Application of existing and novel management techniques can alter traditional livestock grazing patterns and significantly improve the sustainability of arid rangelands. Livestock often congregate and heavily graze riparian areas and other sensitive rangeland, while abundant forage remains in other areas. Increasing the uniformity of grazing can help protect fisheries, wildlife habitat, and oth...

West African Dwarf (WAD) goats are extremely important in the rural village economy of West Africa, but still little is known about their biology, ecology and capacity to cope with gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infections. Here, we summarise the history of this breed and explain its economic importance in rural West Africa. We review recent work showing that Nigerian WAD goats are highly tryp...

The expansion of intensive livestock production systems in developing countries has increased the introduction of highly productive exotic breeds facilitating indiscriminate crossbreeding with local breeds. In this study, we set out to investigate the genetic status of the Vietnamese Black H'mong pig breed by evaluating (1) genetic diversity and (2) introgression from exotic breeds. Two exotic ...

Thirty microsatellite markers were analysed in 1426 goats from 45 traditional or rare breeds in 15 European and Middle Eastern countries. In all populations inbreeding was indicated by heterozygosity deficiency (mean FIS = 0.10). Genetic differentiation between breeds was moderate with a mean FST value of 0.07, but for most (c. 71%) northern and central European breeds, individuals could be ass...

Information on the genetic structure and variability of autochthonous livestock breeds is essential for effective conservation programs. Here we present a molecular characterization on the basis of 30 microsatellite markers of 5 Spanish endangered cattle breeds Betizu (BET), Mallorquina (MAL), Menorquina, Monchina (MON), and Serrana de Teruel (ST) and of 2 fighting bull populations, Casta Navar...

The purpose of this essay is to develop a historic perspective of the beef cattle population and the legion of people directing its genetic change so that future leadership can increase the rate of breeding technology assimilation. Use of cattle for beef to feed millions is relatively recent. The beef industry of the United States has a rich, romantic heritage that combined Spanish exploitation...

Objective genetic improvement in specialized meat breeds of sheep in Britain is based largely on the performance recording and genetic evaluation service provided by Signet and the Meat and Livestock Commission. This includes the use of ultrasonic scanning and a selection index to identify animals with high genetic merit for lean growth. More than 20 sire referencing schemes (SRS) have been est...