ABSTRACT
Considerations of finance, climate, and the nature of rural enterprises leads to the conclusion that draft animals, including the domestic buffalo, will remain major contributors to the supply of both rural energy and human food in most Southeast Asian countries. Major limitations to improved productivity and increased numbers are imposed by low survival and low reproductive rates of domestic buffalo. The main parasites of newborn buffalo calves are Neoaecaris vitulorum and Stvongyloides papillosus. The major infectious diseases known to affect the productivity of buffalo in Southeast Asia are rinderpest, foot and mouth, and Hemorrhagic Septicemia, with leptospirosis, brucellosis, vibriosis, tuberculosis, and surra of lesser importance throughout the region. The most rapid means of achieving an increased draft capacity of the swamp buffalo or other smaller buffalo breeds is to cross to a breed of large mature size, for example Murrah. Genetic improvement of heat tolerance by within-breed selection is theoretically possible.
