 Animals. So important for food security. They provide us with milk, with eggs, with meat. But as global population growth has accelerated, so has the demand for animal produce, putting a strain on both farmers and the environment. Simply raising more animals is not an option. It would put even greater pressure on an already strained environment. The solution lies in increasing the productivity of those animals. This is usually done by selecting and breeding superior animals, but this is a slow process. It can take several years to determine their breeding potential. Now, with advances in genomics, it has become possible to estimate the breeding potential of an animal on the day of its birth simply by looking at its DNA, or genome map. This map pinpoints the location of specific features on the animal's chromosomes, so-called DNA markers that are important, for example, for milk, meat, or egg production. These genome maps are produced using a nuclear technique known as radiation hybrid mapping. A few cells collected from an animal are irradiated using gamma rays to randomly break up the DNA into short, manageable strands. The irradiated cells are then fused with rodent cells to propagate the short strands of animal DNA, the so-called radiation hybrid panels. These hybrid panels now enable the mapping of several DNA markers onto each of the broken DNA pieces that are subsequently put together to generate the whole genome map of the animal. Once the full genome is mapped, tens of thousands of such markers are combined onto a DNA chip, which can then be used to determine the breeding potential of the animal. Application of DNA chips derived from such radiation hybrid maps to screen and choose the best animals has totally revolutionised the breeding of dairy cattle to increase milk production. The joint FAO IAEA division now assists countries throughout the world in the use of radiation hybrid mapping to develop DNA chips for other important farm animals, including zebu cattle, goat, and camel, to sustainably increase animal productivity, attain food security, and protect the environment.