AGB 211: Livestock and Poultry Breeding (2+1)

CONSERVATION OF GERMPLASM

• Indian subcontinent is globally recognized as one of the Mega Centre of biodiversity of animals and plants. India is bestowed with rich domestic animal genetic resources at present which are intricately associated with the social, cultural and traditional values of the region to which they belong and serve as vital source for food, fibre, draught power, manure and provide much needed self employment to small and marginal farmers and weaker sections of the society.

Historical perspective of conservation

• The need for conservation of animal genetic resources was expressed for the first time in 1959 in Chicago in a joint symposium on germplasm for plant and animal breeders. Conservation of poultry genetic resources was a major issue at second European Poultry Conference held at Bolagna in 1964. The FAO organized several study groups to discuss problems of animal genetic resources especially for cattle, pigs and poultry in Rome (1966, 1968), Copenhagen (1971), Nouzilly (1973) and a pilot study in 1975.
• In 1985 FAO, under the responsibility of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, introduced an expanded Global Strategy for the Management of Farm Animal Resources. In 1992, it launched a special action programme for the Global Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) with a framework to stimulate national participation in the global effort to implement conservation activities. National and regional focus points played an important role in stimulating and coordinating these actions. The Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS) is used to collect information on breeds and conservation activities and it offers the opportunity to retrieve guidelines for conservation activities.
• In 1992, the Second United Nations Conference on the Environment in Rio de Janeiro recognised the importance of farm animal genetic resources in Agenda 21 and in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Nearly all countries have signed this convention, bringing about political and social awareness of national animal genetic resources and activities to conserve them in several countries. The CBD included farm animal genetic variation as a component of overall biological diversity and also recognized the sovereignity of each country on its own genetic resources, which implied also the obligation to conserve the AnGR.
• In 1998, this programme got a new impetus in the first session of the Inter-Governmental Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. This working group recommended to the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture that FAO should continue to shape more clearly the framework and further develop the framework and that it should co-ordinate the development of a country-driven Report on the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources.

Conservation

• It is defined as the management of human use of the biosphere for the greatest sustainable benefit to present generation while maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations. Thus, conservation is positive embracing preservation, maintenance, sustainable utilization, restoration and enhancement of the natural environment.

Preservation

• Preservation is the part of conservation by which a sample of animal genetic resource population is designated to an isolated process of maintenance, by providing an environment free of human forces which might bring about genetic changes.