The exception is the river
buffalo, which has some cold tolerance. Buffaloes are confined mostly to Asia (96 to
97 percent). The leading countries for buffalo production are India, Pakistan, and
China, as shown in Figure 7.16. Egypt and the Philippines also maintain significant
populations. Buffaloes are found in the United States but are not as popular as cattle
or bison.
There is some disagreement on the Latin names for buffaloes as well. Some experts
give the Latin name of Bubalus arnee to all types of buffalo with two subspecies of
Bubalus arnee bubalis for the river buffalo and Bubalus arnee carabanesis as the
swamp buffalo. Others consider them to be separate species since they have different
chromosome counts. Swamp buffaloes are from Southeast Asia and tend to be used pri-
marily for draft purposes. River buffaloes are from India and Pakistan and are used for
milk and meat production in addition to draft purposes.
7.5.1 Biology
Cattle and buffaloes are ruminants. The stomach of ruminants has four chambers. The
first two are the rumen and reticulum, where the fibrous foods are stored and broken
down by bacteria and protozoa. The broken-down food then passes through to the
omasum, where water is removed. The last chamber, the abomasum, is similar to
the
human
stomach
and
breaks
down
proteins
and
simple
carbohydrates.
This
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