Breeds in danger of extintion and biodiversity

Abstract

Some arguments currently used to support breed conservation are examined. The central point is that we cannot conserve all breeds because we do not have financial resources enough to keep everything (mainly in developing countries) and in many cases we do not have special reasons to conserve breeds. A breed is a human product and it should not be confused with specie. A breed can be generated or transformed. We can create synthetic breeds with the best characteristics of several breeds. Selection is not exhausting genetic variability (there are several experiments showing that), and genetic variability within breeds is large. We need reasons to keep breeds in danger in extinction. A breed is a tool, and we can decide to keep it when it is useful because it is specially adapted to some environments (although in this case it should not be in danger of extinction), it can be useful in crossbreeding to shorten the way of obtaining response to selection, or it has some extreme values for traits that may be useful in the future (in this case we have to define clearly which traits and how we expect the future to be). We can add cultural reasons when we have money enough to spend in culture

Native Pig Breeds as a Source of Biodiversity—Breeding and Economic Aspects

“…An argument supporting the need to preserve the genetic variation between breeds is their potential future usefulness, as some of them have genes and unique combinations of alleles that are absent or rare in other breeds [42][43][44]. They, therefore, constitute a genetic reserve.…”

“…This, in turn, may help to preserve the cultural and ethnological characteristics of European rural communities associated with agricultural activities [46,47]. Local breeds are part of the heritage of specific communities [43]. The biodiversity of pig populations is essential for efficient and sustainable food production, sustainable improvement of food and nutrition security, and satisfaction of the highly diverse needs of human societies in the future.…”

Productive Performance and Egg and Meat Quality of Two Indigenous Poultry Breeds in Vietnam, Ho and Dong Tao, Fed on Commercial Feed

“…Intensively raised chicken breeds could show weaknesses in their ability to adapt to global warming, to emerging diseases and to complex changes in consumers demand. In that context, indigenous chicken breeds could be a rich genetic resource, able to provide solutions to problems eventually arising in selected chicken lines [6].…”