家养动物福利研究进展

家养动物的广泛应用使人们对家养动物福利越来越重视,家养动物福利不仅是对家养动物本身的保护,更重要的是对各种不良因素的有效控制和条件改善及对动物健康的保证,而不是那种不宰不杀的极端"动物保护"。文章对家养动物福利的概念、意义、国内外现状及改善现状的措施进行了重点论述。     

中国家养动物品种资源浅析

中国家养动物种按驯养时期早晚分，早期驯养的就有２２个物种，除猫狗外，现有６５０余个品种，是中国畜牧业可持续发展的基础。晚期驯养的有１４个物种，地中国畜牧业可持续发展亦是不可缺少的。在占品种总数的７７％的地方品种中，有少数品受受到威胁，已有１０个品种灭绝，８个品种濒临灭绝，２０个品种数量减少。     

我国家养动物品种资源评价与持续利用策略

我国家养动物品种资源评价与持续利用策略刘振湘廖仁彩唐晓玲曾元根（湖南林业专科学校资源系４２１００５）物种资源是一种可更新资源。家养动物作为生物资源的一部分，虽可繁殖，但不能再生。丰富多样的家养动物品种资源给人类改造、利用自然资源提供了强大的物质基础。...     

中国家养梅花鹿种质资源特性及其保存与利用的途径分析

作者以"种质资源"为中心,论述了中国家养梅花鹿的遗传背景,分析比较了以东北梅花鹿为基础人工育成品种(品系)的特征及生产性能,并对家养梅花鹿与马鹿种间杂交的生物学基础、杂交后代的遗传性状和生产性能进行了分析。针对目前中国家养梅花鹿资源现状,提出了中国家养梅花鹿的种质资源保存与合理利用的途径。     

全球家畜家禽生物多样性日益减少

联合国粮农组织警告说，如果不采取适当措施保护家养动物的多样性，人类将来的食品供应可能面临威胁。　　联合国粮农组织的专家花费10年时间，在对170多个国家的6500个品种的家畜和家禽进行调查之后，最近发表了《家养动物多样性世界观察》报告。该报告说，过去100年里，全世界已经有超过1000个品种的家养动物灭绝，而且这一状况还在继续恶化。根据联合国粮农组织的新闻公报，在该组织全球农业动物基因资源数据库中，记录在案的家养动物有6379个品种，其中4183个品种有数据可查，而在这其中，又有740种已经灭绝，1335种处于“高度危险”…     

FAO对中国保护家养动物多样性的建议

中国地域辽阔,生态环境复杂多样,具有悠久的家养动物驯化历史,是世界上家养动物品种和类型最丰富的国家。这些家养动物资源是培育新品种的基本素材,也是畜牧业满足人类不断变化的需求的保障。中国改革开放以来,引入了大量优良品种,这对畜牧业的迅速发展起了很大作用,但同时也对中国原有的家养动物资源构成了极大威胁。FAO为了帮助中国保护家养动物资源,于1993年7—8月间     

2011年鸵鸟业发展简况

1人工养殖鸵鸟历史悠久 人类不断探求和挖掘新的可利用物种,通过驯化希望培育成新品种。这个过程与现存的畜禽品种消亡逆向而行。在目前动物遗传资源存在危机的情况下,发展新的家养动物品种、开发新产品尤为重要。鸵鸟业作为一种新兴的产业,它将逐步给社会提供物质和文化方面的产品,提供就业机会,使畜牧业锦上添花。     

中国地方畜禽资源的保护及其利用

我国是一个畜禽品种资源极为丰富的国家,共有20个物种,576个品种和类群.可是近年来由于外来品种的引入和地方品种的杂交改良,使得我国地方品种数量不断减少甚至消失.面对地方品种濒临灭绝或者已经灭绝的威胁,如何有效的保护和利用我国现有的畜禽种质资源,实现畜牧业的可持续发展成为我们的研究重点.     

家养动物线粒体DNA最新研究进展

线粒体DNA多态性研究对于了解家养动物的驯化历史十分重要.本文对家猪、黄牛、水牛、马、驴、绵羊、山羊与家鸡的线粒体DNA多态性最新研究进展作了总结.通过mtDNA D-loop研究,发现家养动物都是通过野生动物多次驯化而来,可能有多个驯化地点,表现出复杂的驯化历史.     

对改进畜禽捡疫“证明”的浅见

近几年来,实验动物、演艺动物、观赏动物、家养或捕获的野生动物,品种、数量不断增多,流动量逐渐加大。 但在对演艺动物、观赏动物、野生动物的检疫实践中,常因“畜禽运输检疫证明”和动物“证物不符”,     

畜禽遗传资源保存研究进展

世界上70％的遗传资源分布在发展中国家，因战乱、政策、环境等因素，致使这些丰富的种质资源面临生存危机；发达国家家禽品种本身就比较单一，遗传资源贫乏，加之过份追求经济性状的遗传和集约化生产，因而原本就十分少有的地方品种也同样面临消亡的危机。本文比较系统地综述了全球畜禽品种资源而临的危机及其原因，以及世界各地采取的应对措施，同时还对畜禽遗传资源保存的技术方法进行了总结。     

群内遗传多样性在畜禽保种中的应用

畜禽遗传资源的保存对应对未来的育种需要和畜牧业的可持续利用是非常重要的。分子标记广泛应用于大多数畜禽品种及分子变异分析技术的发展,促进了分析品种遗传变异的能力。作者对用于度量畜禽遗传资源的群内遗传多样性评价方法及其在确定种内遗传多样性,以及保种方案中的应用进行了综述。     

Present status of the conservation of livestock genetic resources in Brazil

Brazil has various species of domestic animals, which developed from breeds brought by the Portuguese settlers soon after the discovery of the country. After being submitted to a long process of natural selection, these breeds present characteristics adapted to specific Brazilian environmental conditions, and are known as “criollo”, “local” or naturalized breeds. From the beginning of the 20th century, some exotic breeds, selected in temperate regions, have begun to be imported, and, although more productive, they do not have adaptive traits, such as resistance to disease and parasites found in the naturalized breeds. Even so, they gradually replaced the native breeds, to such an extent that the latter are in danger of extinction. To avoid further loss of this important genetic material, in 1983 the National Research Center for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (Cenargen) of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) decided to include conservation of animal genetic resources among its priorities. The conservation activities have been conducted under the Brazilian Genetic Resources Network — Renargen, and is carried out by various research centres of Embrapa, universities and State research institutions, as well as by private farmers, with a single coordinator at national level, Cenargen. The in situ conservation of cattle, horses, buffaloes, donkeys, goats, sheep and pigs is being carried out by Conservation Nuclei, located in the animal's original habitat. Ex situ conservation is centred at the Brazilian Animal Germplasm Bank (AGB), kept at Cenargen. This is responsible for the storage of semen and embryos of various breeds of domestic animals threatened with extinction. Presently the AGB has almost 60,000 doses of semen and more than 250 embryos, as well as over 7000 DNA samples. An important challenge for this program is to increase awareness within the different segments of society in terms of the importance of the conservation of animal genetic resources. The development and evolution of Renargen and its efforts to facilitate the conservation of genetic resources of livestock in Brazil are described in this paper.     

Local breeds,livelihoods and livestock keepers’ rights in South Asia

In South Asia, and throughout the developing world, the predominant official approach to livestock development has been improvement of production by means of upgrading local breeds via cross-breeding with exotic animals. This strategy has led to the replacement and dilution of locally adapted breeds with non-native ones. This has resulted in an alarming loss that has been estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to amount to one breed every two weeks. Based on selected case studies this paper argues that development strategies using locally adapted breeds and species are much more likely to benefit livestock keepers whilst also maintaining domestic animal diversity and bearing a smaller ecological footprint. It also analyses the rationale for “Livestock Keepers’ Rights”, a principle that grew out of the struggle of traditional livestock keepers to retain control over their production resources, such as grazing areas and breeding stock, in the face of unfavourable policy environments.     

A critical review of the value of genetic distance studies in conservation of animal genetic resources

There has been a veritable explosion of projects in recent years aiming to calculate genetic distances between domesticated breeds of animals and the number of such projects is still increasing. The extent of this can be appreciated by a glance at the recent proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Animal Genetics (ISAG 1998). All domesticated species are being targeted, using breeds from both developed and developing countries and projects are now almost exclusively based on microsatellite marker loci. Although the goal in a few cases is to provide insights into the history of animal domestication (see, for example, M ac H ugh et al. 1997; L au et al. 1998), the most common justification for genetic distancing projects is their importance for helping the decision-makers to identify genetically unique breeds so that they may be prioritized for breed conservation purposes (e.g. H all and B radley 1995; M oazami -G uodarzi et al. 1997; C rawford and L ittlejohn 1998). On a world-wide basis there are roughly 3000 breeds and breed varieties of the seven major mammalian species – cattle, pig, sheep, goat, horse, donkey and buffalo (FAO 1995). Of those with population data, 23% are either endangered or critical (FAO 1995). In addition, in the current century it is estimated that at least 600 breeds have been lost (H all and R uane 1993). On the poultry side, the picture is even worse as over half the breeds of the five major species (chicken, domestic duck, muscovy duck, goose and turkey) are thought to be endangered or critical (FAO 1995). At the same time, there is often a lack of even the most rudimentary information on many of these breeds. Basic phenotypic data, including approximate figures for population sizes, are currently available on only 50% of the world’s animal genetic resources (AGR) (H ammond 1998). There is therefore an urgent need to act now to prevent the rapid erosion of AGR. This is especially true for breeds in developing countries, where many will be lost without ever having been adequately characterized or studied (K& ouml ; hler -R ollefson 1997). However, resources (both in terms of available manpower and finances) are limited in this area and appropriate use of these resources is therefore of vital importance. Given the large amount of current activity in the area of genetic distancing of domestic breeds, the aim of this article is to critically examine the value that genetic distance projects have for breed conservation.     

Biodiversity of Domestic Livestock in the Republic of Yemen

This paper describes the domestic livestock of the Republic of Yemen and aspires to complement earlier sources listing or partially describing `breeds'. It attempts to cover all species and provide indications of production parameters through a literature review and via field observations made by the author in 1999. Information is provided on livestock numbers and the economic importance of animal production. Most animals are kept in sedentary mixed crop–livestock production systems; transhumant systems have the next greatest number of stock; with nomadic systems being of least and declining importance. Yemen's livestock appear to comprise at least 11 breeds of sheep, 5 breeds of goat, 2 breeds of cattle, 4 breeds of camel, 2 breeds of donkey and 1 breed of horse. There are no data on breeds of poultry but domestic fowl (where clearly considerable diversity exists) and pigeons are kept. There is little formal information on the history and relationships of most breeds. Some appear to be of ancient local origin, whereas others show affinities with those of neighbouring and other countries. None of the identified types is considered endangered, so conservation would be premature. A more formal and detailed genetic characterization, to add to the largely morphological and traditional classification, may, however, reveal such a need.     

The Damara in the context of Southern Africa fat-tailed sheep breeds

Sheep production is one of the most important activities in animal production in tropical regions. Southern Africa (SA) fat-tailed sheep such as the Afrikaner, Namaqua Afrikaner, Nguni, Persian Black Head, Tswana, Pedi, Sabi, and particularly the Damara are important animal genetic resources very well adapted to their harsh home environments. In this review, autochthonous sheep genetic resources of SA are reviewed regarding history and productive performance. A special focus is made to the most internationalized of such breeds: the Damara. The following aspects are reviewed: history, standards, productive performance in SA, and importation to Australia. Finally, a reference is made to the influence of fat-tailed sheep formation of composite breeds such as the Dorper or the Meatmaster.     

Possible consequences of the Nagoya Protocol for animal breeding and the worldwide exchange of animal genetic resources

The paper discusses animal genetic resources in the context of the Nagoya Protocol, providing an overview of the distinctive features and practices in this sector of genetic resources. It presents how animal genetic resources are utilized, who are the users and providers, and what are the trends in gene flow of these resources. The paper reflects on current access measures and arrangements for local breeds and for international commercial breeds. Key benefits arising from the international exchange of animal genetic resources for research and livestock production and current developments in the sector supporting the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol are presented. References to the scope and application of EU ABS legislation are also made. The paper underlines the importance of continuous undisturbed access to animal genetic resources for research and breeding to facilitate further development within the global livestock sector.     

Animal production and genetic resources in Guinea Bissau: I – Northern <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cacheu</Emphasis> Province

A survey of the animal production systems and genetic resources was conducted in Northern Cacheu Province, Guinea Bissau. Animal owners and their families, village chiefs, shepherds and local officials were interviewed. The vast majority of the population is dedicated to very small-scale subsistence farming where animal ownership has an important role in both food supply, ceremonial events and as form of cash reserve. Cattle (N'Dama and West African Shorthorn breeds) are owned by the two larger ethnic groups in the area, the Felupes and the Balantas that have however different management practices. Sheep are relatively scarce whereas goats (West African Dwarf) are the most important small ruminant species for both ethnic groups. Pigs (crioulo breed) and dwarf chickens play a very important role as they are the only species regularly used in trade at the village level.