Animal genetic resources in Serbia

Abstract

In the last few decades, farm animal genetic diversity has rapidly declined. Therefore, it is in the interest of the international community to conserve the livestock genetics. In situ (live animal herds) model of genome conservation is expensive and limited for practical usage. Therefore, ex situ (ex vivo) conservation model is developed to cryopreserve animal genetic resources in genome (gene banks) to regenerate a particular population in future. In Serbia, only in situ (in vivo) model of animal genetic resources preservation is performed. Autochtone animal breeds preserved in Serbia: cattle (Busha and Podolian), Domestic buffalo, horses (Domestic mountain horse and Nonius), Balkan donkey, pigs (Mangalica, Moravka, Šiška, Resavka, Šumadinka), sheeps (Cigaja, Sjenička, Svrljiška, Pirotska, Karakačanska, Lipska, Krivovorska, Bardoka, Vitoroga pramenka), goats (Balkan goat), dogs (Šarplaninac, Serbian shepherd dog, Serbian hound, Serbian tricolor hound Serbian yellow hound), poultry (Sombor chicken, Banat chicken, Svrljig chicken, Kosovo chicken, Domestic turkey, Domestic goose, Domestic duck) and pigeons (Serbian flyer, Sombor flyer, Niš flyer, Backa tumbler and Vršac tumbler).