Reproductive BRCs

Some gaps in the cryobanks have been identified that need to be filled to meet the objectives of preservation and characterisation of genetic diversity, according to FAO recommendations. Increasing the range of populations is particularly critical for research programmes aimed at the detection of selection signatures by genome-wide association studies in livestock, for the identification of genes responsible for morphological variants or diseases in livestock and in dogs, and for the constitution of reference populations at the onset of selection programmes (particularly for fish species undergoing domestication).

Documented biological samples will be provided by breeding organisations and national veterinary schools (Table 8). Additional sampling to be funded represents a 150% increase of the number of samples. Additional liquid nitrogen tanks and nitrogen supply will be needed to match this increase and to anticipate further increases in collections after year 4. Costs of providers will be covered. An important issue for all species is the biosafety. Populations must have a known sanitary status, which is not always possible, for local breeds particularly. Furthermore, it depends also on the sanitary status of the geographic region where the donor animals have been raised. To overcome this weakness, sanitary secured straws ‘IMV-CBS’, also used for human blood or semen collection, will be used. Systematic genotyping may be mandatory depending on the species, an example being the genotyping for Prion gene in sheep. The main risk in this task would be to lack enough males suitable for semen collection in some species, sheep and goat particularly.