Progress in biotechnology of small ruminants in China

According to FAO, China has a population of 133 million sheep, 171 million goats and 300 thousand antler deer. The population of goats is the largest in the world and of sheep the second largest. The total production of mutto n is 2.4 million ton, which represents only 4.1% of the total meat producti on of 59.2 million ton in China. The most important strategy of China is to improve the breeding of sheep and goats, and increase their meat output by utilizing forage and grassland resources efficiently. Acid produce enough protein food for the increasing population through the use of new biotechno logy. Research in biotechnology of small ruminants did not begin in China u ntil 1970, but there has been much progress in recent years. The techniques of ovine and caprine embryo transfer, embryo freezing, embryo splitting, s ex determination, in vitro, and caprine nuclear transfer has all been succe ssful. The application of artificial insemination in antler deer has just b egun and in 1996, investigations in embryo transfer have also begun. From 1 995 to 1996, the rate of increase of ovine and caprine was 4.3% and 14.1%, respectively, and biotechnology of sheep and goats will be applied more wid ely. Research has been conducted on transgenic animals, improvement of bree ding and enhancing their productivity through biotechnology. Native sheep a nd goat breeds will be protected because of the value of their polymorphism s. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.