A third of the breeds of animals reared or used by farmers face extinction, according to a study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Every week a breed may be disappearing somewhere in the world.
The FAO estimates that about 1,300 of the world's 4,000 breeds of domestic livestock are at risk. Among the breeds found to be in danger are the seaweed-eating North Ronaldsay sheep, which graze mainly on the beaches of the thinly grassed Orkney Islands. Only about 1,000 of the animals are registered.
Other threatened breeds include the Reggiana cattle of northern Italy, suppliers of milk for the best parmesan cheese, the Blanco Orejinegro cattle of Colombia, which are adapted to mountain life and resistant to parasites, and the Min pig of Asia, which can survive in extreme cold.
The FAO's research project, the World Watch List for Domestic Animal Diversity, was started three years ago to give early warning of possible breed loss. Indiscriminate cross-breeding, the lack of commercial incentives to use older, traditional breeds and the modern emphasis on developing a few highly productive lines have all reduced diversity. Some breeds have been wiped out by war and natural disaster.
David Steane, a spokesman for the project, said: "Our aim should be to preserve overall genetic diversity rather than every single breed. To do that we need to measure the genetic distance between different breeds. Where breeds are very closely related there is no need to keep all of them."
