Nina Svartedal

Senior Adviser

(+47) 993 89 469
nina.svartedal@nibio.no

Place
Ås O43

Visiting address
Oluf Thesens vei 43, 1433 Ås

Biography

As director of Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre, I am working with genetic resources for food and agriculture within animal genetic resources, plant genetic resources and forest genetic resources. I did my PhD on animal genetic resources in 2009; "Differences in grazing preferences, behaviour and production efficiency between two cattle breeds." 

I started working with conservation of Norwegian endangered dairy cattle breeds in 1990 by traveling around in most of Norway recording each animal that was left and establishing a pedigree database for these breeds, Kuregisteret (The Cow Register). This database is still of essential value both in the breeding work for these breeds and when monitoring them. Since 2000 I have been national coordinator for animal genetic resources.

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Abstract

Six cattle breeds native to Norway, have for almost half a century been at risk of extinction. Due to their small population sizes, they have hardly been improved by breeding for many decades. Still, the endangered breeds represent a source of genetic diversity with special milk qualities compared to the modern breed, Norwegian red (NRF). This study reports for the first time a detailed overview of their milk composition. Milk from seven native breeds, in total 200 individuals, were included in the study. Rare genetic variants of αs1-and αs2-casein, and β-casein A1 and κ-casein B were more prevalent in milk form the endangered breeds compared to NRF. Moreover, milk from these six breeds showed better renneting properties and lower incidences of non-coagulating milk, compared to the NRF milk, which showed better acid coagulation properties. This study shows the potential for native breeds in small-scale production of high-quality rennet cheeses.