Management of animal genetic resources in Serbia - current status and perspective

Abstract

Serbian agro biodiversity conservation program was prospering in last 15 years in great extent. From the situation when majority of locally adapted breeds and strains for domestic animals were on the edge of extinction, number of all animals was drastically increased. After Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management introduced regular compensation measure for farmers growing endangered old breeds, increase of the number of farmers involved and number of animals conserved was fast. The following rehabilitation of some artisan food productions and introduction of few novel value chains as a fundament of the new conservation approach, animal genetic resources in Serbia got a new role regarding satisfying demand of population for high quality food (production in marginal areas, organic production) landscape conservation and integrated development of rural areas. The paper presents the status of animal genetic resources and their production systems.