A group of leading scientists spearheaded by a professor from the University of York is launching a campaign to preserve unique sheep breeds threatened by the foot and mouth crisis.
The Heritage GeneBank project, led by Professor Diana Bowles of the University of York, has received £30,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation to get the scheme off the ground.
MAFF is advising and supporting the project and has provided matching funds of £30,000.
The group's objective is to set up a national resource to preserve the unique identities and diversity of UK sheep breeds and its first target is the Herdwick breed.
Herdwicks are unique to Britain, nearly all of them are in the Lake District, and are now close to extinction because of foot and mouth infection and the pre-emptive cull of hundreds of thousands of sheep in the area.
The plan of Heritage GeneBank is to establish a gene bank of Herdwick germplasm to conserve and protect it, with other threatened sheep breeds expected to receive the same treatment.
Prof Bowles is chairing the group of scientists, which also includes Professor Henry Leese, of the University of York, and similarly eminent scientists from the University of Leeds and the Scottish Agricultural College.
Updated: 08:47 Thursday, April 05, 2001
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