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What is Animal Domestication: A Brief Overview about?

In the origin of modern humans, hunting of wild animals and gathering of wild plants in nature were the primary subsistence strategies. Yet, about 12,000 years ago, the domestication of plants and animals began. The two main goals of the present chapter are to briefly describe (i) how wild animals were domesticated and (ii) what are the main biological consequences for the major farmed species (cattle, pig, sheep, goat, and horse). During about 98% of their domestication history, domestic animals have been managed in a sustainable way by farmers, followed by a period of strong selection about 200 years ago to produce hundreds of well-defined breeds. A few decades ago, the selection pressures have further increased, leading to a few industrial breeds, which were introduced in numerous countries, most often at the expense of local breeds. Within a few decades, we thus might lose most of the highly valuable farm animal genetic resources that humans have gradually selected over the past millennia. Consequently, priorities should be given to preserve the genetic resources in marginal or rare breeds, and selection programs should aim at restoring the genetic diversity in industrial breed

Author

Fabrice Teletchea

Publisher

IntechOpen

Published

2019

Language

EN