Kostroma cattle breed in the new century: the state and the prospects (review)

The article reflects the current state and the prospects of the Kostroma cattle breed development. The creation and improvement of the breed anticipated the formation and further breed development in the domestic and world zoo technical science. In recent years, the number of Kostroma cattle breed has been unreasonably reducing despite its economic valuable traits. At the same time in the Kostroma region there are prospects for preserving the valuable gene pool of one of the best domestic dairy and meat cattle breeds. As a result of directed selection and breeding work with the use of Brown Swiss bulls, a stud milk breed "Karavaevsky KK-1" has been developed. At present cow-champions of the Kostroma breed give up to 12,000 kg of milk per lactation. The milk of the Kostroma breed cows has a high content of protein and fat. The animals of Kostroma breed have good meat qualities, high resistance to a number of diseases, strong ungulate horn, easy adaptability to intensive technologies, good fertility and high productive longevity. To save the Kostroma breed it is important to put on 8-10 bulls of 8 planned lines and related groups for the validation and accumulation of sperm every year. The restoration of previously created lines with high genetic potential should be foreseen. It is necessary to identify and actively use the stud bulls bred in their own breeding farms; to conduct a linear assessment of bulls and daughter heifers by body type for more competent selection. In addition to the generally accepted forms and methods of selection, it is necessary to continue immunogenetic control of the authenticity of the origin of breeding animals and introduce modern methods of DNA technology to assess the breeding and productive qualities of cattle, which will reveal valuable genetic complexes in the best breeding animals and thus 1.5-2 times accelerate the selection processes. Conflict of interest: the authors stated that there was no conflict of interest.