WATER BUFFALO: ORIGINS AND GENETIC DIVERSITY ASSOCIATED WITH ECONOMICALLY IMPORTANT TRAITS – A REVIEW

Buffaloes provide humanity with high-quality food products. Due to the growing interest in healthy nutrition, the number of buffaloes in Bulgaria has been increasing since 2016. The Bulgarian Murrah breed is one of the two officially recognized buffalo breeds in Europe, which ranks among the leading dairy breeds in the world, is resistant to stress, has good adaptation abilities. Their breeding is difficult due to their late sexual maturity, summer anestrus, silent estrus and extended inter-calving interval. In order to improve the existing population, it is necessary to apply genetic selection aimed at improving the health and welfare of animals, increasing tolerance to stress factors and increasing reproductive abilities, milk and meat production by apply-ing appropriate molecular markers. This review provides information on the identified candidate genes in buf-faloes that could help optimize the production efficiency and productive potential of the Bulgarian Murrah buffaloes.