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Many Farm Animal Breeds Risk Extinction, U.N. Experts Say
From curly haired pigs in Croatia to cold-resistant cattle in Siberia, hundreds of farm animal breeds risk extinction, according to United Nations experts who are encouraging creation of animal semen and embryo banks.
The Rome-based United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported Tuesday on the status of 3,882 breeds of 28 species around the world, and classified 873 of those breeds as "at risk" -- meaning fewer than 1,000 females or 20 breeding males exist.
What worries experts most is the prospect that farmers will have a shrinking pool of breeds to draw on to keep up with changing soil conditions, pests and new diseases.
Keith Hammond, an animal genetics' expert for the United Nations agency said that throughout most of this century, farmers have erred by "selecting a very small number of breeds of livestock" based on their capacity to reproduce.
Compounding the problem, those animals are raised "in a relatively benign environment, a low-stress environment," he said.
Such an approach means "we're whittling away" at farm animals' ability to respond to stresses like changes in climate, Mr. Hammond said.
Domestic animal diversity, said a Food and Agriculture Organization fact sheet, "is being lost at an alarming rate."
It added, "In Europe, half of the breeds that existed at the turn of the century have become extinct; 41 percent of the remaining 1,500 breeds for which population data are available are in danger of disappearing over the next 20 years.
"In North America, over one-third of livestock and poultry breeds are rare or in decline."
Mr. Hammond said 180 countries have agreed to work with the United Nations on such projects as collecting better data on farm animals and making better use of indigenous breeds, which are more likely to survive environmental challenges.
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