22 Sustainable Livestock Breeding: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract Animal breeders have exploited many technological advances for increasing genetic gain in economically and functionally important traits. The implementation of such technologies in routine breeding programs has permitted genetic gains in traditional milk, meat and egg production traits as well as, more recently, in low-heritability traits like health, fertility, and even behavior. As global demand for animal products increases, animal breeders must ensure the technologies, methods and strategies employed are sustainable, to consider the many emerging technologies that are currently being investigated in various fields, and to ensure a social license to continue producing animal products. Here we discuss the societal, ethical, environmental, and economical aspects of sustainability in the context of livestock breeding. We review a number of technologies that have helped shape livestock breeding programs in the past and present, along with those potentially forthcoming. These tools have materialized in the areas of reproduction, genotyping and sequencing, genetic modification, epigenetics, and other areas of “omics” technologies. Although many of these technologies bring encouraging opportunities for genetic improvement of livestock populations, their applications and benefits need to be weighed with their impacts on sustainability.