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CATARINA GINJA’S SPECIALIZED OPINION WAS HIGHLIGHTED BY THE GUARDIAN

CATARINA GINJA’S SPECIALIZED OPINION WAS HIGHLIGHTED BY THE GUARDIAN

The drive for genetic selection means cattle are increasingly vulnerable. Research has shown that between 2000 and 2014, nearly 100 native livestock breeds worldwide became extinct, as farmers attempted to boost falling profit margins by either cross-breeding or replacing them altogether with a small handful of industrial breeds.


In “How profit-driven inbreeding could bring the world dairy herd to its knees”, joint with Michael Bruford from Cardiff University and Stéphane Joost by from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Catarina Ginja gave her opinion on this issue.


According to CIBIO-InBIO researcher, “if we don’t do anything to change this, it could spell long-term disaster for the farming industry particularly in the context of climate change”. “The industrial breeds may not be capable of resisting new disease epidemics, which could arise as the climate warms over the next century”, alert.


Catarina Ginja emphasizes that “we already had some alarming examples of how vulnerable these breeds can be to a deadly pandemic in the recent past, for example the mad cow disease outbreak in the 1990s, although that was unrelated to climate change”. “It’s a serious concern”, concluded.


To know more about this topic, please follow the link below:
"How profit-driven inbreeding could bring the world dairy herd to its knees” | The Guardian | 14 October, 2018

2018-10-18
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