Countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and the United States all have national livestock gene banks — Australia does not., a popular Australian tourist destination, many are asking the question, why not?
Newly appointed federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt is awaiting a report by the nation's peak scientific body, the CSIRO, on how such a facility might operate. She has a single Caspian horse, a hardy, athletic breed whose ancestry stretches back some 3,000 years to northern Iran. The breed was rediscovered in the 1960s; Caspian horses shipped to the United States saved it from probable extinction.
The Rare Breeds Trust says four pig breeds have become extinct in Australia in recent decades. It lists the Tamworth as critically endangered.Tamworths and Wessex Saddleback are rare pigs and would be protected in the gene bank."The animals that I've got out there are rarer than zoo animals. You know it's pretty serious."The trust has advocated for a national gene bank for several decades. Now the wider livestock industry is joining the chorus.
"It does get us thinking a little bit more acutely about what we should or could do to give ourselves a level of protection in the future," Anthony Shelly, from Genetics Australia, said.
Didn't know cows wore jeans
if farm animal is rare it means no one wants it
I assumed we already had one, what are we paying the CSIRO to do?