Avelsarbete med mjölkproducerande getter – fokus på Norge och Frankrike

Sammanfattning: The main part of the goats in the world is located in developing countries, whereas active breeding programs are mainly restricted to Northern America and Europe. Goat milk can be processed to several products and goat cheese is the main product. An organized breeding program is carried out in France and Norway but is not present in Sweden. Important selection traits for milk producing goats include milk, protein and fat yield along with protein and fat content. Functional traits have been more important the past years and they have large economic importance for the farmers. Seasonally reproduction has been observed in goats from temperate areas. Ovulation is stimulated by using light treatments, hormonal treatments or introduction of bucks. Improvement of functional traits and disease resistance reduce production costs and increase animal health and milk production, leading to higher quality products. Prolonged kidding season gives less variation in the availability of products over the year and therefore stabilizes the price. Many important selection traits are unfavorably correlated and have low to moderate heritability. Therefore many traits have to be taken into account simultaneously and the genetic progress is slow. Consequently a long, sustainable breeding is required. Future improvements include new selection traits based on molecular genetic information. In the work current breeding programs and objectives for milk producing goats in Europe are discussed. France and Norway are in focus.