Status and effective population size of Lithuanian farm animal breeds

Abstract

Lithuanian farm animal genetic resources include old breeds and breeds that were developed in the 20th century. The principles of conservation of Lithuanian farm animal genetic resources and evaluation of Lithuanian breed status are based on the experience of animal breeding in small conserved herds and on the criteria and global strategy of FAO for the management of farm animal genetic resources (Bodo, I. 1999., FAO, Hammond, K. 1998, Marx, A. 1990). The minimal size of the population was determined according to the possibility for isolated breeding of animals without considerable increase of in breeding and according to the evaluation standards for breeding animals. The status of other Lithuanian animal breeds was evaluated by their monitoring. The effective population size was expressed as Ne = 4NmNf/(Nm + Nf), where: Nm - number of breeding males; Nf - number of breeding females (Maijala, K. 1999).