204 Utilisation and conservation of farm animal genetic resources
Erling Fimland and Kor Oldenbroek
Using breed or breed properties as part of a trademark value for the product of this breed means that the return on investment is greater when based on a higher price of
the product than on the improvement of the production process leading to lower costs. Practically, the eiciency of the production process is ‘paid’ by lower cost, but the value
of the product may be regulated by the price mechanism through the demand of a niche market for special products. his complicates the calculations of return on investments
for breeding programmes.
4. Indicators for sustainable management
Sustainable management of a breed may be described by the following factors: utilisation and conservation of genetic diversity;
the existence of a sustainable breeding goal; implications of interactions between genotype and production systems are taken
into account, i.e., the adaptation of the breed is facilitated; food security and food safety are maintained at required standards;
no environmental impact.
4.1. Utilisation and conservation of genetic diversity
A breeding scheme is a set of procedures that organises available breeding technology into a decision tool to optimise selection. he contribution theory put forward by
Woolliams and hompson 1994 presents a fundament for balancing selection intensity and inbreeding. he studies by Meuwissen 1997 and Grundy
et al. 1998 produced tools to maximise the rate of genetic progress while restricting the rate of
inbreeding. he direct efect might be that the efective size of the population may be kept constant by the restriction put on the rate of inbreeding. he indirect efect
of the method of restricting the inbreeding rate is that it maximises the probability of selecting breeding parents who contribute genes and gene combinations in the random
Mendelian sample term of the individuals in the next generation, that have never been expressed in the previous generation of parents or their ancestors. his means that each
individual sampling term possesses and expresses a set of gene combinations and genetic efects that are unique for that particular individual in the population. hus, the new
parents contribute in a maximum way to the re-establishment of the genetic variation of the individuals in the next generations. It has been shown that a breeding program
improves genetic selection eiciency by 20 to 25 at the same inbreeding rate when an appropriate restriction on inbreeding is used Avendãno
et al., 2004. hese indings may easily convince breeding organisations to use the approach immediately, due to the
improvement of eiciency it ensures and the long-term genetic progress it enables.
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Utilisation and conservation of farm animal genetic resources 205
Chapter 9. Practical implications of utilisation and management
Despite the use of these methods, founders might be lost in future generations. herefore, it is recommended to store genetic material from founders in a cryobank. Besides, it
has to be realised that the continuous genetic progress raises the genetic level of the actual population, which may be quite diferent from the founders. herefore it is also
recommended to store a sample of the genetic material of subsequent generations.
Considerable genetic diversity comes from between-breed variation. In order to maintain this diversity for future use, eicient conservation schemes on national and global levels
must be established. From animal breeding theory, it is known that immigration of genes is very eicient in re-establishing diversity by arresting any accumulated inbreeding, and
by increasing the efective population size at the same time. his procedure can be used as long as there exist alternative breeds, from which genes can be imported. However, it
assumes that a breed society accepts the use of such breeding methods. his illustrates that
maintaining several breeding populations, at least at the global level, is necessary to ensure access to a diversity of breeds.
Immigration of genes has been used in Norwegian Red Cattle for years. In order to use an alternative breed on a regular basis, the national breeds of Swedish Red, Finnish
Ayrshire and Danish Red must be maintained as individual breeds. Such a cooperation policy is a long-term insurance for the relevant societies, consumers, farmers and
breeding organisations.
For the last 2-3 decades, local Friesian populations were upgraded by using Holstein Friesian sires from North America, resulting in one global Holstein Friesian population.
his upgrading process resulted in the loss of the insurance provided by the diversity contained in the various national Friesian breeds or lines. Since this insurance of having
diferent local Holstein Friesian breeds is lost, a new strategy should be outlined, to secure the size of the efective population at local levels or even globally.
Strong selection in a breed may lead to the loss of the so-called private alleles Foulley and Ollivier, 2006. he local breeds seem to have conserved more private alleles than
the commercial breeds. his might have an efect on the option values of local breeds.
hese examples show that there are no international policy rules to maintain the “between commercial breed diversity” as a resource for future use. Today, the
maintenance of this diversity can only be saved and further utilised by agreements and cooperation between breeding organisations from several countries. Such agreements
start with political regulations that have to be implemented at the national level. he Swedish government’s proposal of obligatory maintenance of genetic diversity, as part
of its animal production act, might be good start for such a national approach.
206 Utilisation and conservation of farm animal genetic resources
Erling Fimland and Kor Oldenbroek
4.2. A sustainable breeding goal as selection objective
he realised weights for the traits and the number of diferent traits in the breeding goal to be improved by selection are very important in a long-term selection programme. In
addition, the correlated efects of traits that are not included in the breeding goal may be adversely afected and this actually will accumulate over time. Balancing production and
functional traits becomes increasingly important as time passes. he main reasons are:
In general, the genetic correlation between production and functional traits is negative. hus, selection only for production traits results in negative efects on the
functional traits. Positive and negative efects of breeding programmes accumulate over generations.
For example, small negative changes per year accumulate and may appear ater a few decades to be detrimental for welfare itness traits like fertility, disease resistance
and viability.
However, when taken into account, functional traits in the selection programme can yield positive results, as illustrated by the genetic trend for mastitis resistance shown in
Figure 9.2.
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Year of birth, daughters Index
1982 1994
1984 1986
1988 1990
1992 1996
1998 2000
108 106
104 102
100 98
96 94
92 90
88 Protein, kg
Mastitis Fertility
Figure 9.2. Genetic improvement of mastitis in Norwegian Red Source: http:www.geno. nogenonettpresentasjonsdelengelskdefault.asp?menyvalg_id=418 and go to: Norwegian
Red characteristics.
