Conclusions of the Workshop "Conservation of rare livestock breeds in Greece"

Agrinion, May 18 - 20th 2006

Participants

Dimos, Dimitrios; Hatzinikolas, Kostas; Jerrentrup, Hans; Makaritis, Stelios; Minotou, Charikleia; Papadopoulos, Elias; Steen, Sylvia; Vlaikos, Yiannis; Wagena, Eleni

Breeder network / breeder association

• There is no breeders network in Greece up to now. There are some recognised breeder clubs or associations for some certain breeds e.g. sheep of Pilion.
• Some herd books exist for the registered rare breeds. It has been suggested to register and update regularly the number of animals in each breed. Not any interest exists among clubs to become one single big club because they have nothing to win.
  
• It is suggested to present breeds in Zootechnia the big exhibition in Thessaloniki
  (International Fair) taking place at beginning of February. SAVE or Zootechnia should cover expenses to farmers to visit it or bring animals to show them to people. A prize to the best farmer or animals might be a motivation. It is good to meet people locally, organise seminars or other regional actions.

Rescue stations: Rare breed centre

• All forms of stations are accepted. They should look more like a normal farm and be able to produce. Otherwise they will be not sustainable and able to survive.
• Rescue stations do not exist at the moment. They need space, people, time, money and knowledge!

Typing of goats (and donkeys)
There is a great need for standardizing and characterising breeds, types or strains. Attention should be paid to collaborate with and not fight against authorities. Typing should be made by experts, people with knowledge. Visits to farmers is good to be made by the same person, in order to become familiar with the farmers and have a whole picture of the animals of each breed. Collaboration of SAVE with Universities and Centres of genetic improvement. People of SAVE should be familiar with breeds and have appropriate knowledge. Genetic sampling for discrimination or identification of breeds might be applied.

Ongoing process of Monitoring
There are 5 Centres of genetic improvement regionally, in Athens, Drama, Ioannina, Karditsa, Diavates - Thessaloniki. One person should be responsible for the whole country. This person should be experienced, qualified, trained. That seems better to be a proper job within the frame of a 3 years projects that may include a doctoral or post doctoral Thesis with publications to scientific journals.

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