A survey report on the donkey original breeding farms in China: Current aspects and future prospective

作者：Zhenwei Zhang, Bingjian Huang, Yonghui Wang, Mingxia Zhu, Guiqin Liu, Changfa Wang · 发表于：Frontiers in Veterinary Science · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3389/fvets.2023.1126138 · 被引用次数：22 · 研究领域：Veterinary Equine Medical Research、Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock、Reproductive Physiology in Livestock

Introduction: The number of the large-scale donkey breeding farms in China has increased dramatically. However, information regarding the situation of a Chinese donkey population under large-scale donkey breeding farms is limited. Methods: This survey report was conducted using questionnaires online to investigate the current situation of the donkey original breeding farms in China, in terms of donkey stock, local breeds, reproductive parameters, growth and lactation performance, and future perspectives. China has developed the donkey reserve system based on national, provincial and non-governmental (self-own) donkey original breeding farms. Results: In the present study, a total of 38 donkey original breeding farms concentrated in Northern of China were studied, and 52% of them keep their donkeys with a stocking density of 100-500 donkeys. China is rich in various local donkey breeds, and 16 local donkey breeds including large-sized, medium-sized and small-sized breeds were collected in our survey. Dezhou donkey are prevalent with a percentage of more than 57% of the total donkeys, while the Cullen donkeys belong to small-sized donkey breeds are scare. The reproductive efficiency and donkey productivity were different across donkey farms, indicating potential differences in management and breeding practices between different donkey original breeding farms. The artificial insemination has been performed in these donkey farms with an average proportion of 73%. Regarding the do...