UBC CPD eLearning

Global Livestock Industry Development

The global livestock industry is highly dynamic due to the increasing demand for high-quality protein consumption. Livestock-related research and development have been major contributors to helping the livestock industry grow and increase production efficacy in recent decades. 

Livestock species were domesticated about 10,000 years ago and can turn grasses unsuitable for human consumption into meat, milk, and eggs, enabling humans to survive in a wide range of environments. Livestock products are widely known for their richness in energy, protein, minerals, and vitamins. As the global population and global wealth continue to increase since the 1960s, the demand for livestock products, especially those that are highly nutritious, will also continue to grow. The global livestock industry is highly dynamic due to demands, economic driven, and sustainability, modern molecular breeding technologies have been a major contributor to helping the livestock industry grow and increase product production in recent decades. In addition, sustainable feed and nutritional research and development contribute to improving the efficacy of the production of high-quality protein. Livestock disease diagnostics and prevention enhance their health and welfare, which also play an important role in livestock industry development. .

Challenges in the Livestock Breeding

As global demand for livestock products continues to change, livestock breeding faces many challenges and breeding goals are changing.

Natural Resource Conservation

The challenges of natural resources facing livestock breeding are mainly competition for land and water. How to use novel breeding technologies and to achieve increased production of livestock products through limited resources is crucial to the development of livestock industry.

Improvement of Important Traits

The challenge of improving important traits for livestock breeding is how to improve animals into better breeds to obtain more very high-quality livestock products such as meat, milk, eggs, and wool.

Maintaining Competitiveness

Another challenge for livestock breeding is to maintain the competitiveness of livestock products, mainly by breeding animal breeds that are more attractive to consumers, such as improving the health content of fatty acids in milk or increasing the level of omega-3 in meat.

Remained Challenges

Other challenges facing livestock breeding include animal welfare, etc. These challenges are addressed by setting reasonable breeding goals.