4. OPTIONS & STRATEGIES

4.1 Types of action
4.2 The actors
4.3 Costs and benefits
4.4 Research priorities

4.1 Types of action

At the technical level, there are 5 broad types of action which can be taken to conserve or enhance biodiversity in animal genetic resources. These are:

· In situ conservation: This includes actions aimed at maintaining viable population size; enhancing and sustaining the economic value of the animals and farming system; research and education to discover and enhance any special genetic merits the population may have.

· Ex situ conservation: Cryopreservation is currently available only for a few species for which semen and to a lesser extent embryo freezing technology has been adequately developed. In these cases, it involves the longterm storage of adequate genetic samples. Because storage is in liquid nitrogen, which must be replenished, it has a cost, and there are associated risks. This is an option which requires very secure longterm physical and financial backing. In the immediate future, it is one which is necessary only for those populations which are in immediate danger. These, however, are estimated to be perhaps a quarter of the total.

Ex situ conservation can also describe the activities of organisations which keep rare breeds of animals or birds, usually in small numbers, in non-commercial conditions.

· Use of DNA technology: This is still evolving, but at its present state of development has a significant role to play in the documentation of the evolutionary background of breeds and landraces, and in the planning of their conservation. Longterm storage of well-documented samples of DNA is relatively cheap and easy, though it cannot lead to regeneration of the genotypes at a later date. However, it should be undertaken to benchmark the genetic constitution of today’s populations for comparison with those of the future, and also to have samples of today’s populations available when more advanced techniques of DNA analysis are developed.

· Thorough documentation of all breeds and landraces currently in existence: This should lead to the creation of a database covering all quantified information on the population size, structure, breeding patterns and breeding goals. It should also include physical and photographic descriptions of representative animals, and a description of the farming system and of their place in it.

· The development of international accords as necessary to provide a framework for global animal genetic resource conservation. These will generally take the form of non-binding conventions, and should cover such issues as access to genetic resources, breeders’ rights and international movement of genetic material. Eventually, issues such as patenting and transgenic animals may also need to be addressed.

A further consideration is that, broadly speaking, domestic animal diversity is in a different position in developed economies and in developing countries. In the former, the gradual modernisation of farming systems over a long period has been accompanied by the build-up of recording systems, breeders’ organisations, and general infrastructure through which animal populations are well documented and serviced. In recent years, this economic infrastructure has been able to support programmes aimed at conservation of genetic resources. In developing countries, the evolution of farming systems has begun much more recently, and is proceeding much more rapidly. The speed of change, and the absence of a well-developed economic service structure for livestock populations, means that the risk of rapid erosion of genetic resources in these countries is very much greater.

4.2 The actors

Breeders: The ultimate responsibility for action to manage the genetic future of livestock populations lies with the owners of those animals, the farmers whose livelihoods depend on them. However, one individual breeder can normally have a limited influence on the destiny of a breed or strain of animals. Furthermore, farmer’s actions will be determined mainly by relatively short-term economic judgements. It must be recognised that the problem of rapid erosion of genetic resources is itself propelled by the decision-making of individual farmers. They perceive, more often than not correctly, that their capacity to profit from their farming enterprise will be improved if they replace existing livestock by more productive ones. In other instances, the apparently more productive livestock are in fact less profitable because of higher mortality, less resilient in the face of local diseases and parasites, and have higher feed and management requirements than the farmer or his system can provide. A major requirement therefore is for practical research at local level in which the total economic merit of existing livestock populations is tested against potential alternatives.

In many other cases (see box 2) modest improvements in the husbandry system can greatly improve the productivity of local stock, and thus increase the probability that they will remain competitive for a longer period. Exploring such options should also be an objective of local research activities.

Box 2 Improving competitiveness of N’dama cattleA12 The N’dama cattle of southern Senegal have traditionally been the most important element in the farming system in the forested Casamance. The trypanosomiasis challenge is high, and other breeds cannot survive in that environment. Traditional productivity of the N’dama has been low: two year calving intervals, low growth rates and milk production averaging about 700 kg per cow. The annual dry season is a period of considerable feed shortage. A research programme (Etable Fumière) was introduced in 1989, under which selected animals were stall-fed for a period on groundnut hay and cotton-seed meal, which are locally available arable by-products. The result was a doubling of animal productivity, enhancing the prospects for retention of the local breed, together with the provision of manure to improve crop yields.

In cases where local populations are clearly uncompetitive, incentive schemes have been introduced in many European countries to encourage their retention by breeders. There is no instance where these incentives, which are usually a direct subsidy per breeding animal or per offspring registered, closes the gap in competitiveness. Nevertheless, they have undoubtedly been instrumental in keeping population numbers above critical levels in several cases in Europe (see box 3). While direct subsidisation to sustain activities which are non-competitive is itself not a sustainable strategy in the longterm, there is a case for modest subsidy arrangements for breeds in danger of extinction. In the first place, the fact that the breed is endangered means that very limited numbers of animals are involved, and therefore total costs are likely to be small. Secondly, such subsidies can have a benefit beyond their financial input, in reinforcing an appreciation of and focusing interest on the breed in question.

Box 3 Conservation of Kerry Cattle The Kerry is a remnant of a once numerous population of small black cattle native to the south and west of Ireland. A breed society was formed in 1887, and while animals outside the breed group have almost disappeared numbers of registered females declined to about 200 in the 1970s with an effective population size of approximately 50. Since then, a conservation scheme has provided a small subsidy per calf registered, ensured long-term storage of semen, and provided breeders with relationship information between animals which enables them to minimise inbreeding within the breed. The number of breeders has doubled and numbers of animals have increased by more than 50%. Recent DNA analysis has shown that the breed is significantly different from all other European breeds with which it has been compared.

Successful breed conservation programmes in Europe and elsewhere have always involved collective action by groups of breeders. Generally, these cooperate in a voluntary breed society which promotes the development of the breed, supervises standards, and maintains a register of animals. In many cases, the development and functioning of these breed societies has been assisted from public funds.

National authorities have a central responsibility in the management of animal genetic resources. In many countries, animal breeding activities are very closely regulated, though this is declining. Governments provide many services, including supervision of breed societies, regulation of imports, and services such as animal recording and AI. The primary responsibility therefore in ensuring the conservation of the national animal genetic resource devolves on governments.

International Agencies: Some important aspects of animal genetic resource conservation require action at the international level. Chief among these is the development of international accords and conventions. There is also a need for planning at the international level for both the compilation and management of genetic resource databases. The development and use of new technology in cryopreservation or DNA techniques requires standardisation as well as technology transfer at international level. The most pressing needs for action in resource conservation are present in many countries which are the least equipped to respond to these needs. Considerable transfer of resources internationally will therefore be necessary. All of these actions require substantial inputs from international organisations. This is recognised in the initiatives taken by FAO to establish a global programme and in the CGIAR to put in place a system-wide program on animal genetic resources.

Effective conservation strategies involve the five lines of action itemised, as well as a hierarchy of participants, ranging from the individual farmer to the international organisation. It is not possible to itemise the distribution of responsibility for these activities in a precise way, since this will differ by species and by country. However, a general outline of an appropriate distribution of responsibilities is shown on table 3.

Table 3 Relative importance of different actions for different participants in animal genetic resource conservation.

ACTIONS	ACTORS
	Breeder/ Farmer	Breeders’ organisation	National authority	International agencies
In Situ Conservation	***	*	**	*
Ex Situ Conservation	*	*	**	**
DNA characterisation		*	***	*
Databases	*	*	**	***
International accords		*	**	***

4.3 Costs and benefits

Not every breed (or species) can survive indefinitely, since resources for the preservation of diversity will always have some limits, choices must be made. At the broadest level, the question takes the form: which breeds (or species) to preserve? At the level of the individual breed is the related but separate question: how much investment should be made in it’s conservation?

A theoretical framework for dealing with the first of these questions has recently been developed by Weitzman^8,9. His objective is to develop a rational basis for decision-making aimed at maximising a diversity function, this function is derived from a matrix of pair-wise genetic distances between all the breeds (or species) in the set. It also requires some a priori estimate of extinction probabilities, which in turn would normally be a function of effective population size. It is then possible to calculate an “expected present discounted diversity” for the group of breeds (or species) as a function of the extinction probabilities, genetic distances, and the discount rate used. While this cannot be given a strict economic value, it does provide a quantified measure of expected results from a particular conservation programme, and could therefore help in guiding rational choice. It should be noted that valid estimates of genetic distances provide the foundation for this measure of diversity, and this serves to emphasise the importance of good DNA-level information in planning conservation programmes.

The preferred path to the conservation of a particular breed or landrace is that it should continue to function in an economically viable farming system. The costs and benefits of such a strategy must first be assessed by the farmer. Where the economic balance is strongly against conservation, it will usually not be possible with subsidy schemes to alter his choice.

However, if attention is focused on the system as a whole, it may be possible to alter the balance of factors in a way that makes breed retention more profitable. Such was the case (box 2) of the N’dama cattle system in Senegal. Any contribution to the improvement of the system, by way of research, extension, credit or external inputs, is then justified through its broad benefits in improving productivity and economic returns. In a similar way, the supplementary measure provided for in the European Union extensification policy includes incentives (100 ECU per livestock unit per year) for retention of certain breeds, as part of a wider policy of support for more balanced patterns of landuse.

The search for methods to ensure in situ conservation therefore should focus on methods to ensure the viability of the farming system, rather than just the animal population.

Calculating costs and returns from such interventions is extremely difficult. This particularly applies to the valuation in economic terms of the benefits of breed retention. The probability of widespread recourse to the genotypes conserved at some point in the future, as well as the scale of the benefits this would bring is impossible to quantify. However, the problem can be approached from the other end, by asking what minimum level of ultimate benefit would justify a continuing support now for a small population.

If	A = annual cost of input support
	B = ultimate benefit (in year n) from survival of breed
	r = an appropriate discount rate

then the total discounted cost to year n is

if n is large

The discounted value of the benefit B is

B/(1+r)ⁿ

If the costs and returns are equal, the ratio of ultimate return to annual cost is

B/A = (1+r)ⁿ/r

This ratio is a function of the discount rate and period considered.

Table 4 shows the break-even ratios of ultimate return to annual cost for different discount rates and periods. It can be seen that very longterm support programmes, particularly at high discount rates, require an enormous ultimate payoff if the costs are to be recovered. However, the normal time horizon for such programmes is more like a human generation, and discount rates of under 5% are commonly applied in cases like this. In these circumstances, a fairly modest technical benefit, which could be applied to a wider population and perhaps taken advantage of over an extended period, would recoup the costs. As a rough guide, one could say that an expected benefit of 100 - 200 times the annual cost could repay a 50 year investment in the conservation of a breed.

Table 4 Ratio of ultimate benefit after n years to annual support cost required for investment to break even

Discount Rate	Years to Return
	25	50	75	100
0.025	74	137	255	472
0.050	68	229	777	2 630
0.075	81	496	3 024	18 441
0.100	108	1 174	12 719	137 806

The costs and benefits of other kinds of activities such as database assembly and management, use of DNA techniques for measuring genetic diversity, and development of international protocols and accords need to be evaluated on a different basis, since they do not relate directly to the future re-use of any particular set of genotypes. Their justification is largely grounded in the general truth that the future of global society is made more secure by the accumulation of new knowledge.

It should be added that the unit costs of the technologies concerned are relatively modest. Database assembly can be built partly on information acquired in the course of other studies. Longterm storage costs for semen and embryos depend on scale, but can be of the order of US$1 per unit per year. The laboratory cost of genotyping animals for DNA (for example cost per microsatellite locus per animal) is currently less than US$5, and with automation is also heading towards a US$1 figure.

4.4 Research priorities

A balanced and total response to the dual challenges of conservation and development of the world’s animal genetic resources cannot be put in place with the information available today. Much can be done, but in parallel much more supporting information must be generated on a range of issues. The research agenda includes the following:

· Study of total life cycle productivity of local genetic types under local production environments. Much of the pressure on indigenous populations comes from the availability of new livestock types from outside, which are often backed by good information on their productivity in their home environment. This productivity is however often defined for a narrow range of traits, which might not be the appropriate ones for overall economic performance in the local farming system. To guide rational choice, much more information is usually required on the way in which both local and potential exotic genetic stocks perform on local feed resources, under local environmental and health challenges, and for local economic purposes.

· Much research is already underway on the molecular basis of genetic differences between animals and between populations. Much of this is at the fundamental level, or is directed to specific applications for the developed world. A subset of this research has great relevance for the conservation and rational management of global animal genetic resources. This research offers a real prospect that the effective conservation of the approximately 4,000 breeds and types of domestic animals now in existence may be secured by concentrating on a very much smaller number, provided the fundamental genetic relationships between these populations are documented.

· Cryopreservation is already part of animal genetic resource conservation measures for some species in some countries. Research is needed to extend its use to further appropriate cases, and to increase its security. This research should cover semen freezing technology in some species, as well as techniques for freezing of oocytes and embryos.

· The basis for genetic improvement in developed breeds is effective performance records. Research is needed on the appropriate selection goals and corresponding data management systems for livestock production in less intensive systems in developing countries.

· It is becoming steadily more evident that evolution has equipped certain wildlife species, and to a lesser extent some strains of domesticated species, with exceptional genetic adaptations to particular environments. The ability of African bovidae to thrive in the presence of trypanosomiasis, tick-borne diseases and other health challenges is remarkable. Other species have evolved mechanisms of hibernation or estivation for coping with extreme fluctuations in feed supply. Research is needed on the genetic basis for these adaptations, both in domesticated and in wild species.

· In the area of population genetics, much research has already been done on the interactions of generation interval, population size and population structure. This area will continue to contribute to the management of animal genetic resources.