Animal genetic resources - conservation and management

Animal genetic resources - conservation and management

Descripción

The term "animal genetic resources" In used to include all broods, types, varieties and populations of animals that inhabit the earth under both improved and unimproved conditions. TLe conservation and management of these resources is a subject of great concern 'to both FAO and UNEP. Dr. Ralph W. Fbillips, Doputy Director-General of FAO has given an excellent summary of FAO activities In this area In the inaugural address which is Included in these proceedings. In the developed temperate zones of the world, the centuries of slow but effective selection by breeders, followed by the application of scientific brooding programmes during the present century have resulted in high levels of performance being achieved in a small number of breeds of each species. Thin eventually led to the replacement of many local low-producing broods in Europe and elsewhere by the high-producing "improver" breeds. The growing demand for animal products in warmer countries has led to this policy being follow ed world wide. Because of the case of replacing a population by artificial insemination (AI) there is a danger of genetic attrition m the scale that has already occured in Europe. Furthermore, this policy of massive grading-up in being applied in climates in which it may not be the most desirable. The genes can easily be imported (e.g. as semen), but the environment to which they are adapted in less easy to reproduce. In many cases a systematic crossbreeding programme In more appropriate than gr ading up to a temperate breed. Such a programme requires the retention of the local adapted breeds.