Declining Biodiversity in Cattle

In a recent article in The New York Times by Andrew Rice, we read about a breed of longhorns known as the Ankole with traits suited to the hilly grasslands of western Uganda. Yet, they are being replaced by Holsteins. Rice writes, "Indigenous animals like East Africa’s sinewy Ankole, the product of centuries of selection for traits adapted to harsh conditions, are struggling to compete with foreign imports bred for maximal production. This worries some scientists. The world’s food supply is increasingly dependent on a small and narrowing list of highly engineered breeds: the Holstein, the Large White pig and the Rhode Island Red and Leghorn chickens. There’s a risk that future diseases could ravage these homogeneous animal populations. Poor countries, which possess much of the world’s vanishing biodiversity, may also be discarding breeds that possess undiscovered genetic advantages."

Read the entire article here.