The costs of genebanks of livestock genetic resources

Simulations were used to compare, in term of costs and time for reconstruction, three cryobanking strategies, embryos (embryos-only), embryos and semen (embryos+semen) and semen (semen-only), for reconstructing a population of 25 females and 25 males, in horse, cattle, swine, sheep, rabbit. Strategy embryos-only requires the shortest time for breed reconstruction. With embryos+semen, time for reconstruction increases with decreasing proportions of embryos. With 40%, or more, of embryos, in all species reconstruction is obtained in twelve years or less. With semen-only, reconstruction time increases with number of parturitions allowed. Costs show high variation among species, from a minimum in the rabbit of 1,000 Euros to a minimum in the horse of 75 600. In some cases the strategies embryos+semen and semen-only show similar costs, but the first allows recovering 100% of genoma.