Editorial: Global green strategies and capacities to manage a sustainable animal biodiversity

Abstract

Editorial on the Research Topic Global green strategies and capacities to manage a sustainable animal biodiversity Livestock animals have been domesticated and raised by humans for thousands of years, providing food, fiber, and other resources (Bruford et al., 2003). Over time, farmers have selectively bred animals to improve their productive traits (Rauw et al., 1998). However, the artificial selection process has also contributed significantly to the loss of genetic diversity (Ajmone-Marsan et al., 2023). Therefore, the current Research Topic was planned and researchers around the globe were invited to explore strategies to sustainably manage animal biodiversity. This Research Topic collected a total of eight manuscripts, published by 60 authors, more than 3,331 downloads and 14 thousand views globally at the time of this editorial. Keeping in view the importance of genetic diversity for a long-term potential for survival in different livestock species, we received manuscripts regarding cattle, sheep, chickens, and camels.Among cattle, dairy animals are particularly prone to environmental stressors because they have been exposed to intense artificial selection for milk production and composition traits, thus losing the genetic variability that could be useful for new breeding orientations in the context of climate change (Leroy, 2014;Doublet et al., 2019). Indeed, Cheruiyot et al. proposed to include in the commercial cattle SNPs chip arrays some variants associated with the nervous system and metabolic functions that are responsible for heat tolerance in dairy cattle. Dairy cattle are also the most criticized for having a rather high environmental impact associated with greenhouse gases emissions such as nitrous oxide and methane (Webster, 2021). Genetic selection is a very attractive solution to identify and breed lower-methane emitter animals, however, it requires multidisciplinary studies and a large number of methane records from individual animal. Various studies have identified genetic markers linked with methane emissions in cattle and sheep, providing opportunities for selective breeding to develop animals with reduced methane production potential (Calderón-Chagoya et al., 2019;Zhang et al., 2020;Hickey et al., 2022). On the other hand, the urinary nitrogen release leads to high levels of environmental pollution (Uwizeye et al., 2020). Accordingly, Honerlagen et al. have studied, through a GWAS approach, the genomic features behind this phenotype,

Implications of a Climate-Smart Approach to Food and Income Security for Urban Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review

“…Indeed, Jellason et al [99] point out that there is a gap in knowledge, skills, finance, and infrastructure when it comes to adopting technological CSA practices successfully, particularly for poor urban farmers. Financial and genetic resource management improves productivity and carbon sequestration in livestock systems [100,101]. For urban dairy farmers to invest in lucrative low-emission farming practices would require affordable finance options.…”