The animal article of the month for July is ‘Use of Geographic Information System tools to Predict Animal Breed Suitability for Different Agro-Ecological Zones’

Predicting breed suitability is challenging in livestock production. Indigenous breeds are known for being locally adapted to specific environmental conditions, but their productivity is low compared to introduced breeds. As a means to increasing food security in developing countries, there have been many attempts of introducing commercial breeds in scavenging systems (low-input). However, most of these attempts have been unsuccessful, mainly due to the antagonistic environmental conditions and management systems to which the introduced breeds were exposed to. Knowledge of the environmental conditions from where the introduced breeds are locally adapted to can, give signal of the potential suitability to different locations.

Predictive habitat distribution models are commonly used to predict distribution patterns of naturally occurring species. In some cases, they use the current climatic conditions of a species to make predictions of its potential distribution. However these tools have not been used to predict suitable areas for livestock breed distribution. In the current paper we presented a methodology that uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and predictive distribution models to predict breed suitability for different agro-ecological zones.

To test the methodology, we used distribution data of two introduced chicken breeds in Ethiopia: the Koekoek, which originates from South Africa, and the Fayoumi, originally from Egypt. For both breeds the prediction models indicated that the suitable areas go beyond their current distribution. Even though some areas overlap between breeds, there are some regions predicted differently for each. This suggests that more areas of the country can be used to keep each of these breeds. We also identified the important climatic variables that explained the current distribution of the breeds. The variable of importance for each of the breeds coincided with the environmental conditions from where they originate. This signals that the origin of the breeds can have an effect on their response to new environments. From our findings we show the utility of using habitat distribution models to predict breed suitability. We recommend for this methodology to be used in livestock research, as it will help in making informed decisions for testing schemes and introduction programs. Their use will increase our understanding of how the environment plays a role in livestock productivity.

The article of the month for July is ‘Use of Geographic Information System tools to Predict Animal Breed Suitability for Different Agro-Ecological Zones’

Authors: M. Lozano-Jaramillo,  J. W. M. Bastiaansen, T. Dessie and H. Komen

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