conservation priorities for ethiopian sheep breeds combining threat status, breed merits and contributions to genetic diversity保护优先事项埃塞俄比亚绵羊品种结合威胁状态,品种遗传多样性的优点和贡献.pdfVIP

Genet. Sel. Evol. 40 (2008) 433–447 Available online at: INRA, EDP Sciences, 2008 DOI: 10.1051/gse:2008012 Original article Conservation priorities for Ethiopian sheep breeds combining threat status, breed merits and contributions to genetic diversity Solomon GIZAW 1,2*, Hans KOMEN2, Jack J. WINDIG3,4, Olivier HANOTTE5, Johan A.M. VAN ARENDONK2 1Debre Birhan Agricultural Research Center, P.O. Box 112, Debre Birhan, Ethiopia 2Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands 3Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Animal Sciences Group, Wageningen UR, P.O. Box 65, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands 4Centre for Genetic Resources, The Netherlands (CGN) Wageningen UR, P.O. Box 65, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands 5International Livestock Research Institute, P.O. Box 30709, Nairobi, Kenya (Received 5 September 2007; accepted 22 January 2008) Abstract – Prioritizing livestock breeds for conservation needs to incorporate both genetic and non-genetic aspects important for the survival of the breeds. Here, we apply a maximum-utility-strategy to prioritize 14 traditional Ethiopian sheep breeds based on their threat status, contributions to farmer livelihoods (current breed merits) and contributions to genetic diversity. Contributions of the breeds to genetic diversity were quantified using Eding’s marker-estimated kinship approaches. Non-genetic aspects included threats (e.g. low population size, low preferences by farmers) and current merits (economic, ecological and cultural merits). Threat analysis identified eight