Targeted government action needed to protect country s native rarebreeds as latest watchlist revealed yorkshirepost.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yorkshirepost.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The ‘Yorkshire Pig’, the once prolific Large White, has been placed in the highest Priority category on a conservation watchlist due to its “significant decline” in numbers.
The large white pig, otherwise known as the Yorkshire pig - once one of Britain s most popular breeds - faces extinction after numbers dropped to just 125, down from 900 a decade ago.
Image source: Gloucester Cattle Society
A total of 75 native UK livestock and poultry breeds – including the cattle breed behind the world’s first vaccine – have been identified as ‘high priority’ lines on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust’s new watchlist.
The RBST works across the UK to save and safeguard the future of rare and native livestock and equine breeds, and its watchlist is the annual situation report for these breeds.
The methodology behind the list has also been updated this year to give a more encompassing view of each breed’s outlook, reflecting measures of the genetic diversity within each breed – rather than simply counting the number of breeding females registered, as was previously used.