Kor Oldenbroek
26 Utilisation and conservation of farm animal genetic resources
farm animals is increasing in the Europe and in North America and the Southwest Paciic regions. Most livestock species, except the pig, are kept for hobby purposes.
8.4. Breeder’s associations, farmers and pastoralists
In Europe and in North America many breeders’ associations exist. Together with the farmers involved they try to take advantage of niche markets to sell speciality products
from local breeds, oten kept in natural environments. In these circumstances the local breeds are an integral part of the brand, and this provides an opportunity for proitable
production using breeds that would otherwise be uneconomic. In many countries farmers or farmer’s organisations have become involved in organic farming. In some
cases, traditional breeds are favoured in organic systems because of their good adaptation to the management conditions, and for marketing reasons. Potential opportunities to
export organic products are increasingly recognised in many East European countries. In a number of African countries the use of local indigenous animal genetic resources
within the traditional low external input production systems is considered to be the form of utilisation and conservation which best suits the local conditions and avoids
problems related to the lack of inancial resources for other forms of conservation. Uncontrolled mating, changes of production systems and cross-breeding are the
signiicant risks in this form of utilisation and conservation.
8.5. Breeding companies
Primary food production in the developed world tends to follow an integrative approach with all participants in the production chain from breeding companies, suppliers of
equipment, feed suppliers, veterinarians and processing industry towards retailers and consumers. heir primary focus is on uniformity of the product and the production
methods within the chain. In itself, this is a threat for the maintenance of genetic diversity. But to be competitive, diferentiation between chains and development of new
products is required. he required diferentiation and development is a real opportunity for the utilisation and management of genetic diversity by breeding companies.
In the poultry industry, only a very few multinationals are actively selling highly specialised hybrid layers and broilers using a very limited number of intense selected
lines as basic breeding stock. he number of these specialised chickens producing eggs or poultry meat is increasing very quickly at the global level, mainly as the result of
intensive marketing by the layer and poultry industries.
In Europe, North America and Australia, pork production is highly industrialised and a few multinational breeding companies dominate in the production chains. hese
Chapter 1. Introduction
