[5][6][4] Water buffaloes were traded from the Indus Valley Civilisation to Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq, in 2500 BC by the Meluhhas.

[8] Water buffaloes are especially suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat and protein than that of dairy cattle.

[1] Feral herds are also present in New Britain, New Ireland, West Papua, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, and Uruguay.

[1] Tedong bonga is a piebald water buffalo featuring a unique black and white colouration that is favoured by the Toraja of Sulawesi.

Others, such as E. crassipes and A. donax, are a major problem in some tropical valleys and by eating them, the water buffaloes may help control these invasive plants.

Fodders include alfalfa, the leaves, stems or trimmings of banana, cassava, Mangelwurzel, esparto, Leucaena leucocephala and kenaf, maize, oats, Pandanus, peanut, sorghum, soybean, sugarcane, bagasse, and turnips.

[4][5][6] Swamp-type water buffalo entered Island Southeast Asia from at least 2,500 years ago through the northern Philippines, where butchered remains of domesticated water buffalo have been recovered from the Neolithic Nagsabaran site (part of the Lal-lo and Gattaran Shell Middens, c. 2200 BCE to 400 CE).

These became the ancestors of the distinctly swamp-type carabao buffalo breed of the Philippines which, in turn, spread to Guam, Indonesia, and Malaysia, among other smaller islands.

They are primarily of the river type, with 10 well-defined breeds: the Bhadawari, Banni, Jafarabadi, Marathwadi, Mehsana, Murrah, Nagpuri, Nili-Ravi, Pandharpuri, Surti, and Toda buffaloes.

[22] In Japan, the water buffalo was used as a domestic animal throughout the Ryukyu Islands or Okinawa prefecture, however it is almost extinct now and mainly used as a tourist attraction.

After 2003 and the Firdos Square statue destruction, these lands were reflooded and a 2007 report on Maysan and Dhi Qar shows a steady increase in the number of water buffaloes.

In Italy, the Mediterranean type was particularly selected and is called the Mediterranea Italiana buffalo to distinguish it from other European breeds, which differ genetically.

Mediterranean buffalo are also kept in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia, with a few hundred in the United Kingdom, Ireland,[46] Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Hungary.

[28] Between 1824 and 1849,[48] swamp buffaloes[49] were introduced into the Northern Territory, from Timor and Kisar and probably other islands in the Indonesian archipelago, to provide meat and hide.

[51][49] Water buffalo have been the main grazing animals on the subcoastal plains and river basins between Darwin and Arnhem Land (the "Top End") since the 1880s.

[48] The commencement of the brucellosis and tuberculosis campaign (BTEC) resulted in a huge culling program to reduce water buffalo herds to a fraction of the numbers that were reached in the 1980s.

The buffalo left behind after the failed British attempt at settlement became a threat to the local Aboriginal peoples, as they had no guns at that time.

As the herds expanded across into Arnhem Land, some local people seized the chance to hunt the animals for their hides in the 1880s, as they did not belong to anyone, unlike sheep and cattle.

Safari outfits are run from Darwin to Melville Island and other locations in the Top End, often with the use of bush pilots; buffalo horns, which can measure up to a record of 3.1 m (10 ft) tip-to-tip, are prized hunting trophies.

[54] Tom Dawkins, CEO of NT Buffalo Industry Council, said in May 2022 that culling should be a last resort, given the flourishing and growing live export trade and economic benefits for Aboriginal people.

[50] By the end of 2021, cattle exports to Indonesia had dropped to the lowest level since 2012, while demand for buffalo was growing both in Australia and in Southeast Asia.

[58] Other important herds in South America are Colombia (>300.000), Argentina (>100.000) and Venezuela with unconfirmed reports ranging from 200 to 500 thousand head.

Water buffaloes are the ideal animals for work in the deep mud of paddy fields because of their large hooves and flexible foot joints.

[36] Water buffalo milk presents physicochemical features different from those of other ruminant species, such as a higher content of fatty acids and proteins.

The high level of total solids makes water buffalo milk ideal for processing into value-added dairy products such as cheese.

Seasons and genetics may play a role in variation of CLA level and changes in gross composition of water buffalo milk.

[71] Wildlife conservation scientists have started to recommend and use introduced populations of feral water buffaloes in far-away lands to manage uncontrolled vegetation growth in and around natural wetlands.

[74] In uncontrolled circumstances, though, water buffaloes can cause environmental damage, such as trampling vegetation, disturbing bird and reptile nesting sites, and spreading exotic weeds.

[75] In 2004, Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) in Nueva Ecija produced the first swamp-type water buffalo born from an in vitro-produced, vitrified embryo.

Chinese scientists used micromanipulation-based somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) produce several clones of a swamp-type water buffalo.