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Donkey milk knowledge archive · Organisation & authority
ICAR 2022: expert meeting on donkey milk and milk from other non-bovines in Bikaner
In December 2022, Indian research institutes met with ILRI to discuss donkey milk. The director of the equine research centre called for the approval of donkey milk by the food authority FSSAI to be accelerated.
- Author
- Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), source: ICAR-National Research Centre on Camel, Bikaner
- Work
- Stakeholders Meet on “Improvement of Donkey and Non-Bovine Milk” organized at ICAR-NRCC
- Passage
- Announcement of 13.12.2022, paragraphs 1–4
- Time & place
- 13 December 2022 · Bikaner, Rajasthan, India
- Type of source
- Official announcement (ICAR)
In the original words
What the original says
Dr T.K. Bhattacharya emphasized the need to characterise the donkey population of Rajasthan and accelerate the FSSAI approval of the Donkey milk for giving impetus to donkey milk marketing value-chain.
Dr T. K. Bhattacharya stressed the need to characterise Rajasthan’s donkey population and to speed up the approval of donkey milk by the FSSAI in order to give impetus to the marketing chain.
English rendering: our own translation by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, following the sense of the text.
Background
Who, when, what kind of text
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is the umbrella organisation for state agricultural research in India and reports to the Ministry of Agriculture. Its bodies include the National Research Centre on Equines (NRCE) and the National Research Centre on Camel (NRCC) in Bikaner.
On 13 December 2022, the NRCC, together with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), hosted a hybrid meeting on “Improvement of Donkey and Non-Bovine Milk”. Participants came from research, administration, non-governmental organisations, companies and farming.
According to the announcement, donkeys in India are used mainly as pack and draught animals, and their numbers are declining. At the time of the meeting, approval of donkey milk by the food authority FSSAI was still pending.
Content
What the source reports about donkey milk
According to the announcement, the results of donkey projects and the contributions of participants are to be brought together into guidelines and strategies for the care of the animals and the situation of donkey keepers (Dr H. Rahman, ILRI).
Prof. A. K. Gahlot argued, among other things, for broadening the market for non-bovine milk through product development and marketing platforms. NRCE director T. K. Bhattacharya called for a characterisation of Rajasthan’s donkey population and faster FSSAI approval of donkey milk.
NRCC director A. Sahoo pointed to the decline in camel and donkey numbers and named as countermeasures a shift in use from draught animal to milk production as well as regulatory frameworks for trade and export.
Finally, according to the announcement, recommendations were formulated, including research to confirm assumed human applications as well as on bottlenecks in collection, processing and marketing.
At a glance
Figures & facts from the source
Critical assessment
How reliable is this source?
Type of source
Official announcement by a state research organisation about an event. It reports speeches, not research results.
On the keyword “therapeutics”
The announcement speaks of still wanting to substantiate human applications. That is a research intention, not proof of an effect.
Regulatory finding
The call for FSSAI approval shows that donkey milk was not covered by the milk standards in India in 2022.
Our assessment
The announcement documents the interest of Indian authorities in donkey milk as a source of income for keepers. Health effects are not substantiated in it but named as an open research question.
References
Sources to check
- Primary sourceAnnouncement on the ICAR website
https://icar.org.in/node/17577
More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.