Although livestock and wildlife breeding seem to serve different goals, recently encouraging efforts have been made to narrow the gap between both. From the historical adoption of technical and/or analytical tools, collaborations nowadays seem to move towards a common interest in problems associated in conserving diversity in small populations, preventing them from extinction in the near future. Sharing characteristics with both livestock breeding (e.g. studbook based management) - and wildlife conservation (e.g. focus on non-domesticated species), ex-situ conservation in zoos seems to take a pivotal position in the conservation landscape. Notwithstanding the general success of some international breeding programs in retaining genetic diversity, zoo populations might turn out to be interesting showcases of how gradual loss of diversity, inbreeding –and outbreeding depression among others, interfere with the long-term viability. Are there things to be learned from research on these captive breeding programs?
The rise of massive parallel sequencing on the other hand allowed more comprehensive studies on the genetic consequences of breeding species outside their natural range. Conservation genetics slowly shifted towards conservation genomics, redirecting the focus from neutral towards more adaptive/functional processes in what used to be non-model species. A central theme is whether and how populations adapt to new environments. Interestingly, genomics also infiltrates in our rational on how to preserve genetic diversity, reopening the debate on optimal breeding strategies.
This talk focuses on our research on the nature and dynamics of genetic diversity in captive breeding, highlighting potential links to livestock breeding.