78 Present address: 1,2,3 Scientists (vetchandran@gmail.com, jeganicar@gmail.com, raypradeep56@yahoo.co.in), 4 Principal Scientist and Head (amitavdey_icar@yahoo.co.in), 5 Chief Technical Officer (skbarari@yahoo.co.in), 6 Former Head (dkkaushal31@gmail.com), Division of Livestock and Fisheries Management. The All India meat production for the year 2009–10 is 4.02 million tonnes as against 2.21 million tonnes in 2004– 05. The goat population in India is 122.7 million in the year 1997, which increased to 140.5 million in the year 2007 (Department of Animal Husbandry Dairying and Fisheries 2010). The study was undertaken to improve the productivity of Black Bengal goats using selective breeding methodology especially under field conditions. A survey was undertaken in 35 villages in Patna district of Bihar and 127 flocks were visited to evaluate the production performance of Black Bengal goats under farmers’ conditions. The morphometric characteristics such as height at withers, body length and chest girth, and the body weight were studied in 654 kids at 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age. From the survey, 4 superior bucks were selected based on phenotypic characteristics, body condition, litter size and ancestral history of productive and reproductive performance of goats of farm ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna. The bucks were trained for semen collection; the semen was collected twice in a week and the quality characteristics of the semen was assessed. The semen samples, which have the progressive motility of more than 90% were extended with sodium citrate-fructose-egg yolk diluent and finally stored at 4°C refrigeration temperature. Six villages in the periphery of Patna city, in Beur block of Patna district, were selected for transferring the germplasm of superior bucks to the village herds. Does (10) from each village were inseminated with the semen collected from the superior bucks. After insemination, the farmers were advised not to breed the goats with other bucks. Kids (132) were produced over the span of 18 months from 60 does in 2 kiddings. These kids were evaluated and compared for their superiority over their dams. The data were analyzed statistically as per Snedecor and Cochran (1968). Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 84 (1): 78–81, January 2014/short communication Selective breeding of Black Bengal goats for improving productivity P C CHANDRAN 1 , S JEGAVEERA PANDIAN 2 , P K RAY 3 , A DEY 4 , S K BARARI 5 and D K KAUSHAL 6 1 ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar 800 014 India Received: 21 February 2012; Accepted: 29 September 2013 Key words: Black Bengal, Performance, Selective breeding Flock size and composition: Flocks are generally smaller in size and most of the flocks possess less than 5 does with a maximum of 10 kids of both the sexes. Flock size of 7–9 was highest followed by the flock size of 4–6. The size of flocks was little bigger than Gohilwadi goats (Singh et al. 2009), which may be due to higher fecundity rates in Black Bengal goats. Majority of the flocks does not possess breeding bucks and none of the flocks had accompanying sheep with them. Breeding is carried out by bucks which are collectively owned by many farmers. Almost all the flocks had 25–30% adult does of more than 3 years, 15–20% of does of more than 1 year 50–60% of kids of both the sexes less than 1-year old. Physical characteristics: The breed exists in various coat colours as the study revealed in 7 recognizable varieties in the breed. The overall ratio of different varieties in males and females in the surveyed area is given in Table 1. Among them, complete black coat colour is predominant followed by complete white colour. However, there is neither preferential selection nor preferential mating is being carried out for coat colour in the breeding tract. Acharya (1982) described 4 predominant coat colours with mixture of black patches sometimes with predominant colours. The slight changes in the coat colour observed in this study may be due to natural selection in the breeding tract over the years. Characteristics of bucks used in selective breeding: Among the morphometric characteristics, the chest girth was higher at adult stage followed by body length and height at withers. The body measurements and body weight observed Table 1. Varieties of Black Bengal goats in the native tract Coat colour Percentage Complete black 28.3 Complete white 24.7 Predominantly brown with white patches 18.8 Predominantly black with white patches 12.6 Predominantly white with black patches 8.6 Predominantly white with brown patches 4.2 Complete brown 2.8