Assessment of degree of endangerment of livestock breeds in India

Abstract

Complete national inventories, supported by periodic monitoring of trends and associated risks, are basic requirements for the effective management of farm animal genetic resources. Government of India conducted breed survey in 2013 to estimate breed-wise data for livestock belonging to different categories, breeds, age and sex groups. FAO has developed criteria for assessment of risk to the livestock breeds, which were used to assess the risk status of all the breeds of livestock species. Breed-wise populations of breeding males and females, overall population size, effective population size and rate of inbreeding were estimated. Cattle, sheep and pigs species were classified as indigenous purebreds, graded to indigenous breeds, indigenous non-descript, exotic purebreds and crossbreds to exotic breeds; while buffalo and goat species were classified under first three categories only. Proportion of indigenous purebreds of cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and pig were found as 9.4, 17, 36.6, 27 and 3%, respectively of the total population of the species; whereas corresponding figures of graded to indigenous breeds and non-descript animals were estimated to be 10.5, 39.6, 18.9, 11.8 and 0% and 59.3, 43.4, 38.7, 61.2 and 73.1%, respectively. Large non-descript proportion of all the livestock species should be screened for identification, characterization and registration of new breeds. Exotic breeds and crossbreds to exotic breeds in cattle, sheep and pig were obtained as 0.7 and 20.1%; 0.7 and 5.1% and 2.3 and 21.6%, respectively of total population. The rate of inbreeding estimated for most of the breeds were well below 0.5% except for Mewati (1.193%), Pullikulam (0.72%) and Vechur (17.893%) cattle breeds and Chilika (0.731%) buffalo breed. Using the FAO criteria, Bargur and Siri cattle breeds and Attapadi goat breeds were categorized under vulnerable status of risk; Krishna Valley, Mewati, Pullikulam and Punganur cattle breeds, Chilika and Toda buffalo breeds and Karnah and Poonchi sheep breeds under endangered status of under risk and Vechur cattle under critical status of risk. All these breeds need immediate steps for rescue by using suitable conservation methodology. Breed-wise census should be continued in future so that trends in breed populations may also be estimated for fine tuning of risk assessment of breeds.