Don canvasses improved performance to actualise livestock potentials

For the livestock industry to grow and provide protein needs of Nigerians, the performance of the livestock breeds has to improve significantly.
 
Professor Michael Ozoje said this while delivering the 58th Inaugural Lecture of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), titled, “Chronicles of Livestock Improvement: Excerpts From The Memoirs Of A Genetici.”
 
Ozoje noted that the country’s livestock have great genetic potentials, adding that their present performance shows that they are late maturing, slow growing and modest milk producers.
 
According to the don, genetic improvement in any production system can be achieved either through selection among pure bred animals or through crossbreeding and gene complementarity with improved strains.
 
He however, noted that these methods are not mutually exclusive, adding that the classic definition of genetic improvement of animals consists of the application of biological, economic and mathematical principles with the aim of discovering optimum strategies to exploit the genetic variation existing within an animal species, particularly to maximise its merit.