West African (agro)-pastoralists have been increasingly using extra-household labour for the management of their cattle herds. This paper seeks to identify the factors influencing cattle owners’ decision to entrust their animals and to analyse the effects of the entrustment practice on the management and sustainable use of the animal genetic diversity within herds. Two hundred and eleven cattle farmers, including absentee-owners (n = 90) who entrusted their animals to professional herders, and owner-managers (n = 121) who look themselves after their cattle, were randomly selected and surveyed in Boukombe district in northwest Benin, the origin of the West African shorthorn Somba cattle breed. Households' socio-economic data and information on herds’ characteristics and management practices were collected using semi-structured questionnaires. The binary logistic regression technique was used to predict the adoption of entrustment by a given farmer in function of his herd’s and household's socio-economic characteristics. Effective population sizes and inbreeding rates for the communal non-entrusted and entrusted Somba populations were estimated and compared. The results revealed that the mode of acquisition of the initial stock, the total livestock units owned and the farmer’s ethnicity were the most important determinants of entrustment. The Somba indigenous cattle breed was threatened in entrusted herds by indiscriminate cross-breeding with Zebus. However, the non-entrusted population appeared to be more exposed to high inbreeding risks. While entrustment represents a good alternative for the efficient use of family labour, adequate strategies are needed to support this practice and encourage herd managers to adopt improved husbandry practices and sound breeding strategies.

中文翻译：

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畜群托管实践对西非（农业）-牧民系统中牛遗传资源可持续利用的影响：贝宁的案例研究

西非（农业）牧民越来越多地使用家庭外劳来管理牛群。本文旨在确定影响牛主决定委托其动物的因素，并分析委托实践对畜群内动物遗传多样性的管理和可持续利用的影响。在西北部的Boukombe区，随机选择并调查了211位牛农，包括将牲畜托付给专业牧民的缺席所有者（n = 90）和照顾牲畜的所有者-经理（n = 121）。贝宁是西非短角松巴牛品种的起源。使用半结构化问卷收集住户的社会经济数据以及有关牛群特征和管理方法的信息。二元逻辑回归技术用于预测特定农民根据其牛群和家庭的社会经济特征采取的委托管理方式。估算并比较了未委托和委托的公共Somba种群的有效种群规模和近交率。结果表明，初始存量的获取方式，拥有的牲畜总数和农民的种族是委托的最重要决定因素。松巴土著牛品种由于与Zebus进行不分青红皂白的杂交而受到威胁。但是，未受信任的种群似乎更容易遭受近亲繁殖的高风险。尽管委托是有效利用家庭劳动的一个很好的选择，