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There is considerable genetic diversity in the livestock of developing countries, much of which controls traits that influence adaptability to harsh environments, productivity and susceptibility to disease and parasitism. However, little if any data on these genetic resources are available.
Economic analysis can play an important role in ensuring that conservation efforts are appropriately focused. The primary challenge facing conservationists is to identify sound reasons why society should preserve animals that livestock keepers have abandoned.
The breeding practices and breed preferences of livestock keepers can successfully be determined by using research techniques such as the revealed preference hedonic approach.
On the one hand, conservation cannot be achieved through a conventional breeding programme because the animals carrying the most advantageous traits’ cannot be easily identified; on the other hand, conservation cannot be achieved through biotechnology because the necessary technologies are either unavailable or uneconomic.
In livestock populations with a high degree of genetic variation, molecular markers are being increasingly used to study the distribution and patterns of genetic diversity.
Global surveys indicate that 40% of domestic livestock breeds are at risk of extinction. Most of these breeds are found only in developing countries, and often little is known about them or their potential. Rapid progress is being made in the preparation of dense microsatellite linkage maps to assist in the search for genetic traits of economic importance.
These linkage maps can be used to develop strategies for marker assisted selection and marker assisted introgression that will meet the goals of breeding programmes in developing countries.
Molecular markers have been widely used in the identification of genotypes and the ‘genetic fingerprinting’ of organisms. Genotype verification is used intensively to determine the parentage of domestic animals and to trace livestock products in the food chain back to the farm and animal of origin.