Research interests

The objective of my research is to genetically characterize the Agersoe Cattle (Agersø-kvæget) for the purpose of evaluating its conservation value.

The main questions to be addressed are

1) What are the diversity and the degree of inbreeding? Are there any private alleles? Is the population homogeneous? And other such parameters of importance for the characterization of the population.
2) Is it possible to separate Island Cattle (ø-kvæg) from the Danish Red (RDM-70) and Jutland Breed (Jysk kvæg) using the three different molecular markers mentioned below?
3) What is the genetic relation between Island Cattle and other breeds including modern and landraces?
4) What is the contribution of the breed to the total diversity of Danish (alt. European, Scandinavian) cattle?

The genetic markers

Data to be used in the project comes from the

• Sequence variation in the Control Region (displacement loop, abbr. D-loop) of the mitochondrial DNA
• Allele frequency variation in the 30 microsatellite markers of the Utrecht List (1)
• The EcoRI/TaqI AFLP procedure using the primer combinations E35/T32, E39/T33 and E45/T32
(Ajmone-Marsan, 1997; Vos et al., 1995)

Genetic diversity

The diversity in Cattle is decreasing as a result of multiple factors (FAO, 1998, 2000). One is the global reliance on a limited number of highly specialized breeds at the expense of locally adapted but less productive ones. An example from Europe is that 95 percent of the animals in the high input-high output farming systems producing 85 percent of the milk in EU are of one breed, Holstein-Friesian (Arendonk, 2003).

It is of paramount importance to conserve as much of the current diversity as possible for several reasons including (Ollivier, 2004; Ruane, 2000)

• Preservation of a basis for natural and artificial selection
• The ability of the European farmers and food industries to meet the changes in the demand of tomorrows consumers
• Preservation of the rich agricultural heritage

Al though many resources have been dedicated to evaluating Cattle biodiversity it is not possible to preserve all breeds and a prioritization must be made.
One way to do this is by evaluating the phylogenetic distinction of the breed in question. This approach is put forward by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO (Barker, 1998). Other methods deals with the quantification of diversity such as the Weitzmann approach (Weitzmann, 1992), MEK/Core set method (Eding et al., 2002) and the methods put forward by Caballero and Toro, 2002 and Petit et al., 1998.
By using these methods a ranking of breeds emerges and those with the highest value for the conservation of the genetic diversity can readily be identified.
It should be noted that there are no consensus on how to rank breeds according to the conservation value and that a breed’s contribution to total diversity or genetic uniqueness is only one of several arguments. One could equally weigh cultural value, degree of endangerment, adaptation to specific environments and possession of traits of current and future economic importance (Ruane, 1999).

Two major genetic conservation projects in Europe

Two major projects have described the genetic diversity within and between many European cattle breeds. The project “Analysis and Comparison of Genetic Diversity in Cattle Breeds of the Northern European Area (N-EURO-CAD)” was initiated in 1998 and aimed at genotyping 35 Nordic cattle breeds with the first twenty markers of the Cadbase list (1). The projects goal was fulfilled in 2002. For further detail visit the projects homepage (http://neurocad.lva.lt/).
In the project: “Towards a strategy for the conservation of the genetic diversity of European cattle” (RESGEN PL 98-118) the diversity of 50 European breeds was evaluated with the typing of 50 animals per breed with the 30 markers of the Cadbase list (1). For further information visit the project homepage (http://www.androclus.vet.uu.nl/resgen/) or (2).

The microsatellite markers used and the design of the AFLP procedure in my project are the same as the ones adopted in the European project “Towards a strategy for the conservation of the genetic diversity of European cattle” (RESGEN PL 98-118). Likewise the markers used in the N-EURO-CAD project are identical with the first twenty markers used in my project. This will facilitate the use of data from these projects and a comprehensive investigation of the conservation value of the Island Cattle.

Island Cattle

The Agersoe Cattle which is believed to be the last surviving specimens of the Old Danish breed, Island Cattle (Ø-kvæg) was located on Agersoe, a small Island of the coast of Zealand (3), in the beginning of the last decade. The breed is an authentic Danish Cattle breed (landrace) which means that it evolved with and has been genetically improved by traditional agriculturalists, but has not been influenced by modern breeding practices (4).
In the beginning of the century the breed dominated on the islands of Denmark. It had a dual side purpose as it was kept both for dairy and beef but apparently the yield was poor (Andersen et al., 2003; Petersen, 2001). In the middle of the last century it was made possible for breeders to initiate a foundation of a new improved red dairy breed. Breeds were imported from the north of Germany (“Angeln” and “North- Schleswig Breed”) and the south of Jutland (Ballum Cattle) and in 1878 on an assembly of farmers held in Svendborg (Funen) the new improved dairy breed was founded. It was given the name Angeln or Red Danish of pure breed (Petersen, 2001.). This name was later changed to RDM (Red Danish Dairy Breed) and is nowadays known as RDM-70.
RDM was superior in milk yield which reduced the popularity of the old landrace. The effect was that the population steadily decreased over time as farmers replaced them in their livestock.
The breed was believed to be extinct until the Benzon family discovered what they and others believe to be the last remains of the Island Cattle. The animals were purchased by the Benzons and brought to Danmarks Husdyrpark (5) , a private initiative which holds specimens of many species and breeds native to Denmark. The Livestock consists of 47 animals, 12 sires and 35 dames.

The former owner of the Island Cattle Lars Peter Nielsen, Kratgaarden was interviewed by Arne G. Pedersen and Stig Benzon (6,7). The interview contains aspects of agricultural history as well as information on the history of the Agersoe Cattle (the interview is in Danish).

Closing remarks

The project is funded by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and is a collaboration between the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Copenhagen and the Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Danish Institute of Agricultural Science (8). The outcome of my project will be presented to the Danish Committee for the Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources (9).

Supervisors

Agersoe cattle on the farm Oregaard, Danmarks Husdyrspark (with permission from Stig Benzon)

Ajmone-Marsan et al., 1997. AFLP markers for DNA fingerprinting in cattle. Animal genetics. 28: 418-426

Andersen, Bernt Bech; Jensen, Bent; Nielsen, Arne; Christensen, Lars Gjøl & Liboriussen T. 2003
Rod Danske Malkerace - avlsmæssigt og kulturhistorisk belyst. DJF rapport Husdyrbrug nr. 50.
(http://www.agrsci.dk/djfpublikation/djfpdf/djfhus50.pdf )

Barker, J.S.F., Hill, W.G., Bradley, D., Nei, M., Fries, R., Wayne, R.K. 1998. Measurement of
Domestic Animal Diversity (MoDAD): Original Working Group Report. FAO, Rome. Italy.
(http://dad.fao.org/en/refer/library/guidelin/workgrp.pdf )

Caballero, A and M.A. Torro. 2002. Analysis of genetic diversity for the management of conserved
subdivided populations. Conserv. Genet., 3:289-299

Eding H. & Meuwissen T.H.E. 2002. The use of marker estimated kinship to measure
genetic diversity. In: Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production,
19-23 August 2002, Communication No. 26-03, Montpellier, France.

FAO, 1998. Secondary Guidelines: Management of Small Populations at Risk. FAO Editions,
Rome. (http://dad.fao.org/en/refer/library/guidelin/sml-popn.pdf )

FAO, 2000. World Watch List for Domestic Animal Diversity, 3rd Edition. Editor: B. Scherf.
Rome, Italy. ISBN 9251045119. (http://dad.fao.org/en/refer/library/wwl/wwl3.pdf )

Ollivier, L., and J.-L. Foulley. 2004. Objectives in livestock diversity preservation: The European
pig example. In Wissenschaftliches Kolloquium “Nutztierzüchtung im Wandel der Zeit”. Cuvillier
Verlag, Göttingen. pp. 87-106

Petersen, P.H., 2001. Kvægets avl (9.udg.)
(http://www.kursus.kvl.dk/shares/aha/300_materialer/KAforside.htm)

Petit, R.J., A. El Mousadik and O. Pons. 1998. Identifying populations for conservation on the basis
of genetic markers. Conserv. Biol., 12:844-855

Ruane, J. 1999. Selecting breeds for conservation. In: Oldenbroek, K. (ed.) Genebanks and the
management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources, IDO-DL Press, The Netherlands. pp. 59-73

Ruane, J. 2000. A framework for prioritizing domestic animal breeds for conservation purposes at
the national level: A Norwegian Case Study. Conservation Biology. 14: 1385-1393

Van Arendonk, J.A.M., Anna-Elisa Liinamo. 2003. Dairy cattle production in Europe.
Theriogenology. 59(2): 563-569

Vos et al. 1995. AFLP: a new technique for DNA fingerprinting. Nucleic Acids Research.
21: 4407-4414

Weitzmann, M.L. 1992. On diversity. Quarterly Journal of Economics. 107, 363-405

Links to the internet:

1. Cadbase list
http://www.projects.roslin.ac.uk/cdiv/markers.html
2. About the RESGEN project
http://europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/res/gen/118a.htm
3. Location of the island Agersø
Link
4. Definition on the concept Landrace
http://biodiversity-chm.eea.eu.int/CHMIndexTerms/Glossary/L/landrace
5. Danmarks Husdyrpark
http://www.cellcom.dk/husdyrparken/default.htm
6. Ø-kvægets historie (Agersø-kvæget) Only in Danish
http://www.gamle-husdyrracer.dk/nyhed/2004-1kvartal/Aggersoekvæg-200304/Aggersoekvaeg-200304.htm
7. Agersø-kvæget. Den sidste rest af Ø-kvæget Only in Danish
http://www.gamle-husdyrracer.dk/nyhed/2004-1kvartal/Lars-Peter-Nielsen-310304/Lars-Peter-Nielsen-310304.htm
8. Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Danish Institute of Agricultural Science
http://web.agrsci.dk/hag/index_uk.shtml
9. Danish Committee for the Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources
(Genressourceudvalget) http://www.genres.dk/