Goat Type Selection and Molecular Markers; a Solution for Milk Production in Recently Desertified Zones

Abstract

Goat farming has been severely affected by Desertification, limiting their water and food resources and inducing physiological heat stress that reduces the doe milk yield. Does well adapted to heat stress would be a possible solution, but creole or indigenous goats from desert or arid areas produce between 0.5 to 1.5 L of milk per day, which is lower than the 3 L of milk per day produced by dairy goats like the Saanen breed. Nevertheless, in this chapter, we will discuss the disadvantages of introducing common dairy goats in dry places. Instead, we propose the introduction of desert goats from the Middle East or India, because they produce high-quality milk with low feed intake, making a profitable goat farming activity, and an opportunity to include crossbreeding strategies to improve the herd milk yield. Creole goats, on other hand, has been an underestimated livestock animal with a rich and unveil genetic patrimony that migth improve the herd milk yield. The effect of improved diets and extensive husbandry conditions remains unexplored in desert creole goats, and the use of advanced knowledge in goat genomics, genetic expression, and a wide variety of molecular markers can improve the studies on creole goats for crossbreeding strategies identifying the best traits involved in high-quality milk production and adaptation to dry environments. In this way, the synergy between goat type selection and molecular markers should boost goat farming in recently new desert or arid zones, counteracting the detrimental effects produced by the desertification.