Dr. Vikas Vohra
Principal Scientist
Buffalo Breeding Lab (Room No. 315), Animal Genetics and Breeding Division, ICAR-NDRI, Karnal
Email: Vikas.Vohra@icar.gov.in
Current Research Area
Genomics, Population Genetics, Diversity analysis, Lactation Curve Modelling, Molecular Breeding and Marker Assisted Selection.

- Ph.D. in Animal Genetics and Breeding from National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal
- M.V.Sc. in Animal Genetics and Breeding from Indian Veterinary Research Insitute, Izatnagar, Bareilly
- B.V.Sc. & A.H. from College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mathura
Major Research Accomplishments:
-
Concept of enumeration of grades within the major livestock breeds was proposedto DAHDAF, Government of India, which was implemented during National Breed Survey, 2013. Same concept is being adopted for the livestock enumeration in the forthcoming 20th Livestock Survey, 2017.
-
Surveyed, identified, characterized and documented the lesser known animal genetic resource of India, which includes Belahi Cattle, Gojri Buffalo, Chhattisgarhi Buffalo, Bargur Buffalo and Parlekhimundi, Sambalpuri, Kalahandi, Manda buffalo of Odisha; Kajali and Poonchi Sheep; Bakarwali and Rohailkhandi Goat populations.
-
Proof of concept that neutral microsatellite markers and their allele frequency, FST values can be applied in classifying nondescript livestock in to genetically distinct breeds. Following this concept diversity of lesser known germplasm was established.
-
Candidate gene approach was used in characterization of genes related to milk fat, growth and reproduction were studied. The work has enriched the bovine and ovine genome database and these gene variants generate new opportunities to be used in Marker Assisted Selection.
-
Developed a methodology to identify the persistent dairy cows using leptin genotype profile for maximizing the lifetime milk production.
Guidance to Student:
- M.V.Sc. = 5
- PhD = 3
Books Authored:
-
Sustainable Breeding in Cattle and Buffalo. 2011. ISBN 81-89304-98-4
Books Edited:
-
Conservation of Indigenous Domestic Animal Diversity. 2016. ISBN 978-93-83537-29-7
-
Management of Animal Genetic Resources in India. 2015. ISBN 978-93-83537-23-5
Reports Prepared:
- The Second state of world on Animal Genetic Resources. 2015. FAO, Romehttp://www.fao.org/3/a-i4787e.pdf
BOOK CHAPTER /MANUAL/ MONOGRAPH:
- Book Chapters Written = 6
- Teaching Manual written = 4
- Monographs written = 6
- Training compendium = 3
Editorship of NAAS rated journal
- Founder and Associate editor, Journal of Animal Research, a Bimonthly peer reviewed research publication in Animal Science. (NAAS rating 5.68, 2018)
- Advisory Board Memberof NAAS rated journal, Journal of Livestock Biodiversity, a half yearly publication by SOCDAB Society (NAAS rating 2.38, 2018)
Awards:
-
Fellow Award from National Dairy Science Academy-India (2021).
-
Fellow Award from Society for Conservation of Domestic Animal Biodiversity (2020).
-
Associate ship Award from National Dairy Science Academy-India (2014).
-
Breed Saviour Award from National Biodiversity Authority of India & SEVA & Life Network.
-
Young Scientist Award received from Indian Association for the Advancement of Animal Research, Bareilly.
-
University Topper (Ph.D.) from ICAR-NDRI (Deemed University) – Karnal.
-
B.V.Sc. & A.H. Merit Scholar Award from College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences – Mathura (U.P.).
-
Junior Research Fellowship for M.V.Sc. from Indian Council for Agricultural Research, New Delhi.
-
Junior Research Fellowship from Indian Council for Medical Research, New Delhi.
-
Received Outstanding Achievement Award, for meritorious and significant contribution made in Agriculture and Allied Sciences from Society for Bioinformatics and Biological Sciences.
-
Prof. KN Sharma, Memorial Award for Best Research Paper presented by SOCDAB.
-
Best Oral Presentation Award (3).
-
Best Poster Award (4).
- Best Stall of the Institute during Exhibition, Kisaan Mela, etc. (4).
Training:
- Databases and Software for Analysis of Animal Genetic and Breeding Data
- Advances in Breeding Management Technologies for the Improvement in Livestock Productivity
- Genetic Improvement of Farm Animals Using Advanced Breeding and Biotechnological Strategies
Patents, Technology, Methodology, Genetic Stock, Variety, etc.:
-
REGISTERED SIX NEW BREEDS OF LIVESTOCK AT NATIONAL LEVEL.
1. Belahi Cattle – Identified, Characterised and Registered as 38th Cattle Breed of India. Accession No. INDIA_CATTLE_0532_BELAHI_03038.
2. Chhattisgarhi Buffalo – Identified, Characterised and Registered as 16th Buffalo Breed of India. Accession No. INDIA_BUFFALO_2600_CHHATTISGARHI_01016
3. Gojri Buffalo – Identified, Characterised and Registered as 17th Buffalo Breed of India. Accession No. INDIA_BUFFALO_1606_CHHATTISGARHI_01017
4. Manda Buffalo – Identified, Characterised and Registered as 17th Buffalo Breed of India. Accession No. INDIA_BUFFALO_1500_MANDA_01019
5. Bhakarwali Goat – Identified, Characterised and Registered as 34th Goat Breed of India. Accession No. INDIA_GOAT_0700_BHAKARWALI_06034
6. Kajali Sheep – Identified, Characterised and Registered as 44th Goat Breed of India. Accession No. INDIA_SHEEP_1600_KAJALI_14044
Publications:
-
Vohra, V., Chhotaray, S., Gowane, G., Alex, R., Mukherjee, A., Verma, A., & Deb, S. M. (2021). Genome-wide association studies in Indian buffalo revealed genomic regions for lactation and fertility. Frontiers in Geneticsvol 12: 1668. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.696109
-
Vohra V, Singh NP, Chhotaray S, Raina VS, Chopra A and RS Kataria. (2021). Morphometric and microsatellite-based comparative genetic diversity analysis in Bubalus bubalis from North India. Peerj vol.9 :e11846 DOI 10.7717/peerj.11846.
-
Chopra A, Ali SA, Bathla S, Rawat P, Vohra V,Kumar S, and AK Mohanty.(2020). High-Resolution Mass Spectrometer–Based Ultra-Deep Profile of Milk Whey Proteome in Indian Zebu (Sahiwal) Cattle. Frontiers in Nutrition, 7, 150. Doi: 10.3389/fnut.2020.00150
-
Singh R, Kumar SL, Mishra SK, Gurao A, NiranjanSK, Vohra V, Dash SK,C Rajesh and RS Kataria. (2020).Mitochondrial sequence-based evolutionary analysis of riverine– swamphybrid buffaloes of India indicates novel maternal differentiation and domestication patterns. Animal Genetics, 51, 476–482.Doi: 10.1111/age.12938
- Vohra V, Bhattacharya T K, Dayal S, Kumar P and Sharma A. 2006. Genetic variance of Beta lactoglobulin gene and its association with milk composition traits in riverine buffalo. Journal of Dairy Research 73: 499-503
- Bhattacharya T K, Mishra S S, Sheikh F D, Dayal S, Vohra V, Kumar P and Sharma A. 2004. Variability of milk fat globule membrane protein gene between cattle and riverine buffalo. DNA Sequence- The Journal of Sequencing and Mapping 15 (5-6): 326-331
- Dayal S, Bhattacharya T K, Vohra V, Kumar P and Sharma A. 2006. Effect of alpha lactalbumin gene polymorphism on milk production traits in water buffalo Asian Australian Journal of Animal Sciences 19(3): 305-308
- Dayal S, Bhattacharya T K, Vohra V, Kumar P and Sharma A. 2006. Genetic polymorphism of alpha lactalbumin gene in riverine buffalo DNA Sequence-The Journal of Sequencing and Mapping 16(3): 173-179
- Sharma N, Kang TY, Lee S J, Jin Nam Kim, Chang Hyun Hur, Jong Chul Ha, Vohra V, Dong Kee Jeong. 2013. Status of bovine mastitis and associated risk factors in subtropical Jeju Island, South Korea. Tropical Animal Health and production. 45: 1829-1832
- Vohra V, Niranjan S K, Mishra A K and Joshi B K. 2014. Belahi Cattle Pastoralism in the Himalayan Foot Hills. Proc. Aust. Soc. Anim. Prod. 2014 Vol. 30: 317
- Chandershekhar S Patil, Chakravarty A K, Singh A, Kumar V, Jamuna V and Vohra V. 2014. Development of a predictive model for daughter pregnancy rate and standardization of voluntary waiting period in Murrah buffalo. Tropical Animal Health and production. 46: 279–284
- Jamuna V, Chakravarty A K, Patil C S, Dash S K, Mahajan A C, Kumar V and Vohra V. 2014. Enhancing milk and fertility performances using selection index developed for Indian Murrah buffaloes. Tropical Animal Health and production 46: 967–974.
- Vohra V, Niranjan S K, Mishra A K, Jamuna V, Chopra A, Sharma N and Dong Kee Jeong. 2015. Phenotypic characterization and multivariate analysis to explain body conformation in lesser known buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) from North India. Asian Australian Journal of Animal Sciences 28(3): 311-317.
- Chopra A, Gupta I D, Verma A, Chakravarty A K and Vohra V. 2015. Lactoferrin gene promoter variants and their association with clinical and sub clinical mastitis in indigenous and crossbred cattle. Polish Journal of Veterinary Sciences 18(3): 465-471
- Niranjan S. K, Goyal S, Dubey P. K, Vohra V, Singh S, Kathiravan P and Kataria R. S. 2016. Molecular Characterization of Buffalo Haptoglobin: Sequence based structural comparison indicates convergent evolution between ruminants and human. Animal Biotechnology, 27(1):30–37
- Jamuna V, Chakravarty A K, Kumar V, Mir MA and Vohra V. 2016. Standardizing Pregnancy Rate of Indian Murrah Buffaloes for Higher Milk Yield. Buffalo Bulletin, 35(1):109-119
- Kumar M, Vohra V, Ratwan P and Chakravarty AK. 2016. SNP identification in thioesterase domain of fatty acid synthase gene in Murrah buffaloes. The Journal of Animal and Plant Science. 26(6): 1828-1832
- Vohra V, Sodhi M, Niranjan S K, Mishra A K, Chopra A, Kumar M and Joshi A K. 2017. Characterization of rare migratory cattle and evaluation of its phylogeny using short-tandem-repeat-based markers. Journal of Applied Animal Research, 45(1): 355-363
- Mishra S K, Dubey P K, Dhiman A, Dubey S, Verma D, Kaushik AC, Singh R, Niranjan SK, Vohra V, Mehrara KL, and Kataria RS (2019) Sequence-based structural analysis and evaluation of polymorphism in buffalo Nod-like receptor-1 gene. 3 Biotech (2019) 9(1): 26 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-018-1534-2
- Sharma R, Ahlawat S, Sharma H, Kulkarni VS, Kataria RS, Vohra V and Tantia MS. 2019. Microsatellite based Genetic Diversity and Mutation-Drift Equilibrium in Dharwadi Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) of India. Agric. Res. published online https://doi.org/10.1007/s40003-018-0396-5
- Mishra SK, Dubey PK, Goyal S, Singh S, Niranjan SK, Vohra V, Mukesh M and Kataria RS. 2019. Identification of novel polymorphism in buffalo stanniocalcin-1 gene and its expression analysis in mammary gland under different stages of lactation. Journal of Genetics (2019) 98:38 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12041-019-1082-5
- Vohra V, Chakravarty A K and Chopra A. 2010. Revealing Different Shapes of Lactation Curves in Karan Fries Cows. Indian Journal of Dairy Science 63(6): 459-63
- Vohra V, Niranjan S K, Singh P K, Sadana D K and Joshi B K. 2011. Pastoral Management of Kankrej Cattle during Migration between Western Dryland and Trans-Gangetic Plain of India. Indian Journal of Dairy Science 64(6): 501-507
- Vohra V, Chakravarty A K and Chopra A. 2011. Lactation Curve modeling in Karan Fries Cows using empirical mathematical model. Journal of Animal Research 1(1): 57-61
- Vohra V, Chakravarty A K, Singh A, Gupta I D, Chopra A, Dubey P P and Kumar D. 2011. Identification of leptin gene polymorphism and its association with 305 day milk yield in Karan Fries cows. Indian Journal of Animal Science. 81(4): 388-390
- Vohra V, Dayal S and Bhattacharya T K. 2012. SSCP typing of alpha-lactalbumin and beta-lactoglobulin gene and its association with milk production and constituent traits in Indian riverine buffalo. Indian Journal of Animal Science 82(8): 884-888
- Nawle V S, Chakravarty A K, Chakraborty D, Vohra V. 2012. Effects of non-genetic factors on different reproductive traits in Murrah buffalo. Indian Veterinary Journal 89(12): 18-19
- Vohra V, Niranjan S K and Joshi B K. 2012. Gojri– A novel migratory buffalo germplasm in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Journal of Animal Research 2(3): 17-321
- Vohra V, Niranjan S K and Joshi B K. 2012. Belahi Cattle: Uniform but distinct germplasm of Haryana. Journal of Animal Research 2(1): 47-51
- Chopra A, Gupta I D, Verma A, Soumya N P and Vikas V. 2013. Identification of lactoferrin gene polymorphism and its association with Mastitis Incidence. Journal of Animal Research 3(1): 103-108
- Chopra A, Gupta I D, Verma A and Vohra V. 2014. Detection of Allelic Variants in Lactoferrin gene promoter using Created Restriction Site PCR-RFLP and its Association with Mastitis. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 89(10): 36-38
- Jamuna V, Chakravarty A K, Patil C S, Mahajan A C, Dash S and Vohra V. 2013. Decline in Reproductive performance in High producing Murrah Buffalo. Journal of Animal Research 3(2): 203-208
- Vohra V, Kumar M, Chopra A, Niranjan S K, Mishra A K and Kataria R S. 2015. Polymorphism in exon-40 of FASN gene in lesser known buffalo breeds of India. Journal of Animal Research 5(2): 325-328
- Bukhari S, Das A K, Kumar N, Raghuvanshi P, Taggar R K, Chakraborty D, Kumar D, Vohra V and Gupta P. 2015. Genetic polymorphism of promoter region of lactoferrin gene and its association with mastitis resistance in Jersey crossbred cattle. Indian Journal of Animal Research 49(2): 165-167
- Yatoo SA, Taggar RK, Chakraborty D, Kumar N, Kumar D and Vohra V. 2015. Status of FecB gene mutation in Dorper Sheep from Jammu. Journal of Animal Research 5(4): 253-55
- Kumar M, Vohra V, Ratwan P, Chopra A and Chakravarty A K. 2017. Influence of FASN gene polymorphism on milk production and its composition traits in Murrah buffaloes. Indian Journal of Animal Research 51 (4): 640-643
- Kumar M, Vohra V, Ratwan P and Chakravarty A K. 2015. Exploring polymorphism in 3′ UTR region of STAT1 gene in different Buffalo breeds. Indian Journal of Dairy Science 68(5): 473-476
- Jamuna V, Gupta A K, Singh A, Patil C S, Kumar M and Vohra V. 2016. Leptin gene polymorphism in association with lactation milk yield in Murrah buffaloes. Indian Journal of Animal Science 86(1): 95-97
- Kumar M, Vohra V, Ratwan P, Valsalan J, Patil CS, Chakravarty AK. 2016 Estimates of genetic parameters for fat yield in Murrah buffaloes, Veterinary World, 9(3): 295-298
- Vohra V, Mishra AK, Niranjan SK, Chopra A, Kumar M and Joshi BK. 2016. Phenotypic characterization, management and performance of Belahi cattle. Indian Journal of Animal Science. 86(3): 355-358
- Mishra SK, Mishra AK, Raja KN, Vohra V, Singh S, Singh Y, Ahlawat S and Kataria RS. 2018. Polymorphism analysis at FecB locus in Kajali sheep of India. Indian Journal of Animal Research. 52(3): 474-476
- Mishra AK, Raja KN, Vohra V, Singh S and Singh Y. 2016. Phenotypic traits and performance of Kajali sheep: a lesser known ovine genetic resource of Punjab, India. Indian Journal of Animal Science. 86(11):1279-1282
- Mishra AK, Vohra V, Raja KN, Singh S and Singh Y. 2017. Principal component analysis of biometric traits to explain body conformation in Kajali sheep of Punjab, India. Indian Journal of Animal Science. 87(1): 93-98
- Vohra V, Singh M, Mukherjee K and Kataria R S. 2017. Identification and characterization of Chhattisgarhi buffalo population in India. Indian Journal of Animal Science. 87(2): 182-185
- Vohra V, Chopra A, and Chakravarty AK. 2017. Prediction of lactation persistency in crossbred cattle using genotype profile of lactation curve traits. Indian Journal of Animal Science. 87(1): 97-104
- Vohra V, Chopra A, and Chakravarty AK. 2017. Prediction of lactation persistency in crossbred cattle using genotype profile of lactation curve traits. Indian Journal of Animal Science. 87(1): 97-104
- Vohra V, Singh M, Das R, Chopra A and Kataria R S. 2017. Multivariate analysis of biometric traits and their shared variance in Chhattisgarhi buffalo. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 87 (7): 864–870
- Singh S, Mishra AK, Vohra V, Raja KN, Singh Y, Singh KM, Ganguly I And Arora R. 2017. Microsatellite based genetic diversity estimation in Kajali sheep and its phylogenetic relationship with other indigenous sheep breeds. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 87 (9): 1097–1101
- Singh R, Niranjan SK, Rajesh C, Mishra SK, Vohra V, Dash SK, Misra D and Kataria RS. 2018. Cytogenetic characterization of Kalahandi and Paralakhemundi buffaloes of Odisha state confirms their riverine status. Indian Journal of Dairy Science (2018) 71(3): 279-283
- Singh R, Rajesh C, Mishra SK, Gurao A, Vohra V, Niranjan SK and Kataria RS. 2018. Comparative expression profiling of heat-stress tolerance associated HSP60 and GLUT-1 genes in Indian buffaloes. Indian Journal of Dairy Science 71(2):183-186
- Singh R, Lavakumar S, Gurao A, Mishra SK, Niranjan SK, Vohra V, Dash SK and Kataria RS. 2018. STR Marker based genetic diversity evaluation of Chilika buffalo of Odisha State. Journal of livestock biodiversity 8(1): 29-35
- Vohra V. 2018. Genomic selection and its significance in Indian dairying. Indian Journal of Dairy Science 71(6): 539-545
- Lavakumar S, Singh R, Niranjan SK, Mishra SK, Kumar P, Vohra V, Dash SK and Kataria RS. (2019). Cytogenetic characterization of Sambalpuri and Manda buffaloes of Odisha. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 89 (1): 53–56