Philippine Carabao Center
The Philippine Carabao Center an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, was established at Muñoz in Nueva Ecija province in 1992 to breed and cross carabao based on high-yield Murrah buffalo in the Philippines as a multi-purpose animal that can be raised for milk, meat, hide, and draft.
History
It was set up in 1992 on a piece of land donated by Central Luzon State University on its main campus, initially with 6 network centers in 1992. 7 more network centers were added in 1994 bringing the total to 13. It was sponsored as a bill by the then senator Joseph Estrada and eventually enacted as a law through Republic Act 7307 i.e. the Philippine Carabao Act of 1992.Research and development
Reproduction technology
The PCC had some success in reproductive biotechnology in 2004 when the first test-tube buffalo was born on April 5, also the birthday of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Incidentally, the test-tube buffalo is a female and was named as "Glory" after the President.From 2007 to 2009, the PCC was known to be researching on the process of cloning carabaos.
Milk yield improvement
Late in 2007, according to Filipino scientists, the Center located in Nueva Ecija initiated a study to breed the super water buffalo that could produce 4 to 18 liters of milk/day using gene-based technology. The majority of the funding came from the Department of Science and Technology. When this marker-assisted selection process is perfected it will allow the poor farmers to conserve their resources by raising only the best producers that are genetically selected soon after birth.Taxonomy
In 2024, the PCC along with the Institute of Biology of the College of Science of the University of the Philippines Diliman proposed to revive the 1860 species classification that recognizes the carabao or swamp buffalo as a distinct species from the riverine buffalo. Currently the carabao and the riverine buffaloare considered as subspecies of the domesticated buffalo