Second International W orkshop: —Governance of biodiversity as a global public good: bioprospection, intellectual property rights and traditional knowledge“ Louvain-la-Neuve, 5th and 6th of February 2004 Values of local breeds for niche productions and/or adaptation to specific environments Etienne VERRIERa, Michel NAVESb, Michèle TIXIER-BOICHARDa, Roland BERNIGAUDc a UMR génétique et Diversité Animales, INRA/INA Paris-Grignon, 78352 JOUY-EN-JOSAS cedex, France b Unité de Recherches Zootechniques, Domaine Duclos, Prise d'eau, 97170 PETIT-BOURG, FW I Guadeloupe c Centre de Sélection de la Volaille de Bresse, Béchanne, 01370 St-ETIENNE-DU-BOIS, France INTRODUCTION To apply any public policy requires simple criteria. For instance, the list of the endangered The evolution of livestock production during breeds to be supported by the European union the 20th century in Europe was characterised by was established by national experts on the a specialization and an intensification of the basis of simple data such as the numbers of productions. In this context, public policies male and females reproducing animals. More supported, up to the seventies, the use of a elaborate rules could be used to decide what small number of specialized breeds. In some should be preserved. For that purpose, it has cases, as in France, the purpose was to put all been proposed to analyse polymorphisms data material and financial availabilities on a small through the W eitzman's (1992) approach, number of breeding schemes in order to allowing to assess the global diversity of a set improve their efficiency [25]. Sometimes, such of breeds and the marginal diversity of a given policies were simply due to a special view of breed [e.g., 30]. The marginal diversity of a what modernity shoud be [e.g., 27]. However, given breed could be weighted by its risk of in the seventies, there were many claims for extinction, assessed on the basis of simple the preservation of the local breeds as a unique considerations about the breed history and genetic resource: as examples, among others, status [30] or on the basis of the probability of one may refer to the work done in United allelic fixation within the breed [11]. Simianer Kingdom by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust or [30] also proposed to include, as a all or non in France by the Société d'Ethnozootechnie, the variate, some utility values of a given breed Institut Technique de l'Elevage Bovin and the (e.g., adaptation trait) and Gandini and Villa Institut Technique du Porc. The preservation [10] proposed an analytical approach of the of animal genetic resources has been included cultural value of a breed. within public policies, at the regional, national and European levels. In France, several public The purpose of this paper is to show, on three initiatives have been taken: since 1975, an French examples, how local breeds may have a annual financial support is provided by the considerable value for niche production and/or Ministry of Agriculture to the farmers' adaptation to a special environment. First, it organisations in charge of a conservation will be shown how the characteristics of the programme; in 1983, the Bureau des Bresse poultry breed have been valorised Ressources Génétiques (BRG) was created in through a production under AOC (Protected order to coordinate researchs and actions for Designation of Origin). The second example genetic resources in crops, micro-organisms will deal with an ultra-peripheric European and animals; in 1999, a national cryobank was area, the French W est-Indies, and the created in order to preserve frozen material for adaptation of the local ruminants breeds to the any population of livestock. Since the nineties, humid tropical conditions. The last example the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will show the role of the cattle breeds includes a financial support to breeders Abondance and Tarentaise in both the use of keeping reproducing females of rare breeds of mountain areas and the development of AOC domestic ruminants, pigs and equidae. products. How to consider such values in a public policy will be discussed next. - 1 - I. THE AOC PRODUCTION W ITH THE of growing conditions (density, open-air BRESSE POULTRY BREED access, feed) has to be applied for at least 9 weeks, after a starting period of 5 weeks where The french production of chicken meat is the producer may still take some free choices. differentiated into several categories : standard The finishing period has to take place in a broiler (SB), label chicken (LB), certified specific housing system (called épinette) with a chicken (CF), organic chicken, and AOC for specific feed including milk, for at least 8 days the Bresse breed only. Chicken meat may be for males, and 4 weeks for fattened pullets and sold as a whole carcass (52%), as cuts (33%) capons. Specific regulations apply to or as processed products (15%) [source: slaughtering and processing of the carcass. Institut Technique de l‘Aviculture]. In 1998- 1999, the LB products represented 50% of the Since 1995, the selection procedure for the whole carcass market and 6% of the cuts, Bresse breed is also strictly regulated. The whereas the certified products represented 8 to breeding goals are discussed yearly within an 10% of these sales, and the organic even less. interprofessionnal committee (called CIVB) In terms of number of chickens, the LB comprising the production chain (breeders, production represented nearly 100 millions producers, distributors, ...) and a scientific chickens raised all over France in 2002 institution. The selection procedure is based [www.synalaf.fr], whereas the Bresse AOC upon pedigree records and the founder lines represented 1,4 million chickens raised only in are qualified by the French federation poultry the Bresse geographical area defined by law. and fish breeding companies (SYSAAF). The The LB was created as early as 1965, to breeding centre, as well as the hatcheries promote product quality, by using a production distributing day-old chicks of the Bresse breed, system based upon a low rearing density and a have to be registered at the official sanitary food devoided of any animal by-products or control of regional veterinary services. additives. The LB and CF legal definitions do not require the reference to a particular breed, At the beginning of the Bresse AOC, founder although the chickens used are generally animals were sampled from fancy breeders in characterized by a colored phenotype, which the geographical area defined by the law. They creates a clear distinction from the white had to follow the breed phenotypic standard, plumage of standard broilers. and they were submitted to veterinary treatments in order to eradicate the most As compared to LB, the AOC follows a quite common diseases. In a few years, a Bresse different philosophy: a geographical district population with a "clean" sanitary status was has to be defined, and characterized by specific obtained. It was subdivided into two Bresse features of the natural conditions and the sublines, one being selected on body weight, production system, which can not be found in the other one on egg production. The selection another geographical area. For the Bresse, the intensity was mild, and the two sublines were district was defined as early as 1936: it crossed in order to produce the commercial involved a specific area including a part of the chicken. This crossbreeding strategy is usual in Jura and most of the Ain and Saône-et-Loire poultry, except that it was done here within a administrative districts. The protection of the single breed, the Bresse breed. In order to name "Volaille de Bresse" was decided by law further improve robustness, a new sampling N° 57-866 on August 1, 1957. The first procedure took place with fancy breeders, conditions required are a defined geographical always in the Bresse region. This immigration area, the Bresse region, and a defined chicken event led to the creation of a third Bresse sub- breed, the Bresse breed with white plumage, line, which is used now in a 4 way-cross to blue shanks, simple comb, red wattles, white produce the commercial Bresse chick. earlobes and white skin. The breed definition was thus derived from the phenotypic standard There is only one breeding centre, the Centre of the White Bresse variety. The occurrence of de Sélection de la Volaille de Bresse (CSBV) blue shanks is determined by a single gene, ID, and three hatcheries, multiplying chicks from and the association of white plumage and blue the lines selected at the CSVB. There are about shanks is rare among french poultry breeds 500 producers of the Bresse AOC, 2/3 are [24]. Other conditions are included: a fixed set organised in collective production units (called - 2 - groupement de producteurs) and 1/3 are level where the breed is not endangered any independent producers. Chickens are identified more. Initially, the Bresse breed had also a by a producer-specific tag, to be attached to the black and a grey varieties, which numbers have leg before the shipment to the slaughter house. decreased. Recently, the CSVB decided to The total number of Bresse chicken produced launch a new programme on each of these yearly is about 1.35 millions, 950 000 are saled varieties, the first sampling of Bresse Grise by 9 slaughter houses, and 350 000 are directly yielded a number of 35 chickens only. saled by producers. Processing of the carcass and criteria for disqualification are described Besides this favorable effect of the AOC on the by law. Carcasses are identified with a Bresse preservation of the White Bresse, it must be label before being shipped to the retailers. In noticed that any chicken that would be hatched 1986, a production commission was created, from White Bresse parents, but raised outside with 8 members representing producers, the official Bresse region, can not be called a slaughter houses and professionnal cooks.