France commits in the preservation of its horses and donkeys genetic resources

The French genetic resources are very diverse and are a real wealth that must be maintained. However, given the significant changes in breeding farms and the use of horses in recent decades, the potential risk of disappearance of these genetic resources has become real. To help the preservation of this diversity, a major research project (CRB-anim) was built in 2010, for 11 species, aiming to develop, consolidate and enrich the already existing biological resources centres for domestic animals in France. This project is funded by the National Research Agency (‘Investissements d’Avenir’, ANR-11-INBS-0003); it has started in 2013 and will finish in 2020. A close collaboration between INRA and IFCE has started and two main axes will be conducted: (1) A research axis to remove technical locks to the conservation of biological samples: (a) to improve the fertility using donkey frozen semen; the new freezing extenders recently finalized for stallion sperm will be tested, (b) to develop a reliable technique for equine embryo freezing; the first approach will be to evaluate the effect of a deposit of prostaglandin E2 to the uterus-tubal junction on the arrival of the embryo in the uterus. The objective is to get small embryos (morula stage), more readily freezable by slow freezing technique. (2) A second axis encompasses a further collections of biological material in our National Cryobank; so the most endangered breeds in terms of number or genetic variability are properly represented. A genetic analysis of French horse breeds is conducted to determine which populations were given priority for preservation. Sperm collections for donkey breeds will be processed as soon as the research will have removed the lock on semen freezing in this species.