EURECA Towards selfsustainability of EUropean REgional CAttle breeds EU GENRES 012 87004 Approved

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EURECATowards self-sustainability of EUropean
REgional CAttle breeds EU GENRES 012
(870/04) Approved !

• Sipke J. Hiemstra
• September 2006
• NC-workshop Antalya

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Background

• Replacement of local/regional, often dual
  purposecattle breeds by specialized, widely used
  breeds
• Many autochtonous, dual-purpose, regional/local
  breeds became rare breeds
• How to maintain these breeds, the associated
  agro-ecosystems and our cultural heritage
• Local/regional cattle breeds are a very visible
  part of our rural area and agricultural cultural
  heritage in Europe
• Successfull strategies for conservation,
  development and use of such regional/local
  cattle breeds ?

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Objectives

• To better understand the factors affecting
  demographic dynamics of local/regional cattle
  breeds
• To assess status and organisation of existing
  cattle cryopreservation programmes
• To review available methodologies and software,
  which are useful supportive tools for genetic
  management
• To construct a map of breed development
  perspectives and suggest guidelines for succesful
  programmes
• To assist in development of national or
  cross-border strategies towards
  self-sustainability and a higher profitability
• To exchange state of the art knowledge good
  practices

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Approach and methodology

• Identification of important factors that
  influence breed dynamics and success or
  suboptimal success (15 breed cases)
• Determine a minimum set of parameters to analyze
  a larger number of breeds
• Collect data from existing cryopreservation
  programs (4) and identify criteria for
  rationalization of cryopreservation programs
• Test the results of 1-3 in a Europe wide survey
• To assess existing tools, practices and software
  for their use in genetic management
• To develop guidelines for successful programs
• To carry out 5 breed strategy demonstration cases
  to test the guidelines
• To communicate and disseminate results of the
  project widely

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Which breeds are we looking at ?

• Inter alia.
• Reggiana
• Avilena Negra-Ibérica
• Kerry
• Blanc Bleu Type Mixte
• East Finn cattle
• Meuse Rhine Yssel / Pie Rouge
• Polish Red

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WP1 breed cases WP2 cryo survey WP3
national survey WP4 useful tools WP5 breed
strategy demo WP6 - guidelines WP7 -
dissemination WP8 - coordination

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P4 FUSAGx Belgium Gengler P5 EAU
Estonia Viinalass P6 NRIAP Poland
Choroszy P7 ICBF Ireland Wickham/Kearney P8
INIA Spain Diaz/Toro P9 IAAS Norway -
Meuwissen
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Role of European NCs

• Interesting breed cases
• Connection to other projects / initiatives
• National survey

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Communication plan

• Website
• Annual workshops NCs
• Distribution of guidelines/documents
• Final conference

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EURECA
EURECA
Diversity in cattle
Diversity in landscapes
Thank you for your attention