AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE www.arccjournals.com B- 3822 [1-9] *Corresponding author’s e-mail: neenasingla1@gmail.com Indian J. Anim. Res., Print ISSN:0367-6722 / Online ISSN:0976-0555 Growth and Breeding Biology of Female Indian Gerbil ( Tatera Indica): Reproductive, Biochemical and Histological Evaluation Komalpreet Kaur Sandhu and Neena Singla* Department of Zoology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141 004, Punjab, India. Received: 11-03-2019 Accepted: 18-09-2019 DOI: 10.18805/ijar.B-3822 ABSTRACT Average duration of pro-estrous, estrous, met-estrous and di-estrous stages in one oestrous cycle of female Indian gerbil, Tatera indica was found 0.61, 0.38, 0.62 and 1.37 days, respectively with total average duration of one cycle to be 2.99 days. Pairing of cyclic female gerbils with mature males resulted in 88% breeding success within gestation period of 21-24 days. Post-partum estrous was observed immediately after parturition in females not separated from males. Observations on onset of sexual maturity in female pups of seven different age groups (30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105 and 120 days old) revealed significant increase in body weight and weights of ovary and uterus, plasma level of estradiol and activity of 3β-HSD in ovarian tissue with increasing age. Sexual maturity in female T. indica was attained at age of 3-4 months. It is therefore suggested to apply control measures before they reproduce and cause damage to crops. Key words: Breeding, Histology, Postnatal growth, Sexual maturation, Tatera indica. INTRODUCTION The Indian gerbil, Tatera indica (Hardwicke, 1807) is a species of family Muridae and subfamily Gerbillinae of order Rodentia. It is one of the fifteen economically important species of rodents occurring in India (Sood and Guraya, 1976; Fitzwater and Prakash, 1978). In Punjab, T. indica constitutes about 10% of the total murid fauna (Chopra et al., 1996). It is the prominent pest species of wheat, oilseeds, groundnut and cotton fields particularly in arid and semi arid regions (Parshad, 1999; Singla and Babbar, 2015). As agricultural pest, it is known to cause 5-10% loss to various crops (Singla et al., 2015). Besides, the species is also involved in transmission of zoonotic diseases (Singla et al., 2008). In Rajasthan, T. indica is found to breed all the year around. The percentage of pregnant females varied from 9.7- 61%, the annual average being 29.7%. Breeding peaks occur during February, July-August and November (Jain, 1970). However, in Punjab, peak breeding seasons have been found to occur in the last week of March to mid-May and last week of August to mid-October coinciding with maturity of wheat and rice crops (Sood and Guraya 1976; Kaur and Bilaspuri, 1995). The breeding months observed in laboratory coincided with the peak breeding season of T. indica under field conditions that occurred from March to May (Singh 1961, Prakash et al., 1971). Use of rodenticides and traps are the common methods of controlling rodent population in crop fields (Borah and Mallick, 2016), but there are reports of development of resistance against rodenticides in rodent populations (Garg and Singla, 2015). Under integrated rodent pest management programme, efficacy of some antifeedants and repellents have also been evaluated (Kaur and Singla, 2018; Kaur et al., 2018). For developing effective methods of rodent control, it is desirable to have knowledge about their reproductive behaviour and population growth. Methods based on manipulation of these aspects need the detailed study of breeding aspects and the reproductive cycle during different seasons and age periods. Age has significant effect on the structure and function of various components of reproductive systems in both male and female rodents. Substantial changes in testicular morphology, sex hormones and gamete production occur with aging (Bronson and Desjardins, 1977; Kim et al. 2002; Sandhu and Singla, 2019). Among the rodent pest species of economic importance, the members of the genus Tatera are relatively less understood (Mohan Rao, 1992). The present study was hence conducted to record growth and breeding biology of female T. indica through reproductive, biochemical and histological evaluation. MATERIALS AND METHODS For present studies, Indian gerbil, T. indica of both sexes were live trapped from crop fields of villages Partap Pura and Ladhowal, district Ludhiana, Punjab (India) with the help of single catch wooden rat traps. Animals were used and maintained as per the guidelines of Institutional Animal Ethics Committee. In laboratory, gerbils were weighed, sexed and kept individually in cages for 10-15 days for