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A Rare Breed

Preserving farm animal breeds from the past remains a vital insurance, especially as new genetic techniques may have unforeseen implications, according to a newly elected director of Rare Breeds International, Massey University animal geneticist Dr Hugh Blair.

The organisation aims to coordinate conservation of rare domestic livestock breeds by supporting local and national groups from Hungary to Africa. Blair is currently chairman of New Zealand's Rare Breeds' Conservation Society.

Blair says that one result of the new reproductive techniques of the 1970s and 80s, such as artificial insemination and embryo transfer, was a dramatic decline in the number of native livestock breeds. In developing countries, traditional breeds were replaced with ones from Europe or North America, many of which were later found to adapt poorly to local conditions.

Governments and researchers are becoming increasingly aware of the advantages of preserving the unique genes of their livestock, Blair says. He maintains that the native livestock breeds represent a wide gene pool, with attributes whose value should not be underestimated. Modern sheep breeds have only been developed over the last 200 years, and therefore come from a limited gene pool, he says.

The Rare Breeds' Conservation Society has been active in New Zealand in trying to preserve genetic material from the eradicated Enderby Island cattle. [Enderby Island Update, August 1991].