Jafarabadi buffalo

{{short description|Indian buffalo breed}}

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File:Jafarabadi buffalo in village.jpg

{{Use Indian English|date=October 2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}

Jafarabadi buffalo, Jaffrabadi buffalo or Gir buffalo{{Cite web |title=Jaffarabadi {{!}} Buffalopedia |url=https://buffalopedianew.cirb.res.in/jaffarabadi/ |access-date=2022-04-21 |language=en-US}} is a domesticated riverine buffalo that originated in Gujarat, India.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y9GbDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA235|title=The Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) – Production and Research|first=Giorgio A.|last=Presicce|date=31 March 2017|publisher=Bentham Science Publishers|isbn=9781681084176}} It is estimated that there are about 25,000 Jafarabadi buffaloes in the world.{{cite book|last1=Rife|first1=David Cecil|title=The water buffalo of India and Pakistan|date=1959|publisher=International Cooperation Administration|page=31|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egVqiiaYX9IC|language=en}} It is one of the important buffalo breeds of India and Pakistan.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FxYrS17mZGMC&pg=PA102|title=Smallholder Dairying in the Tropics|first1=Lindsay|last1=Falvey|first2=Haran|last2=Hanthalakkhan|date=1 January 1999|publisher=ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD)|isbn=9780734014320}} The Jafarabadi buffalo is also the first buffalo breed exported to Brazil,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2UEJDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA963|title=Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding, 2 Volume Pack|first1=Valerie|last1=Porter|first2=Lawrence|last2=Alderson|first3=Stephen J. G.|last3=Hall|first4=D. Phillip|last4=Sponenberg|date=9 March 2016|publisher=CABI|isbn=9781845934668}} and is also one of the four buffalo breeds raised in Brazil as of 2017, the others being Mediterranean, Murrah and swamp buffalo.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPo2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA53|title=The Brazilian Microbiome: Current Status and Perspectives|first1=Victor|last1=Pylro|first2=Luiz|last2=Roesch|date=21 September 2017|publisher=Springer|isbn=9783319599977}}

The Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre states that the Jafarabadi buffalo is a hybrid of the African Cape buffalo and the Indian water buffalo, the former originally been brought to British India for slaughtering. The Centre notes this to be one of the major reasons for the buffalo's poor semen quality. The hybrid buffalos were widely present in Jafarabad, and were hence named as Jafarabadi buffalo.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sTgeAQAAMAAJ|title=Indian Science Abstracts|publisher=Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre|year=2006|page=156}} Jafarabadi buffaloes have heavy heads with fairly large, thick, flat horns, which drop on the sides of the neck and go on upwards till the ears.{{cite book|last1=Hill|first1=Desmond|title=Cattle and Buffalo Meat Production in the Tropics|date=1988|publisher=Longman Scientific & Technical|isbn=9780582608955|pages=41–44|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lNcqAQAAMAAJ|language=en}}

This is one of the Water buffalo breeds that falls prey to Asiatic lions in the Gir Forest National Park.