The Art of Improving the Breeds of Domestic Animals Hawking

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Agrobiodiversity: the instance for conserving domestic and related animals

FAO Fact sheet on the conservation of domestic animal genetic resources

Whether they are used in traditional farming, conventional or mod convenance or genetic engineering, the genetic resource of animals are a global asset of inestimable value to humankind. As genetic diversity erodes, our capacity to maintain and enhance livestock productivity and sustainable agriculture decreases, along with the power to respond to changing weather condition.
Agrobiodiversity holds the key to increasing food security and improving the man condition.

Creature GENETIC Resource include all species, breeds and strains that are of economic, scientific and cultural involvement to humankind for agronomics, both now and in the future. Common agricultural species include sheep, goats, cattle, horses, pigs, buffalo and chickens, only in that location are many other domesticated animals such as camels, donkeys, elephants, reindeer, rabbits and rodents species that are important to different cultures and regions of the world.

Beast domestication began some 10 000 years ago when people began selecting animals for food, fibre, work ability and other agricultural uses. Livestock provide valuable products, such every bit hides, wool and manure, that are important both for subsistence and every bit sources of income for rural communities. Livestock process forage and crop waste matter, inedible to humans, into nutritionally important food products. Approximately forty percentage of the total country available in developing countries tin be used only for some grade of forage production. An estimated 12 per centum of the world's population live in areas where people depend well-nigh entirely on products obtained from ruminant livestock- cattle, sheep and goats.

Centuries of human being and natural selection accept resulted in thousands of genetically diverse breeds of domestic animals adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions and human being needs. Some are resistant to parasites or illness, for example, while others are adapted to humidity or drought or extremes of oestrus and common cold. Animal genetic diverseness, represented by this wide range of breeds, is essential to sustain the productivity of agronomics.

Animals business relationship for nineteen percent of the globe's food basket direct, merely they too provide draught power and fertilizer for ingather production, bringing their overall contribution upward to 25 pct. In addition, livestock serve as a very important course of greenbacks reserves in many of the mixed farming systems. Taking this into account, animals contribute an estimated xxx percent of full human requirements for food and agriculture.

A sinking ark

In Europe, half of the breeds that existed at the plough of the century accept go extinct; a 3rd of the remaining 7 70 breeds are in danger of disappearing over the side by side 20 years. In Germany, for example, but v out of at least 35 indigenous breeds of cattle remain In North America, over one-third of all breeds of livestock and poultry are considered rare or in reject.

Domesticated animals at risk

A great diverseness of breeds has been developed since domestication, especially in Europe and Asia, but many are now threatened with extinction.

Ankole

Much less is known nigh breeds in the developing world. Domestic beast diversity is greatest in the developing earth. Asia, for instance, is dwelling house to more than 140 breeds of pig, while North America can claim only 19.

Based on preliminary information, FAO predicts that 28 percent of livestock breeds are at present at take chances of extinction, and the current loss rate is estimated at one breed per calendar week. and more than one-half of these breeds are likely to be found in developing countries.

Worldwide, the greatest threat to domestic animal diversity is the highly specialized nature of modern livestock production. In the developed world, commercial livestock farming is based on very few breeds that have been selected for the intensive production of meat, milk or eggs at loftier feeding levels in highly controlled weather condition. The spread of intensive, loftier-input product systems to the developing world places thousands of native breeds at risk. Commercial breeds imported from N America and northern Europe are unremarkably unable to sustain high production in less hospitable environments. They require intensive management and high levels of inputs such as highly digestible, high-protein feed, medication and high levels of management. Introduction of intensive animal production creates dependency on imported technologies: it is neither affordable nor sustainable for nearly farmers in the developing world.

After thousands of generations of controlled interbreeding nearly domesticated animals no longer have wild relatives from whom germplasm tin be obtained. When a breed becomes extinct, an already narrow genetic base shrinks irreversibly. The small number of commercial breeds suited to intensive production exercise not offering an adequate genetic reservoir for the hereafter. Their genetic base of operations reflects the emphasis on maximizing production The turkey that is mass-produced on factory farms in North America and Europe, for case, has been selected for such a meaty chest that it can no longer breed unassisted. This broad-breasted breed - which accounts for 99 per centum of all turkeys in the United States today-would become extinct in one generation without homo assist in the form of artificial insemination.

What value beast genetic diverseness?

The Genetic variety shortly found in domestic beast breeds allows farmers to select stocks or develop new breeds in response to changes in the environs, threats of disease, new knowlege of man nutrition requirements, changing market conditions and societal needs, all of which are largely unpredictable. Indigenous livestock breeds often possess valuable traits such as illness resistance, high fertility, good maternal qualities, unique product qualities, longevity and adaptation to harsh conditions and poor quality feed, all desirable qualities for depression-input, sustainable agronomics.

N'Dama

The Taihu pigs of China, for case, offer valuable traits for swine breeders worldwide. This group of pigs have thick, wrinkled skin and long, droopy ears. They tin can use a high proportion of provender foods in their diet. The adult pig has little lean meat-whence the Chinese passion for sucking pig. But Taihu pigs achieve sexual maturity in just 64 days, are extraordinarily fertile producing an average litter of 16 piglets compared to only ten for Western breeds, and Taihu pig produce juicy, tasty meat. Researchers in Europe and the United States are exploring how to incorporate these beneficial qualities into commercial breeds. A British company, National Pig Development, has already produced a commercial hybrid of the Meishan, one of seven strains of Taihu hog. Announced in 1992, information technology combines the fecundity and meat quality trait of the traditional Chinese breed with a higher lean meat content.

Taihu pig

Conserving genetic diversity

There is already less genetic diversity in farm animals than in crop plant species and almost a third of the remaining animal genetic resources are currently at hazard. In 1992, FAO launched a comprehensive programme for the global conservation of animal genetic resources. It includes:

· a global inventory of fauna genetic resources including a database to characterize and enumerate all breeds of livestock available for use in agriculture.

· action to identify breeds at chance of extinction as well as ways of protecting them.

· promotion of programmes in developing countries to conserve endangered breeds in their native habitats. The aim is to enhance the attraction of indigenous breeds at run a risk of being substituted by imported breeds frequently brought in without because local conditions or sustainability.

· comeback of livestock convenance capacities in the developing world. In particular, new technologies volition be used to identify livestock diverseness and the specific genes responsible for valuable traits.

FAO is exploring the possibility of establishing a global centre for domestic animal genetic diversity to serve as the focus for regional and national efforts to overcome the present erosion of these irreplaceable resources and to promote their effective and sustained use Conservation of animal genetic multifariousness is essential to global food security and to protect our power to meet the challenges of the future.

For information contact:
Animal Genetic Resources Group
Fauna Production Service
Agriculture Evolution
Food and Agriculture
System of the United Nations
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00 thou Rome, Italy

Telephone: (39 - 6) 5225 - 3364
Facsimile: (39 - half dozen) 5225 - 5749

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Source: https://www.fao.org/3/v1650t/v1650T0y.htm

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