Policy Effects on the Sustainability of Animal Breeding

Abstract

Sustainability in animal breeding can be understood as continuous availability of breeding animals and their germinal products for commercial production, that now and in the future, meet the requirements of a broad range of stakeholders: breeders, farmers, livestock keepers, producers, consumers and others, while respecting animal welfare and promoting more sustainable agriculture. Breeding goals are established to contribute to fulfilling various aspects of sustainability: quality, diversity, acceptability, environment and economics. Government policies and strategies have major impacts on animal breeding; they provide the basis for establishing the legal landscape for national priorities for livestock sector development and provide for institutional arrangements and control measures. Implementation of international agreements supports policy development for sustainability in animal breeding and production. The Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources was prepared to directly contribute to sustainable management of livestock calling for improved characterization, monitoring, breeding and conservation. The Convention on Biological Diversity calls for the conservation of genetic diversity, including agricultural genetic resources. Animal breeding and strategies for livestock development require long-term policy perspectives, as poor decisions can have lasting detrimental effects. This paper is intended to highlight the importance of policy development in efforts to achieve sustainability in the livestock sector.

1. Introduction: Sustainability in Animal Breeding

Effective policy has been and will continue to be essential in global efforts to achieve sustainable development, including within the livestock sector. The concept of sustainability has evolved over time. During the twentieth-century, sustainability goals gradually departed from the obvious ones, namely assuring maintenance of consumable resources such as fish, wood or fodder [1]. A global agenda for change proposed by the Brundtland Commission, broadened the scope of the sustainability concept to include distribution aspects, especially distribution between present and future generations [2]. The adoption of the Rio Declaration in 1992 further promoted the concept of sustainability and the need for the intragenerational consideration of adverse impacts and distribution of benefits among developed and developing countries. The United Nations Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a new integrative path toward sustainability, where agriculture in general and the livestock sector have an important role to play [3,4].

Sustainability is a long term goal that has evolved over time. As suggested by Hector et al. [5] it is “an end-state in which the needs of humankind and the needs of nature are both satisfied within some form of dynamic equilibrium”. Sustainable development is a process that should result in achieving sustainability. However, it might be only possible when perception of human interests include understanding of interdependence of all species living on the Earth [5,6]. The concept of ‘multispecies sustainability’ is based on the fact that humans and other living beings depend on each other for their well-being, and therefore the interdependent needs of multiple species should be met in current and future generations [6].

Several proposed definitions of sustainable agriculture and animal production have been reviewed by Olesen et al. [7]. Common elements include resource efficiency, profitability, productivity, environmental soundness, biodiversity, social viability and ethical aspects. The important question for livestock production is how these elements can be taken into account to apply sustainability in animal breeding.

The Farm Animal Industrial Platform (at present EFFAB—European Forum of Farm Animal Breeders), initiated in 2000 a network project SEFABAR (Sustainable European Farm Animal Breeding and Reproduction; https://www.effab.info/sefabar.html, accessed on 21 January 2021) with the aim to explore the issue of sustainability in animal breeding and reproduction [8]. A concise definition of sustainable animal breeding was agreed upon by four working groups (ruminants, pig, poultry and aquaculture): “Genetics for future use”, later explained as “Produce animals that fit better into the environment for the production of good quality products for present and future generations in an acceptable manner” [1,9].

The concept of “Genetics for future use”, encompassed quality (product quality and safety), diversity (biodiversity and adaptability), acceptability (ethics and animal welfare), environment (pollution and feed resources) and economics (efficiency, both short and long term), all to be taken into account when designing breeding programs to improve the genetic make-up of farm animal populations [8]. All these important aspects of sustainability need to be considered in setting breeding objectives taking into account species and breed diversity.

As reported by Gamborg and Sandøe [1], species groups established by SEFABAR agreed upon a common farm animal sustainability definition: “Sustainability in animal breeding and reproduction means the extent to which animal breeding and reproduction, as managed by professional organisations, contribute to the maintenance and good care of animal genetic resources for future generations”.

Thus, “Genetics for future use” can be interpreted as obligation/commitment of the breeding industry to ensure the availability of breeding stock for livestock producers, and that genetics now and in the future meet a broad range of stakeholder requirements. The livestock sector depends on genetics developed by livestock keepers and the breeding industry so this genetics should meet needs of their clients and be socially acceptable.

2. Strategies for Livestock Sector Development

Government policies are often intended to provide broad-based direction in the livestock sector development. National policies and strategies for livestock sector/agriculture development must take into account a number of factors, both internal and external, including cultural and religious aspects, current levels of livestock production, human technical expertise and capacity, organization of the sector, financial resources, infrastructure and services and potential markets for livestock products. Policies and strategies should encourage farmers and breeders to pursue opportunities to enhance livestock production in the most sustainable, viable way, maximizing positive economic and social outcome while preventing or mitigating adverse impacts.

• The role of stakeholders

In many developed countries, the public sector played a major role in establishing and implementation of national livestock development strategies, especially in regard to animal breeding and reproduction. Countries had state-established organizations that were responsible for providing breeding services including performance recording, estimation of breeding value and selection, to various degrees, depending on the country and livestock species. Over time, the public sector role was reduced or replaced by breeders’ organizations and commercial breeding services. The speed and scope of this process differed substantially among countries in Europe. In the United States of America and Canada, this process was much faster. An interesting study on operation of breeding organizations is provided by Herold et al. [10].

In many developing countries, the role of the state in setting breeding services and providing breeding stock is still very important, and state-run breeding stations play a key role in breed improvement programs and dissemination of genetic progress. However, co-operative breeding companies, of various size and membership, are being established, with support of non-governmental organizations. The concept of community breeding programs is also promoted, especially for sheep and goats, or when breeds are regionally distributed [11].

Over time, stakeholder groups in animal breeding and livestock development have become much broader and public sector involvement was gradually replaced by cooperative/private entities. Since the 1980s, commercial breeding companies, established mainly in industrialized countries, have been developing very fast and changes in their ownership, alliances and markets were also dynamic. The competitiveness within the breeding industry led to a high concentration of the sector with frequent company integration or taking overs. The breeding industry encompasses multinational breeding corporations, family owned companies and cooperatives. They operate from global to regional to national levels, being mainly involved in poultry, pigs and dairy cattle breeding [12]. Since the beginning of the XXI century the role of the breeding industry in the aquaculture sector has rapidly grown responding to the needs of commercial aquaculture producers. The traditional breeding programs in developed countries, run by breeders societies/cooperatives focus predominantly on beef cattle, sheep and goat breeding, and tend to have a national or regional orientation rather than a global one [10,13].

The multiple interests of the society in animal breeding and production is gradually increasing in developed countries. Animal welfare, safety of animal origin products, impact of livestock on the environment and contribution to climate change as well as erosion of animal genetic resources have generated substantial concern and led to the development of policies to address these issues [4,14]. Compatibility with public interests is of key importance to support the implementation of animal breeding programs and resulted in the undertaking of various activities by the breeding industry, e.g., establishment by EFFAB of the Code of Good Practice for the Farm Animal Breeding and Reproduction, Code-EFABAR [15]. There are considerable cultural differences in public attitudes towards animal breeding, both within Europe and globally. Most consumers are in favor of policies for access to information, compulsory labelling and establishment of minimum standards [16].

Public interest in livestock sector development has been enhanced with demand for government action on climate change and increasing understanding of livestock–climate change issues. Recently the livestock component was also widely discussed in the context of the biodiversity crisis and COVID 19 pandemic. Understanding of the benefits and potential adverse impacts of livestock production is undoubtedly shining light on the need for sustainability across all agriculture subsectors.

There are also views that animals should be considered as stakeholders and be represented in sustainability discussion [6,17]. According to Vinnari et al. [17] sustainability policies should include an element of ethical evaluation, and, therefore, the sustainability matrix addressing food systems they have proposed include wildlife, farmed animals and humans.

Many issues related to sustainability and sustainable development are complex and challenging for decision-makers, with the need for compromises and trade-offs [5]. According to Gamborg and Sandøe [1] the concept of sustainability can be effectively used to organize and facilitate dialogue between stakeholders, including the breeding sector and the society as a whole, while deciding on the future of animal production. This will be crucial to ensure emerging policies address economic and food security requirements and address growing environmental threats.

• Straightbreeding and crossbreeding strategies

Preparation of the national strategy for livestock sector development, requires consideration of an important issue: the type of genetic material that is available and that is currently used in the country, or needed from outside the country to achieve expected outcomes. The national strategy has to consider the breeding sector to ensure the availability of the required breeding stock and the production sector, where either purebreds or crossbreds are used, depending on the species and direction of utilization.

The breed development processes that started some 250 years ago, mainly in Europe, led to the establishment of herdbooks and breed standards and resulted in continuous genetic progress and shifts of phenotypes. The newly developed breeds met a variety of human needs while adapting to specific environmental conditions and available feed resources, e.g., [18,19].

European breeds were introduced to the New World during early settlement [20]. As stated by Pearl [21] “the skill of the English breeder has well justified the reputation it has created for the British Isles as one of the chief sources of the pure-bred live stock of the world”. He also calculated that “the average horse imported into the United States for breeding purposes is worth twice as much as the average horse on an American farm”. The differences in the price of cattle were four and a third times higher and for sheep over five and a quarter times higher, proving the value of improved breeding stock. Overtime, high interest in animal breeding and substantial investments in research resulted in rapid advances of breeding in the USA. The novel work of Sewall Wright, Jay Laurence Lush, Lano Nelson Hazel, Gordon Dickerson and Charles Roy Henderson provided science based tools for the implementation of breeding programs, and led to the Iowa State University in Ames becoming a world leading animal breeding research and education centre. This new knowledge and tools facilitated rapid improvement of selected purebred populations that were in high demand.

Straightbreeding continues to be crucial to improving livestock breeds, varieties and lines, due to the dynamic improvement of methods to estimate the breeding value of individuals and to match potential parents of the next generation. Genetic improvement in purebred populations included in national breeding programs are often supported by the state, through support for agricultural research, development and extension and involvement of public institutions in various breeding activities, e.g., in Australia [22,23] or France [24,25].

Straightbreeding is also common in local breeds, due to their strong link to the environment and specific characteristics. There are cases where uniformity of products, such as wool or meat, are of great importance, and, therefore, utilization of purebreds is necessary.

The history of livestock production clearly shows the critical role of genetic improvement in achieving high individual performance [26,27]. For example, selection programs carried out by breeding companies have led to decreases by 50% the amount of feed needed by poultry and pigs to provide the same animal protein output [28]. Breeding has a key impact on animal production, as the genetic changes in consecutive generations are cumulative, permanent and can be widely disseminated within commercial populations. Continued genetic improvement must proceed in matter supportive of sustainability in the sector, meeting the challenges of diverse and sometime opposing economic, social and environmental objectives [16].

While crossbreeding is mainly used in commercial production, especially in intensive poultry and pigs production and recently also in dairy cattle, it can be also used for genetic improvement. In the process to develop many breeds, upgraded crossbreeding was practiced to enhance the gene pool and bring additional desired traits into selected populations. Purebreds were also used to develop composite lines or breeds to combine in a new population desired traits already established in other breeds [29].

Backcrossing is a common practice to multiply imported stock and to replace the existing local population, as in the case of black and white lowland European cattle breeds where continuous backcrossing resulted in development of national populations of Holstein–Friesian cattle. An example of such a transformation strategy occurred in the dairy sector in Poland in the mid 1980s [30], and resulted in 2005 in the establishment of the herdbook for Polish Holstein–Friesian. Such backcrossing strategies were often initiated and supported by the government as a part of the national strategy.

Crossbreeding with European breeds has a long history in animal breeding worldwide. In many developing countries it has started during the colonial era, supported by local authorities and the European missionaries [31]. Since the 1980s, the gene flow of animal genetic resources of high performing breeds has been continuously increasing. The main stream of live animals and their germinal products flows from developed countries to customers both in developed and developing countries [32].

Considering huge differences in performance levels of intensively selected commercial breeds over native livestock populations, crossbreeding and replacement of local livestock was attractive for agricultural policy makers. This was especially true in the early post-colonial period when countries were establishing their livestock development strategies that focused on the fast growth of animal production. Policies resulted in governmental actors being highly engaged in supplying exotic genetics to farmers, either through extension services or development projects [33]. In this period, as currently, it was easier to import the genetic progress than to obtain it domestically within local livestock populations through selection programs.

This policy approach expanded globally, with genetic resources of highly yielding international breeds being imported to developing countries and made available to local farmers usually without a full impact assessment and without full understanding of animal husbandry requirements. Often the policy proceeded despite poor infrastructure and technical capacity, and without the necessary organizational system that is required to have long-term successful crossbreeding schemes [34]. This importation policy resulted in poor health and survival of imported breeds and resulting crossbreds that were not suited to local environmental and production conditions, including climatic conditions, endemic diseases and available feed resources [34,35].

There are many examples from the past, when the livestock sector development strategies based on imported genetics, aimed at the fast increase of animal performance, enhancement of food production and incomes of farmers proved unsustainable. For instance, the research of Lemke et al. [36] showed that improved pig genotypes were not a good production alternative for saving oriented small-scale farmers with limited resource supply. Indeed, crossbreeding policies and strategies often proved to be unsustainable on many fronts: they have not sufficiently enhanced performance and have not generated continuous genetic progress. Madalena et al. [37], after an extensive literature review of specific cases around the world, concluded that imported genetic resources in low and medium input production systems should match the climatic and the local feed, health, management and other husbandry conditions to be sustainable and successful.

As reported by Mishra et al. [31], although crossbreeding of non-descript animals in India with exotic germplasm resulted in increased production and reproduction potential, it also led to breed dilution of valuable indigenous livestock. The use of exotic breeds and indiscriminate crossbreeding have been reported by FAO as the two main factors causing erosion of local genetic resources [38]. A study of Leroy et al. [39] showed that due to crossbreeding, the share of locally adapted breeds within species in 40 countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America has decreased by an average of 0.76% per year over the last 20 years. The corresponding increase has been shared between pure exotic breeds and crossbred animals, with a different distribution across regions.

History in livestock development has repeatedly shown that decision-making and policy development must be based on sound knowledge and experience and that regional research and understanding of production conditions is essential.

When crossbreeding schemes were introduced in regions where local conditions allowed their proper implementation, crossbreeding has resulted in substantial increases in animal performance and increased farmer income [33]. An extensive review of crossbreeding to enhance milk production in India concluded that exotic inheritance of around 50% is the most effective to increase growth, reproduction and milk yield [40]. Examples from East African countries show that the offspring from a native breed dam and a global elite sire may have the capacity to produce about 20–24 L of milk per day on improved pasture/grass [41]. The availability of high yielding genetics in the west encouraged wide crossbreeding, especially in the case of milk production in the tropics. As shown by Galukande et al. [42] in dairy crossbreds with 50% of the Bos taurus genotype, milk yields per lactation were between 2.6 and 2.2 times higher in comparison with local cattle, from the highland to semiarid climatic zone.

In spite of the fact that practical implementation of cross-breeding programs requires meeting a number of challenges related to higher demand for animal health care and the need for proper infrastructure and management, the economic and environmental benefits obtained using crossbreeds are important. A higher production per animal, a higher income for the families and availability of high-value food are such key benefits. According to Singh [40], crossbreeding is likely to continue in the future as an important livestock improvement tool in the tropics, in husbandry systems where farmers can provide sufficient management for maintaining animals with higher input requirements and access to the milk market can be secured.

At present, taking into account the need to enhance individual performance and overall livestock production and considering limited availability of land, water and other natural resources, the interest in highly performing genetics from the north is growing. As underlined in the Ethiopia Livestock Master Plan, one of the key challenges is a lack of genetically improved indigenous animals and genetic materials [43]. Imported genetics enable a shift in production systems toward greater intensification and specialization, with lower environmental impact per unit output (greater feed efficiency and lower GHG emission) [39,44].

Importation of new breeds contribute to the enhancement of diversity by expanding the number of breeds and facilitating development of new/synthetic breeds. However, when imported breeds completely replace local breeds, the loss of genetic diversity can be substantial. At present, gene flow can be restricted by access to genetic resources regulations introduced by most countries, parties to the Nagoya Protocol [45].

There is a lot of literature documenting crossbreeding and breed replacement at the local level while analyzing theoretical and practical impacts of various projects [33,42,46,47,48]. At the same time, little is known of the trends in the composition of livestock populations of farmed species, and the consequences of crossbreeding and breed replacement at the global level. The increased application of genomics in developing countries may support the livestock sector in many ways, including determination of breed composition in the absence of pedigree data, genomic selection in breed improvement programs and genetic characterization of economically important traits [49].

3. Examples of National Strategies and Policies

It has to be underlined that genetics alone is not a solution to increase livestock productivity in developing countries. The successful outcome requires simultaneous interventions in the areas of animal feed, health and genetics. Therefore, as underlined by Marhall et al. [49], any governmental intervention programs should focus on capacity building of the livestock keepers and other value chain actors, ensuring the availability and accessibility of inputs, provision of new technologies or customization of existing ones, support for involvement of the private and/or public sector, and development of supportive policies. Household modeling performed by Mayberry et al. [50] has shown that milk yields, reproduction, growth rates and survival can be best improved when multiple strategies, including when better nutrition and genetics are combined.

National development strategies and policies often integrate the extensive use of exotic breeds and development of crossbreds to increase individual performance and overall productivity of livestock production systems, see for instance [43,51,52,53]. Hedge [54] showed that the crossbred progeny of low productive nondescript cattle since adoption of an official policy of the Government of India in 1969 enabled involvement of marginal and small farmers in the dairy industry, increased milk production between 100 and 150% and increased farmer income from 200% to 400%, depending on the number of cows owned, the duration of participation in the scheme and on milk prices and availability of supporting services.

The Ethiopia Livestock Master Plan is focused on the key livestock value chains (poultry, red meat-milk and crossbred dairy cows) [43]. It identifies priority investment and policy support measures to address both smallholder family farms and commercial specialized production systems for each value chain. One of the important aims of the master plan is increasing the share of chicken meat in total meat consumption, from 5% to 27% by 2030 allowing substitution of red meat in efforts to lower greenhouse gases emissions. Other priority investments include, development of dairy cattle using high performing exotic breeds and biotechnology in reproduction, and improvement of the productivity of native breeds through community breeding programs, introduction of performance recording, selection programs and investments in animal health. The complementary policy interventions aim to rationalize public and private sector roles in a number of areas such as provision of veterinary services and to ensure public oversight and quality regulations [43].

Similar provisions are included in the Rwanda Livestock Master Plan, which also includes development of the pork value chain [53]. Importantly, the objectives of the Rwanda Livestock Master Plan address environmental sustainability: “Mitigating climate change by focusing more on introducing low emitting livestock species for meat (chicken and pork), and dairy intensification through introduction of higher productivity (crossbreds) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.

The national breeding policy is evolving. The broad objective of the Kenyan national animal breeding policy in 2009 was to ensure national food and nutritional security, improve AnGR productivity to enhance socioeconomic development and address emerging challenges in livestock breeding [55]. In 2019, the livestock policy covered an additional sustainability aspect, safeguarding the environment [56].

Development of national livestock strategies and policies require in-depth understanding of various aspects of the current operation of the sector: such as the legal and institutional framework, production systems and their economic performance, genetic resources, available capacity, including human resources and society expectation towards the sector. FAO provided supporting guidelines to undertake such reviews [57]. Preparation of a livestock sector review is a key first step in the preparation of national and/or regional polices but also might be needed to justify requests for donor funding of specific projects, or to plan effective policy responses to climatic, disease or conflict-related emergencies.

It is important to note that donors’ (e.g., government development cooperation agencies) internal policies may have an impact on the development and implementation of national livestock strategies. For example, a lot of donor support has been provided in dairy sector development. As analyzed by Makoni et al. [41] in East African countries the dairy value chain is a key contributor and driver of economic growth, especially in the rural areas, and a major focus of donor support programs. One of the critical constraints that restricts the expansion of modern dairy farms in East African countries is a shortage of improved dairy breed cattle. Live animals and semen have been distributed through non-governmental organization (NGO) projects and government owned cattle breeding ranches. Additionally, farmers started importing dairy heifers and female calves themselves. The national dairy strategies of these countries emphasize the importance of public-private-partnership to achieve the objectives of dairy sector development, and sustainability must be fully considered in development planning.

Development on national strategies in countries with a federal structure often provide a framework for the development of regional strategies and support measures. For instance, under the Constitution of India, livestock development falls within the jurisdiction of the state governments [52] and every state has its own breeding policy, which is agroclimatic and breed specific [31].

The impact of the government policy can be instrumental in changing livestock systems, as was reported by Hedge [54] in the context of the Rashtriya Gokul Mission scheme launched in 2014 by the Government of India (https://dahd.nic.in/rashtriya-gokul-mission, accessed on 21 January 2021). This scheme aims to improve the genetics of indigenous cattle breeds, while preventing crossbreeding and production of milk by artificially inseminated cows. In promotion of the scheme claims were made that the milk from crossbred cows is causing metabolic disorders like diabetes and heart diseases. Due to the new scheme farmers have been gradually shifting to native cattle breeds [54]. While progress in improvement of indigenous breeds was encouraging, the income of farms using such cattle breeds has to be analyzed.

As observed by Marshall [58] there is little research assessing the impact of different breed types in diverse and dynamic livestock productions systems in developing countries, so significant knowledge gaps in relation to breed-change interventions remain. Some countries, like Ethiopia, require impact assessment before importing exotic AnGR. The Guidelines for import and export of Animal and Animal Genetic Material [59] states that “For importing new AAGM, prior-import risk assessment and dissemination will be undertaken by Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Agricultural and Rural Development Bureaus/Livestock Development and Health Agencies”.

Some breeding companies have adopted internal policies to control the export of their genetics to other countries in order to ensure maintaining high performance in new environments and to maintain the well-earned image of their genetics. For example, the Norwegian Red cattle breeders cooperative whose exports are managed by Geno Global and individual owner members of the cooperative have agreed to this approach [60]. The Norwegian Red is exported if husbandry conditions in a receiving country fulfil the various demands of the breed. A similar policy has been adopted by poultry and pig breeding companies as their genetics intended for use in intensive/industrial production systems are sold with very detailed husbandry recommendations for producers, to ensure that performance will reflect the genetic potential of their animals.

4. Regional Policy

The examples of regional policies in agriculture and animal breeding analyzed in the paper include the policy of the European Union (EU) and of the African Union. Other regional policies, e.g., the Caribbean community (CariCom) (https://caricom.org/wp-content/uploads/STRATEGIC-PLAN-2016_opt.pdf, accessed on 1 June 2021) or the Andean Community (http://www.sice.oas.org/trade/JUNAC/Decisiones/Dec328e.asp, accessed on 1 June 2021) are not addressing animal breeding but rather focus on trade and related animal health issues.

A good example of a regional policy is the evolving European Union common agriculture policy (CAP). The fundamental Mac Sharry reform in 1992 led to the reduction of price support that was replaced by the establishment of a second pillar of CAP, including agrienvironmental measures, with direct payments to farmers for undertaking specific actions towards biodiversity conservation in agroecosystems and building capacities and interest for implementation through the LEADER program [61]. This new vision of agriculture development [62] supported some aspects of sustainable animal breeding. Since 1992, the EU rural development programs provide measures to conserve local endangered livestock breeds. This is a clear example of a regional policy that is supporting maintaining the broad genetic base for future needs of livestock breeding and production as part of the EU efforts to achieve agriculture sustainability.

The new approach for EU sustainable livestock was developed by EU40—the network of young Members of the European Parliament. The result is the “Sustainable EU Livestock: Actions towards an Innovative, Climate-Smart and Competitive Future” [63]. This debate led to the conclusion that the sustainable livestock concept requires a holistic and cross-sectoral policy approach, which jointly addresses the three pillars: to ensure that livestock development is environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically viable. These aspects need to be reflected in the breeding policies and goals.

Recalling a similar approach, a Vision for Sustainable Breeding and Reproduction developed by the FABRE Technology Platform, in 2006 already recognized that the animal breeding sector ”… is intimately linked to three pillars of sustainability: Consumers, Environment, and Economy, through its interactions with societal developments, its implications for biodiversity and the environment, and its contribution to economic growth” [64].

The policy to achieve environmentally sound livestock production should focus on strengthening the role of sustainable livestock in a circular bioeconomy, building a stronger knowledge-based agricultural sector, enhancing animal health for environmental performance and take into account environmental qualities in greenhouse gas calculations. Therefore, breeding efforts in livestock should focus on improved digestive and metabolic efficiency, resilience and adaptive capacities of animals and ability to use food of varying and lower nutritional value than actual feeds, to minimize the use of plant crops that can be used for human nutrition [65]. With an agroecological perspective breeding goals should further shift towards functional traits rather than production traits. Breeding for robustness aims to promote individual adaptive capacities by applying diverse selection criteria, which include reproduction, animal health and welfare, and adaptation to rough feed resources, a warm climate or fluctuating environmental conditions [66,67].

Recently, significant efforts were being devoted to developing breeding tools to select for decreasing greenhouse gas emission, especially in ruminant species [68]. For example, the Geno research project in Norway [69] aims to develop a combined selection strategy for Norwegian Red cattle for reducing GHG emissions and improving feed efficiency to support the government commitment to reduce GHG by 40% by 2030.

The second social responsibility pillar [63] should be reflected by placing farmers at the core of ongoing agricultural reforms and future policies and ensuring that the livestock sector contributes to society welfare, though inter alia, addressing antimicrobial resistance, introducing outcome-based measures of animal welfare, decreasing food loss and waste and improving consumers’ overall awareness on livestock sector issues.

The EU policy is already addressing social responsibility issues. An example includes increasing legislation regarding improving animal welfare, that is of growing concern of EU citizens [70]. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union recognizes animals as “sentient beings”, and this principle should be reflected in the EU legislation and policy. Article 13 of the Treaty, lists key principles that should be respected by the EU Member States. In the process of: “formulating and implementing the Union’s agriculture, fisheries, transport, internal market, research and technological development and space policies, the Union and the Member States shall, since animals are sentient beings, pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals, while respecting the legislative or administrative provisions and customs of the Member States relating in particular to religious rites, cultural traditions and regional heritage” [71].

Over time, EU law has prohibited some of the housing practices of industrial livestock production that were not respecting animal welfare, such as: veal crates (prohibited from 2007), barren battery cages for egg-laying hens (2012) and sow stalls (gestation crates), except during the first four weeks of pregnancy (2013) [70]. The Council Directive laying down minimum standards for the protection of laying hens [72], prohibited the use of barren battery cages from 1 January 2012. Egg producers had to use either ‘enriched’ cages or free-range and barn systems and a provide minimum littered area per hen. This new legislation resulted in a need to modify layers genetics used in barn systems to avoid unsocial behavior of hens kept for generations in individual cages.

As a part of the Farm to Fork Strategy within the European Green Deal, the European Commission initiated a fitness check of the EU animal welfare legislation with the commitment for necessary revisions by 2023 [73]. This process includes legislation on animal transport and the slaughter of animals in order to align legislation with the latest scientific evidence, to broaden its scope and enhance enforcement. Options for animal welfare labelling are also being considered.

Economic viability, the third sustainability pillar proposed by EU40 [63], should support cost competitiveness of farmers through improving access to technology, promoting product differentiation and increase understanding of perceptions and expectations of livestock production. Competitiveness depends very much on the potential for production and quality of animal origin products, which are continuously enhanced through increasingly sophisticated and successful genetic improvement programs. For instance, between the 1970s and 1980s, the only breeding objective in salmon selection was the potential for growth in salty water. In 2020, the breeding objective included 15 diverse traits, and selection is based on family performance, markers for quantitative traits loci (QTL) and genome analysis [74]. Selective breeding decreased the amount of time to reach 4 kg of fish body weight from 22 to 12 months by 2013. Selection also addressed a number of health and welfare issues in salmon production resulting from viral, bacterial and lice infections, e.g., infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) [74].

Another example of regional integration is provided by the Southern African Development Community. Their 15-year Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (2005–2020) in one of the thirteen priority intervention areas includes sustainable food security. Under this plan there are a couple of targets related to livestock production. Target 6 calls to “Reduce the incidences of transboundary animal diseases (TADs), in particular Foot and Mouth Disease, by half in 2015 with the ultimate objective of elimination” and Target 7 to “Increase livestock production by at least 4% annually” [75]. Implementation of especially target 7 requires improvement of the genetic base for livestock production in the region [75].

A very important regional initiative directly related to animal breeding was undertaken by the Heads of States of the Eastern and Central African countries, who decided to invest in cryoconservation of animal genetic resources. The Gene Banks were established by the African Union Commission through its technical office, the African Union Inter African Bureau of Animal Resources (AU-IBAR). This development took place under the project, “Strengthening the Capacity of African Countries to Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of African Animal Genetic Resources” funded by the European Union. Establishment of the Regional Multi-purpose Animal Genetic Resources Bank will support African countries that do not have the necessary infrastructure, equipment and technical capacity by providing regional facilities for the main or duplicate storage for their valuable genetic material of threatened indigenous breeds. Five African Regional Multi-Purpose Animal Genetics Banks, officially launched in July 2019, are located in Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Tunisia and Uganda (https://www.asareca.org/news/three-regional-animal-gene-banks-simultaneously-launched-across-africa, accessed on 21 January 2021). They will serve also as centers of excellence for training researchers from member states on the use of modern cryopreservation technologies [76].

Animal gene banks have an important role to play to ensure the availability of genetic material to support in vivo conservation programs and breeding programs, to facilitate animal research and to provide long-term storage as insurance for the future needs of animal breeding, thus contributing to sustainability of the sector. Gene banks facilitate access to diverse biological material for research reducing collection from live animals. Therefore, it is important to know the scope of gene banks’ collections and improve various technical and other aspects of their operation.

In Europe, such an inventory of animal gene banks’ genetic and genomic collections was undertaken within the IMAGE project (Innovative Management of Animal Genetic Resources) (http://www.imageh2020.eu/, accessed on 21 January 2021). The European gene banks also established EUGENA: the European Gene Bank Network for Animal Genetic Resources. EUGENA is the platform of national gene banks set up and operating under the umbrella of the European Regional Focal Point for AnGR [77]. The objectives of this platform, among others, is to support gene banks to fulfill their individual roles and goals; to improve monitoring and assessment of AnGR kept in ex situ collections; to improve gene bank operations and procedures; to increase efficiency of ex situ conservation of transboundary breeds; to facilitate quality improvement in ex situ collections; to facilitate a European approach for international cooperation and exchange of AnGR in the context of the Nagoya Protocol.

5. Animal Breeding Law and Other Relevant Legislation

Establishment of national strategies have to be accompanied by the development of animal breeding laws that address both the technical aspects of AnGR management (e.g., herdbooks, animal identification and registration, performance recording, selection programs and conservation programs) and other factors that may influence the general implementation of the legislation (e.g., institutional arrangements, roles and responsibilities of various bodies and decision making process) [78]. In particular, legislation on the establishment and activities of farmers’ associations/breeders’ societies, their role in the breeding process and various support measures and incentives available for farmers and breeders play a crucial role in the breeding process. Animal breeding should play a servant role to livestock production, generating genetic progress in order to respond to the needs of farmers and commercial producers, taking into account concerns of the society and in the same time respecting animal welfare. Modern breeders make efforts to improve animal health and welfare through selection, in addition to increasing economic performance [74,79]. Such selection objectives in active population contribute to the wellbeing of millions of animals within commercial production. For instance, in the Norwegian Red cattle selection 63% of the total breeding goal include traits that directly and indirectly contribute to animal welfare [69].

The EU animal breeding legislation protects interests of breeders and commercial producers introducing measures to ensure that the breeding products (live animals and their reproductive material) available at the common market have a high genetic value. The legislation is applied through establishment of common requirements and a process set for the official recognition of breeders societies/breeding operations and the approval of breeding programs. The legislation also sets zootechnical and genealogical rules for trade in breeding animals and their germinal products, rules for the performance testing and genetic evaluation of breeding animals and rules for the issuing of zootechnical certificates for breeding, and the entry of breeding animals in breeding books and breeding registers [80]. This regulation also lays down the rights and obligations of breeders, breed societies and breeding operations and introduces rules related to institutional arrangements: on administrative assistance and cooperation, enforcement by member states and on the performance of controls by the commission in member states and third countries.

The animal breeding law that ensures application of modern science based breeding methods and adoption of balanced breeding objectives that take into account traits supporting health and welfare, thereby contribute to the achievement of sustainability in the sector. The EU animal breeding law requires that where breed societies or breeding operations carry out performance testing or genetic evaluation, they shall establish and use methods that shall be scientifically acceptable according to established zootechnical principles, and shall take into account the rules and standards established by the relevant European Union reference centers (where they exist) or in the absence of those rules and standards, the principles agreed by International Committee on Animal Recording—ICAR [80]. It also introduces tools for implementation and enforcement through cooperation and controls.

Additionally, laws regulating the establishment of breeders societies, their roles and responsibilities in the breeding process provides incentives to support their development and measures available to support their activities may have a substantial impact on the effectiveness of national breeding programs.

Other areas of legislation that may affect sustainability in animal breeding are related to animal health and combating animal transmissible diseases. Veterinary laws can especially influence the exchange of breeding stock. As underlined by the EU Animal Health Law [81], the impact of transmissible animal diseases and measures necessary to control diseases can be devastating for individual animals, animal populations, animal keepers and the economy. Transmissible animal diseases may also have a significant impact on public health and food safety. Their adverse interactive effects can be observed with regard to biodiversity, climate change and other environmental aspects, and, thus, affect the sustainability of the livestock sector. Moreover, agriculture and livestock production have impacts on human pandemics. As reported by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), land-use change, agricultural expansion and urbanization cause more than 30% of emerging disease events [82]. Therefore, the policy supporting One Health, the holistic approach to human, animal and environment health, may have an impact on decisions regarding breeding goals. Research based on the One Health approach is instrumental in this respect [83,84].

Animal health legislation has an impact on the access to the material stored in gene banks.

One of the actions under the Strategic Priority 11 of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources (GPA) calls for a review of the impact of zoosanitary standards on the conservation of animal genetic resources, and, in particular, their accessibility [85]. Animal breeding may have an important role in the development of populations free of certain diseases when the genetic background of resistance to such diseases will be discovered.

Another relevant legislation is related to the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol [45]. Establishment of domestic access and benefit sharing (ABS) measures may provide obstacles in the exchange of live animals and their germinal products. Animals, both domesticated and wild species are within the scope of the protocol, and most parties to the Nagoya Protocol decided to regulate access to these resources. In the livestock sector, the main gene flow is largely among developed countries, north–north and then north–south with flow among south–south countries gradually increasing [32]. In the European breeding sector, there is no need at present for the introduction of AnGR from developing countries of the south, and the gene flow south–north is negligible [86]. Although so far it is not the case, in the future, some specific traits of indigenous breeds from the south related for instance to adaptation to a hotter and dryer climate might be of interest to the breeders from developed countries. Potential exchange of native and locally adapted breeds from the south will be covered by domestic ABS measures, which might become an obstacle in the trade of AnGR between developing countries and decrease the south–south gene flow.

Livestock research, crucial for animal breeding, is an activity probably most affected by the ABS measures. Many research projects require AnGR from various, sometimes very specific regions, and if domestic access measures covering native breeds become substantial barriers to exchange, research will suffer slowing development of the livestock sector worldwide [86].

6. Global Commitments to Maintain Diversity at Species and Breed Levels

Sustainability understood as ensuring “Genetics for future use” requires maintaining genetic diversity between breeds within species and between individuals within breed populations, as they are instrumental for successful breeding programs [87]. Different breeds, with their unique combination of traits, are important in fulfilling specific needs, used as purebred or in crossbreeding programs. Breeds also contribute to national or regional identity and thus their conservation has a cultural aspect. Conservation requires substantial public investments without immediate understanding of benefits. However, this investments may prove to be essential given climate change, disease outbreaks, etc. [88].

Most of the genetic diversity in livestock is present within a breed, and not between breeds [89]. Genetic diversity within a breed that enables selection and results in genetic improvement of consecutive generations requires careful management to ensure its long-term maintenance.

It is important that conservation of livestock genetic diversity has been addressed at the international and regional levels, assisting policy development at the national level. The parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) recognized a need to conserve genetic resources for food and agriculture. Target 13 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 requires that “by 2020, the genetic diversity of cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and of wild relatives, including other socio-economically as well as culturally valuable species, is maintained, and strategies have been developed and implemented for minimizing genetic erosion and safeguarding their genetic diversity” [90]. This obligation of the parties to the CBD should be implemented either through their national biodiversity strategies and action plans or other sectoral programs.

Similar provisions are also contained in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources, adopted in 2007 [85]. The GPA third strategic priority area: conservation calls for taking actions to preserve genetic diversity and integrity, for the benefit of current and future generations. Five strategic priorities within this conservation area require governments to establish national conservation policies, establish or strengthen both in-situ and ex-situ conservation programs and develop and implement regional and global long-term conservation strategies. The international research community should develop approaches and technical standards for conservation, including development of in situ and ex situ methods and technologies, elaboration standardized protocols and guidelines; documentation and dissemination of knowledge, technologies and best practices and development of methods for setting priorities for conservation.

Ten years later, the commitment for further implementation of the GPA was renewed at the 16th session of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in 2017. The Commission adopted a resolution “Reaffirming the World’s Commitment to the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources” [91], which was endorsed by the FAO Conference.

To provide monitoring of the state of livestock diversity and trends in their populations to support sound policy development, the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) established a global system for regular reporting on the state of animal genetic resources (AnGRs) [92].

The importance of maintaining diversity of locally adapted breeds is also reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations Agenda 2030. Target 2.5 addresses the maintenance of genetic diversity of domesticated animals (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/?Text=&Goal=2&Target=2.5, accessed on 21 January 2021). The FAO Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS) supports the estimation of two indicators for Target 2.5 [93].

In confirming relevant international agreements, governments have committed themselves to undertake measures to conserve the diversity of livestock breeds, especially native ones and to promote the maintenance of within breed diversity in the implementation of national breeding programs, which is crucial for future needs of the sector. The most effective way to achieve these objectives are national strategies and action plans that will implement strategic priorities of GPA, as is relevant to each country. Such strategies should be developed with active participation of stakeholders in the livestock sector.

In development of national strategies, countries are supported by a number of FAO guidelines, dealing with various technical elements of AnGR management such as inventory and characterization, sustainable use and conservation. The most relevant in this context are guidelines on the preparation of National Strategies and Action Plans for Animal Genetic Resources [94], on the development of breeding strategies [95] and on the transformation of the livestock sector towards achieving SDGs [3]. Within breed diversity is essential to enable continuous genetic progress. Maintaining genetic diversity is possible with strict control of inbreeding in consecutive generations under selection. It requires action not only within the national breeding program but also at the herd level. Therefore, breeders and livestock keepers should be trained to understand the importance of taking measures to avoid mating of related individuals and maintain genetic diversity in their herds. Such issues should be included in capacity building programs for farmers and breeders.

The breeding industry is expected to ensure the availability of breeding stock of a high genetic values for livestock producers worldwide. This obligation involves continuous genetic improvement of selected in-house populations/lines and careful management of their gene pools to ensure continuous progress and insurance in case of the need to change or modify breeding objectives.

7. Conclusions

Informed policy development is crucial in supporting sustainability in the animal breeding sector. Long-term sustainability requires national strategies and policies for livestock sector development that offer a long-term perspective. Indeed, perhaps one of the most important aspects of the concept of sustainability is to force decision-makers to take into account short, medium and long-term outcomes. Development often is focused on meeting immediate needs, and history in livestock development has shown that consideration of long-term impacts, both positive and negative, is key to success.

Experience gained from livestock development have shown in a number of instances that the livestock development strategies and policies were too focused on immediate production increase goals. This single focus approach has been evident in implementing improvement methods (e.g., focusing on crossbreeding with exotic breeds while neglecting the selection of indigenous populations) and in setting selection goals (focusing on production while neglecting other important traits such as health and reproduction, and preventing the loss of within breed diversity).

The rapid development of knowledge base and enhancement of technical capacities are making it possible to include emerging new breeding goals and related traits in selection programs. Thus, in the future, with the right mix of knowledge based policies, animal breeding will contribute even more to various aspects of sustainability in livestock production, providing genetics that address/respond to the needs of producers, ensuring healthier animals that are well adapted to husbandry conditions, meet consumer needs for ethical, safe and nutritious products and address environmental issues.

The breeding industry has made substantial efforts to ensure that their livestock populations are managed in a sustainable manner, implementing measures to ensure effective and efficient use of resources, mitigate negative impacts on the environment and support animal welfare. Collective measures within the livestock sector are enhancing efforts to achieve sustainability within livestock production systems and beyond.