BioOne

It is a leading research institution that achieves sustainable livestock industry development through securing genetic diversity of livestock and researching the safe preservation and management of genetic resources.

The National Institute of Animal Science’s Livestock Genetic Resources Center was established in 1971 as the National Breeding Farm in Unbong, and has since been conducting research on managing domestic livestock genetic resources and safely preserving and managing endangered rare breeds.
Since 2007, it has been designated as the national authority for livestock genetic resources, and in 2019, it was appointed as the responsible agency for cattle and pigs among the 10 major national strategic biological resources.
In 2020, it was designated as the 14th bio-material Livestock Cluster Central Bank, and it has grown into a key institution responsible for livestock genetic resource collection, preservation, management, distribution, and domestic and international resource information exchange. As the national responsible agency for the FAO's Committee on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) and the Livestock Diversity Information System (DAD-IS), it manages and registers Korea's unique genetic resources.

The center is located in Mt. Namdokyusan (Seosang-myeon, Hamyang-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do), covering 319 hectares of land. It houses one main research building (containing facilities such as reproductive cell preservation rooms, frozen resource preservation rooms, GMO resource preservation rooms, sample storage rooms, characteristic evaluation rooms, DNA and RNA analysis rooms, joint laboratories, embryo laboratories, sperm laboratories, oocyte laboratories, animal physiology laboratories, veterinary clinical laboratories, and operational support rooms), 19 animal barns (for cattle, pigs, chickens, goats, deer, ducks), 3 large equipment rooms, 41 ancillary buildings, and 2 observation facilities, conducting various research on Korea's livestock genetic resources.

For livestock genetic resource research, the center is divided into the Resource Preservation and Management Laboratory and the Resource Utilization and Development Laboratory.
The Resource Preservation and Management Laboratory establishes national management systems for the collection and safe preservation of livestock genetic resources, evaluates characteristics, identifies useful traits, addresses international issues, and collects overseas resources. The Resource Utilization and Development Laboratory conducts research on the development of preservation and restoration technologies for livestock genetic resources, the safe preservation and utilization of reproductive cells (sperm, eggs, embryos), and the development of improvement bases for goat and deer genetic resources, along with growth characteristic analysis and management techniques for improving productivity.
In particular, the Livestock Genetic Resources Center has designated 5 distributed preservation institutions in addition to the center to establish a restoration system for major national breeding animals, and it disperses and preserves live pigs and chickens. For frozen resources, the center disperses and preserves frozen semen of cattle and pigs at 3 institutions.
The center is a national institution conducting livestock genetic resource research to prevent the extinction of native and regionally adapted breeds by safely preserving live animals and frozen resources, and uncovering their potential value through genetic evaluation.