Livestock biodiversity is integral to our culture, history, environment, economy and, most importantly, our future. Thousands of livestock breeds, from relatively small genetic pools, have evolved over time to suit particular environments and farming systems. This is both the result of natural processes and of human needs for specialized livestock – as our knowledge of genetics continues to increase we achieve a greater understanding of how this biodiversity evolved. This book offers a detailed and comprehensive overview of livestock biodiversity. It explores the history behind it, shows how livestock biodiversity can be utilized as animal genetic resources through breed development and by crossbreeding, examines the state of world livestock biodiversity today, and emphasizes the importance of conserving and developing the biodiversity of livestock. Special consideration is given to: • How livestock biodiversity arose and is maintained in relation to human society • How it can be used in sustainable agricultural development • How it can be conserved for the benefit of present and future generations • Why conservation biologists, as well as agriculturists, should be involved in its protection

"The assessment builds on the work of the Livestock, Environment and Development (LEAD) Initiative"--Pref.

Livestock grazing is the most widespread commercial use of federal public lands. The image of a herd grazing on Bureau of Land Management or U.S. Forest Service lands is so traditional that many view this use as central to the history and culture of the West. Yet the grazing program costs far more to administer than it generates in revenues, and grazing affects all other uses of public lands, causing potentially irreversible damage to native wildlife and vegetation. The Western Range Revisited proposes a landscape-level strategy for conserving native biological diversity on federal rangelands, a strategy based chiefly on removing livestock from large tracts of arid BLM lands in ten western states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming. Drawing from range ecology, conservation biology, law, and economics, Debra L. Donahue examines the history of federal grazing policy and the current debate on federal multiple-use, sustained-yield policies and changing priorities for our public lands. Donahue, a lawyer and wildlife biologist, uses existing laws and regulations, historical documents, economic statistics, and current scientific thinking to make a strong case for a land-management strategy that has been, until now, "unthinkable." A groundbreaking interdisciplinary work, The Western Range Revisited demonstrates that conserving biodiversity by eliminating or reducing livestock grazing makes economic sense, is ecologically expedient, and can be achieved under current law.

Describes how farmers manage, maintain, and benefit from biodiversity in agricultural production systems. Includes the most recent research and developments in the maintenance of local diversity at the genetic, species, and ecosystem levels.

This timely collection of 15 original essays written by expert scientists the world over addresses the relationships between human population growth, the need to increase food supplies to feed the world population, and the chances for avoiding the extinction of a major proportion of the world's plant and animal species that collectively makes our survival on Earth possible. These relationships are highly intertwined, and changes in each of them steadily decrease humankind’s chances to achieve environmental stability on our fragile planet. The world population is projected to be nine to ten billion by 2050, signaling the need to increase world food production by more than 70 percent on the same amount of land currently under production—and this without further damaging our fragile environment. The essays in this collection, written by experts for laypersons, present the problems we face with clarity and assess our prospects for solving them, calling for action but holding out viable solutions.

Clinical examination is a fundamental part of the process ofveterinary diagnosis. Without a proficient clinical examination andan accurate diagnosis it is unlikely that the treatment, control,prognosis and welfare of animals will be optimised. This book will assist veterinary students in their understandingof farm animal clinical examination and act as a quick referencefor clinicians who are called upon to examine an unfamiliarspecies. It will also provide a more detailed account forexperienced clinicians in their continuing professionaldevelopment. The authors provide a simple, explicit and reliable method ofexamining cattle, sheep, pigs and goats of all ages in the searchfor diagnostic information.