ANIMAL BREEDING AND GENETICS IN CONNECTION OF SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHALLENGES

Domestication and historic development of animal breeding has allowed the civilisation of human societies and accomplished the prerequisites for the nutrition of the increasing number of human beings. In the si xties the European agrar policy has caused problems by surpluses of pr oducts and subventions of production. The innovation of the next cyclu s of industrial development will be gene techniques. Molecular gene di agnosis will help to reduce the frequency of distinct letal defects. G ene transfer offers the possibility of changing the genome of lifestoc k in different ways resulting in transgenic animals which are more hea lthy, will be better producers and can be used as a source of recombin ant proteins. Somatic cloning by usage of fetal in vitro cultured and transformed cells will increase the efficiency of gene transfer and br eeding. During the next century we will see a 'high in put and high ou t put' agriculture on a global level. It is a matter of fact that the application of innovative breeding techniques should be accepted and f inanced in our country as a source of future cultivation of our domest ic animals.