Major livestock breeds of the world
What a breed is, major cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig and chicken breeds, taurine versus zebu cattle, breeds at risk, and a population status sum.
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A Holstein cow in a Dutch barn, a Sahiwal cow in Pakistan, a Boran grazing the Kenyan rangeland and a Nelore on a Brazilian ranch are all cattle, but they were shaped by very different environments and human goals. Breeds are the units in which livestock diversity is managed, traded and conserved. Choosing the right breed for the climate, feed, disease challenge and market is one of the most important decisions a livestock keeper makes.
Breeds, their origins and characteristics are a frequent topic in animal science and livestock production exams.
What is a breed?
A breed is a group of domestic animals with recognisable, inherited characteristics that distinguish it from other groups of the same species, usually with a shared history and often a herd book or breed society. FAO's Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS) records several thousand local and transboundary breeds of mammals and birds. FAO's assessments of animal genetic resources have repeatedly found that many local breeds are at risk of extinction, and that the risk status of many more is unknown.
Cattle: taurine and zebu
Cattle descend from two domestications of the wild aurochs:
- Taurine cattle (Bos taurus), from the Near East, adapted to temperate climates: high-yielding dairy and beef breeds of Europe.
- Zebu or indicine cattle (Bos indicus), from South Asia, with a hump, loose skin, more sweat glands and greater tolerance of heat and ticks.
Many African breeds, and composites such as Brangus and Santa Gertrudis, combine both.
Dairy breeds
- Holstein Friesian (Netherlands and northern Germany): the most widespread dairy breed, very high milk yield with lower fat percentage; needs high-quality feed and management.
- Jersey (Jersey, Channel Islands): small, high butterfat and protein, efficient and relatively heat-tolerant for a taurine breed.
- Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Ayrshire, and dual-purpose Simmental and Montbéliarde.
- Zebu dairy breeds of South Asia, such as Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi and Tharparkar, produce less milk but tolerate heat, ticks and poorer feed; Gir genetics underlie Brazil's Girolando (Gir × Holstein).
Beef breeds
- Temperate: Angus, Hereford, Charolais, Limousin, Simmental.
- Tropical: Brahman (developed in the United States from zebu breeds), Nelore (Brazil, from Indian Ongole cattle), Boran (East Africa), N'Dama (West Africa, tolerant of trypanosomosis).
Buffalo
- River buffalo (2n = 50), mainly for milk: Murrah and Nili-Ravi of South Asia, and the Mediterranean buffalo of Italy, used for mozzarella.
- Swamp buffalo (2n = 48) of South-East Asia and China, mainly for draught and meat.
Sheep and goats
- Sheep: Merino (fine wool, originally Spain, now Australia and South Africa); Suffolk and Texel (meat); Dorper (South African hair sheep for meat in hot climates); Awassi (fat-tailed dairy sheep of the Middle East); many hair and fat-tailed breeds in Africa and Asia.
- Goats: Saanen and Alpine (dairy, Switzerland and France); Boer (meat, South Africa); Anglo-Nubian (dual purpose); Black Bengal (prolific, small meat goat of Bangladesh and eastern India); Angora (mohair) and Cashmere goats.
Pigs
Large White (Yorkshire), Landrace and Duroc dominate commercial pig production, often as three-way crosses with Pietrain or Hampshire sires. Chinese breeds such as the Meishan are very prolific; the Iberian pig of Spain produces cured ham from acorn-fed animals.
Chickens
Commercial layers derive mainly from White Leghorn (white eggs) and brown-egg breeds such as Rhode Island Red; commercial broilers are crosses originally based on Cornish and Plymouth Rock lines, supplied by a few global breeding companies. Indigenous chickens such as the Fayoumi (Egypt), Aseel (South Asia) and many village breeds are hardier and valued for scavenging systems and local markets.
Choosing and conserving breeds
- Match breed to environment: heat, disease, feed quality and management.
- Consider crossbreeding to combine productivity and adaptation.
- Conserve local breeds in situ (on farms, with support and markets for their products) and ex situ (frozen semen and embryos in gene banks), because they carry adaptations to heat, disease and harsh feed that may be needed in the future.
Is a breed at risk?
FAO classifies risk status by the number of breeding animals. A breed is roughly critical with fewer than about 100 breeding females or 5 or fewer breeding males, and endangered with about 100 to 1,000 breeding females or 6 to 20 breeding males (with adjustments for trends and crossbreeding).
A local cattle breed has 600 breeding females and 15 breeding bulls: it is endangered.
Its effective population size is:
- Ne = 4 Nm Nf ÷ (Nm + Nf) = 4 × 15 × 600 ÷ 615 ≈ 59.
So the breed behaves genetically like an ideal population of only about 59 animals, and inbreeding rises by about 1 ÷ (2 × 59) ≈ 0.85 per cent per generation. Using more bulls, for example 40, raises Ne to about 150 and slows inbreeding to about 0.33 per cent.
Key points
- A breed is a group with distinct, inherited characteristics and shared history; FAO's DAD-IS records thousands of breeds, many at risk.
- Taurine cattle suit temperate high-input systems; zebu cattle tolerate heat, ticks and poor feed.
- Key breeds: Holstein, Jersey, Gir, Sahiwal (dairy); Angus, Hereford, Charolais, Brahman, Nelore, Boran (beef); Murrah and swamp buffalo; Merino, Dorper; Saanen, Boer, Black Bengal; Large White, Landrace, Duroc; White Leghorn and broiler crosses.
- Match breeds to environment and conserve local breeds in situ and ex situ.
- Ne = 4NmNf ÷ (Nm + Nf); few males greatly reduce Ne.
What the exams ask
- School-leaving and entrance papers: names, origins and uses of important breeds.
- Degree and research-fellowship entrances: characteristics of breeds by species, taurine versus zebu, breed choice for different systems, and conservation of animal genetic resources.
- Professional examinations: breeding policy, crossbreeding versus conservation, and risk status and effective population size.
Described in general terms: the kind of examination, not a past paper. Laisha never reproduces exam questions.
Questions people ask
Why not replace all local cattle with Holsteins?
Holsteins need high-quality feed, cool conditions and good health care to realise their potential. In hot, low-input systems, local or crossbred cattle often produce more profitably and survive better.
What is a transboundary breed?
A breed found in more than one country, such as the Holstein or the Boer goat, as opposed to a local breed found in only one.
How are rare breeds conserved?
On farms, supported by subsidies, niche markets and breed societies, and in gene banks holding frozen semen, embryos and other tissues.
Sources
- FAO. The Second Report on the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. FAO, Rome, 2015.
- FAO. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS). FAO, online.
- Porter, V., Alderson, L., Hall, S. J. G. and Sponenberg, D. P. Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding, 6th edition. CABI, 2016.
- Loftus, R. T. et al. "Evidence for two independent domestications of cattle." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 91, 2757–2761 (1994).
- FAO. Breeding Strategies for Sustainable Management of Animal Genetic Resources. FAO Animal Production and Health Guidelines 3, 2010.
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