Creating Ex Situ Protected Bioreservoirs as a Powerful Strategy for the Reproductive Biotechnology-Mediated Rescue of Threatened Polish Livestock Breeds

Abstract

The current article presents the state of the art of the creation of bioreservoirs of cryopreserved somatic and stem cell lines and cryopreserved or lyophilized germplasm-based resources of selected farm animal species. It also presents the agricultural, biological and biotechnological determinants, and showcases the importance of the National Research Institute of Animal Production (NRIAP) in Poland in this process. The aforementioned bioreservoirs serve as an innovative research tool used for cryogenically or lyophilizogenically assisted and species-specific ex situ conservation. The latter ensures, in the long term, not only restitution, but also perpetuation of sustainable biodiversity that underlies genotypic and phenotypic, intra- and inter-population variability within pure-breeding herds of the national conserved livestock breeds.