November 7, 2007

Native livestock breeds on the decline

Farm experts are calling for creation of gene banks for native livestock breeds as they are rapidly declining and are being replaced by western breeds.

Valuable breeds are disappearing at an alarming rate, according to Carlos Ser¨¦ of the International Livestock Research Institute in a meeting convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Interlaken, Switzerland.

The joint report of Sere's institute and FAO said native breeds are increasingly being supplanted by high-yield Western farm animals, which may be less well able to adapt to their new environment in times of drought or disease. The report was based on a study conducted in 169 countries on the diversity of farm animals.

They cited for instance black and white Holstein-Friesian dairy cow has high milk yields, and is now found in 128 countries and all of the world's regions. Fast egg-laying white leghorn chickens and quick-growing large white pigs are other examples of high-yield stock.

These breeds offer high volumes of meat, milk and eggs but researchers warn that the growing reliance on a handful of farm animal species is causing the loss on average of one livestock breed every month in developing countries. In the longer term, the imported breeds may not cope with unpredictable environmental change or outbreaks of indigenous disease.

Sere is calling for the creation of gene banks to store semen, eggs and embryos of farm animals. Though such gene banks have been set up in Europe, the US, China, India and parts of Latin America, they are still absent from Africa. But gene banks are just one step needed to better manage farm animals in developing countries, Ser¨¦ says. The other steps he suggests are:

• Encouraging farmers to maintain a diversity of breeds
   
• Making it easier for farm animals to cross national borders with their owners
   
• Generate "landscape genomics", which help predict which breeds are best suited to different environments around the globe