Ruminant Animal Genetic Resources in Kosova

Generally, livestock production is seen as a backbone of agriculture all over the world. In this respect, the ruminant livestock production system (cattle, sheep and goats) plays a key role and considered as an activity with considerable social and economical importance. Furthermore the livestock sector is the most demanding sector in terms of costs of meeting the new hygienic, environmental, animal welfare and food safety standards. Nowadays native animal genetic resources are hardly found in modern industrial dairy and meat production. Commercial breeding focuses on high output of milk or rapid growing of the animals to minimize costs of holding animals and maximize efforts. Economically, it is useful to produce as much as possible with the smallest possible effort. But how reasonable and useful can this be for a region that cannot afford raising or feeding these high productive animals in an issue that should be addressed and studied deeply. The material in this book has been divided in five chapters: Chapter I, covers the general background about ruminant production in Kosova. Chapter II deals with cattle genetic resources in Kosova, including indigenous breed and its crosse