Biotechnological advances for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the case of goat production – A review

Abstract

Climate change influences goat production directly and indirectly thru its effect on reducing the quality and quantity of feed resources, and increasing spatial and temporal distribution of infectious diseases. The advances of biotechnology now a day’s opened an avenue to improve the nutritive value and digestibility of fibrous feeds by using biological methods (e.g., white rot fungi) and through recombinant DNA engineering techniques. Moreover, supplementation of probiotics, enzymes, antibiotics and organic acids modulate the activities and composition of the rumen microbial ecosystem thereby reduce lactic acid content, improve nutrient digestibility, reduce methanogenesis, optimize voluntary fatty acid profiles, and decrease ruminal ammonia production and protein degradation. All these effects increase productive performances and reduce methane emission from goat production. Genetic engineering and introgression of genes between adapted and non-adapted populations have been used to improve the diseases resistance of goat. Vaccines are used to control infectious diseases, increase productivity by modulating hormones or the immune system functions. Immuno-castration and ectoparasite control are also important biotechnological tools. Immunological and molecular techniques diagnostic technologies (PCR, RT-PCR, microarray, proteomic technique, biosensors, fluorescent-in-situ-hybridisation (FISH) and nanotechnologies) are used to detect and identify diseases and their causal agents. However, the aforementioned biotechnological tools are not yet well developed in developing countries like Ethiopia. Therefore, review, evaluation, and implementation of biotechnological tools in goat production in developing countries is paramount to increase production and productivity, and realize the potential use of biotechnology for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Genetic improvement approaches of indigenous cattle breeds for adaptation, conservation and sustainable utilization to changing climate in Ethiopia

“…Zhang et al (2017) reported that those diseases related factors which could be affected by climate change include, the molecular biology of pathogens, vectors, zoological factors, farming practices, and the establishment of a new microenvironment. For instance, variations in seasonal rainfall distribution and specific weather conditions could cause the outbreak of certain diseases such as anthrax, bluetongue virus, facial eczema, rift valley fever, and tse tse flies which causes trypanosomiasis in ruminants (Tesema et al, 2018).…”

“…Droughts in Ethiopia in the 1980s and 1990s has resulted in 49% of herd losses under communal land use, while drought of the 1990s caused, 57% of the cattle mortality under ranch management (Tiruneh and Tegene, 2018). Moreover, bush encroachment and population pressure led to the diminishing availability of good pasture are among various reasons for the loss of genetic diversity (Tiruneh and Tegene, 2018;Tesema et al, 2018;and Naod et al, 2020).…”

“…Therefore, the use of selective breeding together with the optimized crossbreeding enables to attain sustainable breeding maintaining genetic diversity and genetic gain (Li et al, 2022). Recently, emerged modern biotechnological tools have shown vital potential for genetic improvement of beneficial traits and climate change adaptation and mitigation by improving intake, digestibility, and nutritive value of low-quality forage, as well as improving animals' health (Tesema et al, 2018). To balance the mechanism of breeding and optimize the animal breeding program, the use of molecular genetics techniques in combination with conventional animal breeding tools is necessary (Singh et al, 2014;Salisu et al, 2018).…”

“…Biotechnology for adaptive crossbreeding plays an important role to adopt and elucidate the problems resulted from climate changes through increasing disease resistance through genomic selection and genetic engineering (Zhang et al, 2017;Tesema et al, 2018;Tesfahun, 2018). Moreover, the use of advanced modern biotechnology tools aids to solve the challenges of climate change and is applied to enhance genetic progress through increasing genetic variation.…”

“…Combination of crossbreeding and selection (including genomic selection) may allow the exploitation of both types of populations (Aby and Meuwissen, 2014;Leroy et al, 2016). Through repeated crossbreeding and backcrossing animals carrying the favorable disease resistance alleles and a more productive breed the animals, it is possible to combine the ability of disease resistance from indigenous cattle breeds and productivity from exotic breeds (Tesema et al, 2018;Strandén et al, 2019). Backcrossing is introgression of desirable gene from the donor breed to the recipient through multiple backcrosses, followed by one or more generations of intercrossing, to generate an individuals carrying one copy of the donor gene (FAO, 2007).…”