Research Note: Study on the in-situ preservation of pigeons based on the level of endangerment of genetic resources

Abstract

The large-scale and intensive development of the meat pigeon breeding industry have resulted in the replacement of a large number of low-performance local breeds by a few breeds with excellent production performance. However, due to the characteristics of pigeon species that are monogamous, for which the W chromosome cannot be recovered and for which semen cannot be cryopreserved, the preservation of pigeon species is still mainly based on in-situ preservation. In this study, pigeons were classified into six classes of endangerment based on the criteria of the 100-year inbreeding coefficient of poultry populations in the “Assessment of Endangered Poultry Genetic Resources” (NY/T 2996-2016). The results show that when the generation interval was 1.5 years, the number of ideal populations with the same gene frequency variance or the same heterozygosity decay rate of pigeons in class 1 to 5 was ≤149, 150–204, 205–316, 317–649 and ≥650. In random-reserved breeding, when the generation interval was 1.5 years, the number of male (female) pigeons corresponding to class 1 to 5 was ≤74, 75–102, 103–157, 158–324 and ≥325. In family-equal-reserved breeding, when the generation interval was 1.5 years, the number of male (female) pigeons corresponding to class 1 to 5 was ≤36, 37–50, 51–78, 79–162 and ≥163. When the generation interval was 1.5 years, the inbreeding increments corresponding to class 1 to 5 were ≥0.00335, 0.00244–0.00334, 0.00159–0.00243, 0.00078–0.00158 and ≤0.00077; with the same population size, the inbreeding coefficient and inbreeding increment decreased with the increase of generation interval; the population effective content, inbreeding coefficient and inbreeding increment of family-equal-reserved pigeons were lower than those of random-reserved pigeons. The results of this study have certain reference value for analyzing the status quo of local and endangered species, constructing live gene banks and breeding farms of poultry genetic resources, and rescuing endangered species.