George Hall's PhD Defence
Over the last 50 years we have seen a steady decline in the number of turkey breeds and lines, and many of the remaining ones are threatened with extinction. The main reason for the loss is that many organizations which maintain turkeys are under pressure to reduce costs, and so eliminate breeds and lines. Therefore, the solution is to reduce the cost of maintenance by switching from a generation-to-generation conservation plan to a biobanking one. To biobank turkey genetics there are two options, store primordial germ cells, or ovarian tissue with testes with or without semen.