Potentials of Serbian livestock production: Outlook and future

Abstract

The paper describes the state of the livestock production in the Republic of Serbia including preliminary results from the 2012 census: according to preliminary data, 908.990 heads of cattle, 3.403.288 pigs, 1.729.278 sheep and 235.576 goats are reared in Serbia. Structural and institutional measures, and measures of credit support should be the main instruments for achieving the goals of progress in animal husbandry. Activities in the breeding-selection work should be carried out in accordance with the recommendations of international organizations (ICAR, INTERBULL, EAAP). One of the most important outcome of these activities should result in a level of over 80% of the total population of cattle, pigs, sheep and other species of domestic farm animals in Serbia included in the control of production performance (presently between 25 and 30%). Genetic improvement of cattle, sheep and pigs (milk, meat) is very complex. More efficient use of reproductive technologies (AI-artificial insemination and embryo transfer ET, etc.), also of methods for evaluation of breeding value of farm animals through new methods of evaluation of breeding value of cows and breeding bulls will contribute to faster genetic improvement of production traits of these species of domestic animals. New knowledge in mapping and gene transfer, marker assisted selection, in vitro embryo development, embryo cloning, sexing, etc., are improving rapidly, with new technologies being developed permanently. Breeding/improvement of cattle, sheep and pigs in through breeding-selection work should facilitate further improvement of fertility traits, growth rate, feed efficiency, carcass quality (higher percentage of muscle tissue in the body), the quality of milk and meat, resistance to disease and stress, etc..

Mitochondrial DNA variability in Gyimesi Racka and Turcana sheep breeds

“…Conversely, reports of Cinkulov and coworkers (2008) on genetic diversity and differentiation between two Serbian Tsigai strains revealed substantial differentiation between the two populations, up to the point that authors suggested the two populations to be considered as distinct breeds. Authors' results are contradictory to other reports and to current findings, considering that the Tsigai represents a minority breed in Serbia, with an estimated census of 86 000 breeding animals (Petrovic et al, 2013). Furthermore, results of Cinkulov and coworkers (2008) on the population structure of the Pramenka strains (Svrljig, Dubska and Recka) showed elevated within-population diversity and lack of signatures of admixture between the three strains.…”

Serbian pork market analysis

“…In the period from 2004 to 2015, average production of pork meat was 261 thousand tons, followed by beef, poultry and sheep meat with average production of 87, 82 and 24 thousand tons, receptively. According to Petrović et al (2013) besides a number of important characteristics of pigs, one of them, which is different from other domestic animals is a considerable amount of meat that can be produced per sow per year (more than 2,000 kg of live weight of fatteners or over 1,600 kg of carcass sides or more than 800 kg of meat).…”

“…Additionally, increasing the competitiveness of Serbian livestock production can be achieved by creating the conditions for the market environment through investment, both in knowledge and in equipment. Therefore, structural and institutional measures, and measures of credit support should be the main instruments for achieving this goal (Petrović et al, 2013).…”

The competitiveness of Serbian agro-food sector

“…Serbia has the possibility of exporting beef meat (baby beef) under preferential conditions in the European Union, but its realization is seriously endangered due to the long-term reduction of cattle production. The total average annual production of beef for the past twenty years in Serbia was about 110,000 tons, with a tendency of decline, especially in recent years, and the latest data show that it is about 80,000 tons (Petrović et al, 2013). Bearing this in mind, further improvement of the structure of Serbian exports of agro-food products from Serbia should be based on greater participation of livestock products, as well as other agro-food products with a higher degree of processing.…”