Agriculture Pavilion
| Home > Agriculture Pavilion > Modern Noah's Ark > High-Tech Selecting And Breeding Varities Create Competitiveness for Livestock Industry |
High-Tech Selecting And Breeding Varities Create Competitiveness for Livestock Industry
DateˇG2010-07-20
As the saying goes, "Like father, like son." It takes the right seed to produce the desired animal or bird, demonstrating clearly the importance of breeding stock as the locomotive of livestock industry. Conservation and utlization of livestock genetic resources and breeding selected new varieties really matters to the competitiveness and sustainable development of domestic livestock industry, and the successful breeding of new varieties is particularly matters to the development of the livestock industry and market as a whole.
In addition to Lee-Sung pig jointly bred by Pro. Lee Teng-yuan and Prof. Sung Yong-yi, the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute (TLRI) has bred 19 new varities and strains of animal and birds since 1985. Selection and utilization of new livestock varieties have been continuously adjusted according to market demand as time, model of agricultural management and consumer taste changes.
For example, Tainan's Tenha Organic Farm, the first and only farm that produces certified organic chicken eggs in Taiwan, uses TLRI native chicken cockerels Taishi Meat No. 13, instead of hens, to produce organic "Tenha eggs."
TLRI Director Huang Ying-hau said Taishi Meat No. 13 was successfully bred after selecting from the 4 inbred lines created by his institute in 1997. And through cooperation with Tenha Organic Farm, new agricultural value has been created.
Organic agriculture emphasizes natural production methods and Taishi Meat No. 13's characteristics of accepting coarse meals and heat-resistance suit perfectly Taiwan's natural climate and environmental conditions. Such varieties are favorable for the development of domestic organic livestock industry, noted Huang. Besides, "Taiwan yellow cattle" bred successfully in 2009 is an excellent variety because of its heat-resistant, coarse-resistant and disease-resistance characteristics. These examples demonstrate the trend of developing organic prvtnats in combination with breeding new livestock varieties.
In addition to meet our consumption demand, pig organs are suitable for developing biomedical industry because their sizes, maturity, physiology and dissection are closer to human organs than all the other animals. The small-sized Lanyu pigs are best small animals used in experiments of clinical medical techniques and implant precision devices and materials. Such laboratory pigs as Lanyu 50, Lanyu 100, Lanyu 200 and GPI-CRC-PGD Lanyu 300 have been provided to National Taiwan University Hospital, Tri-Service General Hospital, Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital and 12 other hospitals and medical research centers for various biomedical and clinical medical studies, which have created considerable economic value due to their R&D achievements.
Mr. Huang emphasized that since characters are determined by genes and quality is determined by characters, future breeding of new livestock varieties and strains will use scientific tecnhiques to select varieties based on genes and implement birth registration, property test and seed log-in systems. The TLRI will also take such measures as evaluating livestock breeding farms to transform domestic breeding industry in order to enhance its competitiveness by achieving the goals of breeding quality varieties, refined characters and brand innovation.
