Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Instituto de Saúde e Produção Animal, Belém, Pará, Brazil.
Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil.
Trop Anim Health Prod. 2021 Jun 5;53(3):343. doi: 10.1007/s11250-021-02744-w.
The Brazilian Amazon has witnessed, in the last decades, an increase in the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) inventory, with interesting productivity results. As the Brazilian Amazon contains the main water buffalo population in the Americas, the aim of this work is to review its most relevant production systems and some peculiarities about meat and milk production in this territory. The opening section describes the Amazon Basin, the most common water buffalo breeds, a brief history of the local livestock farming beginning in 1644. Also, it presents how water buffaloes gradually replaced bovine herds, especially where the latter had a lower productive performance. The use of extensive or more intensified models is pointed out and the ecosystems in which buffaloes are raised are detailed since native or cultivated pastures can be used in floodplains or drylands. Buffalo raising is favored in the Amazon due to the climate, soil, genetic variability of forages, animal adaptability, and physical space. Thus, it is clear that buffaloes have a high potential for meat and milk production and are an alternative in the use of altered areas of the Amazon; and, in the recent past, the low profitability of buffalo farming in traditional production systems in the Amazon was the reason which made this activity economically unattractive. Most recent technologies as outdoor confinements and silvopastoral systems are pointed out as more suitable regarding land-use policies, and buffalo farming for meat and milk production fits perfectly in this context, with productivity and beneficial socioeconomic.
在过去几十年中，巴西亚马逊地区的水牛奶牛（Bubalus bubalis）存栏量有所增加，其生产效率也有所提高。由于巴西亚马逊地区拥有美洲地区的主要水牛奶牛种群，因此，本工作旨在综述该地区最主要的生产系统及其在肉类和牛奶生产方面的一些特点。开篇部分描述了亚马逊盆地、最常见的水牛品种、1644 年开始的当地畜牧业的简要历史。此外，还介绍了水牛如何逐渐取代牛群，尤其是在后者生产性能较低的地区。文中还指出了广泛或更集约化的模式的使用，并详细介绍了水牛饲养的生态系统，因为在洪泛区或旱地可以使用原生或人工种植的牧场。由于气候、土壤、饲料的遗传变异性、动物适应性和物理空间等因素，水牛在亚马逊地区的饲养受到青睐。因此，很明显，水牛具有很高的肉类和牛奶生产潜力，是亚马逊地区改造区域利用的一种替代方案；而在最近，亚马逊传统生产系统中水牛养殖的低利润使得该活动在经济上缺乏吸引力。文中还指出了一些最新技术，如户外围栏和林牧系统，这些技术在土地利用政策方面更加适用，而水牛的肉奶生产非常适合这种情况，具有较高的生产力和有益的社会经济效益。
