Water Buffalo

The water buffalo, Bubalus bubalis, also called the domestic, Asian or Asiatic water buffalo, is a large domesticated bovine originating in South and Southeast Asia, descended from the wild water buffalo Bubalus arnee, and kept today also in Italy, the Balkans, Australia, the Americas and parts of Africa. Two types are recognized: the river buffalo of the Indian subcontinent extending to the Balkans, Egypt and Italy, whose ancestors were domesticated in western India about 6,300 years ago, and the swamp buffalo of Assam through Southeast Asia to China's Yangtze valley, domesticated independently in mainland Southeast Asia between 3,000 and 7,000 years ago; water buffaloes were already traded from the Indus Valley Civilisation to Mesopotamia by 2500 BC. Valued for tilling rice fields, water buffaloes also produce milk richer in fat and protein than that of dairy cattle, and around 26 million are slaughtered annually for meat worldwide, contributing significantly to food production in nutritionally vulnerable regions.