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Topic Name: Practical Steps to Preserve the World's Barnyard Diversity
Category: Agricultural
Research persons: Dr Carlos Seré
Location: PO Box 1365, Fortitude Valley, Qld 4006, Australia
Details
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is calling
for immediate, practical steps to preserve developing countries’ dwindling
wealth of animal genetic diversity, which is vital for enabling livestock
production to meet new challenges, such as climate change and emerging animal
diseases. This is the central message of a keynote address presented by ILRI
Director General Carlos Seré at the first
International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture , held at Interlaken, Switzerland, September 3-7.
Blueprint for Global Action
Organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the conference
marks the culmination of a process begun in 1999 to prepare the world’s
first-ever global assessment of the current status of these resources and of
major trends affecting them. Entitled The State of the World’s
Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the document
draws on 169 country reports and on contributions from various international
organizations.
In addition to formally launching this report, the conference was organized
to negotiate and adopt a
Global
Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources, based on
priorities identified in preparing the global assessment. The action plan
represents a major step toward the construction of a comprehensive institutional
and policy framework for preserving and providing access to animal genetic
resources – comparable to the one that already exists for plant resources.
But this effort to protect “barnyard diversity” is not yet sufficiently
supported by research capacities and by a worldwide network of gene banks like
those that underpin the work on plants. According to the global assessment, 63
percent of the reporting countries do not have facilities for in vitro
conservation of animal genetic resources, and many also lack livestock breeding
programs. That is precisely why ILRI is now stressing the need, especially in
sub-Saharan Africa, for decisive action on several fronts, including both in
situ and ex situ conservation.
“The international community is beginning to appreciate the seriousness of
the loss of livestock genetic diversity,” said Seré. “FAO is leading
inter-governmental processes to better manage these resources, but the
negotiations will take time to bear fruit. Meanwhile, some activities can be
started now to help save breeds that are most at risk.”
From Revolution to Meltdown
Of the 7,616 breeds documented in FAO’s Global Databank for Animal Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture, about 20 percent are considered to be under
threat of extinction, and over the last 6 years, livestock breeds have been lost
at a rate of nearly one per month. The “meltdown” of this unique diversity is
being driven principally by the rapid spread of large-scale, intensive animal
production. This so-called “livestock revolution” is the product of a dramatic
rise in demand for meat and other livestock products during recent decades, in
response to population growth, rising incomes and urbanization.
Intensive production systems rely mainly on a few highly productive breeds,
such as black and white Holstein-Friesian cows, which have almost entirely
supplanted indigenous breeds in the industrialized world over the last 150
years. Consequently, 70 percent of the world’s remaining livestock genetic
diversity resides in developing countries, largely on small farms in remote
regions.
But as livestock production has intensified in those countries as well, many
small farmers have abandoned their traditional livestock breeds in favor of
higher yielding stock imported from Europe and the USA. The resulting
marginalization of traditional production on pastoral rangelands and mixed
crop-livestock farms is placing the uniquely adapted animal breeds associated
with these systems at risk of extinction.
“Valuable breeds are disappearing at an alarming rate,” said Seré. “In many
cases we will not even know the true value of an existing breed until it’s
already gone.” For example, scientists predict that within 50 years Uganda’s
indigenous Ankole cattle – famous for their graceful and gigantic horns – could
be entirely displaced by Holstein-Friesians, which are now found in 128
countries.
The danger, Seré explains, is that, “while exotic animal breeds offer
short-term benefits by producing high volumes of meat, milk or eggs, many of
them cannot cope with unpredictable disease outbreaks and other stresses, when
introduced into more demanding environments of the developing world.” During a
recent drought in Uganda, for example, farmers that had kept their hardy Ankole
cattle were able to walk them long distances to water sources, while those who
had traded the Ankole for imported breeds lost entire herds.
From Information to Action
For the 70 percent of the rural poor who depend on livestock and for all of
the organizations that are working to help them find a route of escape from
poverty, there is a clear lesson in Uganda’s experience with Ankole cattle.
Unless these uniquely adapted livestock breeds are conserved and used, it is
difficult to imagine how the livestock sector will be able to cope adequately
with challenges such as climate change and emerging animal diseases.
Scientists and conservationists alike agree that it is not possible to save
all livestock breeds. So, ILRI is helping provide a basis for prioritizing
livestock conservation efforts. Over the past six years, it has built a detailed
database, called the Domestic Animal
Genetic Resources Information System ( DAGRIS), containing research-based
information on the distribution, characteristics and status of 669 breeds of
cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens indigenous to Africa and Asia.
With the aid of such tools, Seré proposes the acceleration of four practical
steps to better manage farm animal genetic resources.
- Keep it on the hoof: Give local farmers and
communities incentives for maintaining local livestock breeds by, for example,
improving poor farmers and herders’ access to markets (including, perhaps,
niche markets), where they can sell their traditional livestock products.
- Move it or lose it: Encourage safe movement of
livestock populations within and between countries, regions and continents to
facilitate better evaluation under different environments, and widen global
access, use and conservation of farm animal genetic resources.
- Match breeds with environments: Optimize
livestock production by expertly matching livestock genotypes with farmers'
needs, natural resources, production systems and socio-economic circumstances.
Such a novel approach, which scientists refer to as "landscape livestock
genomics, " is made possible by ongoing breakthroughs in livestock
reproductive technology and functional genomics as well as in bioinformatics
and spatial analysis.
- Put some in the bank: Freeze semen, embryos and
tissues of local breeds indefinitely to protect indigenous livestock germplasm
against extinction and to serve as long-term insurance against catastrophic
losses due to war, drought, famine and other future shocks.
“The USA, Europe, China, India and South America have well-established
genebanks that are actively preserving regional livestock diversity,” said Seré.
“Sadly, Africa has been left wanting, and that absence is sorely felt now,
because this region is among the richest in remaining diversity and is likely to
be a hotspot of breed losses during this century.”
“Individual countries are already taking steps to better conserve and use
their unique animal genetic resources,” said Seré, “and the international
community needs to step forward in support of this work. The
CGIAR applauds FAO’s call for commitment and
stands ready to help turn these words into action.”
About Researcher
Dr Carlos Seré, Director General, International Livestock Research Institute.
Immediately before joining ILRI, he worked for 7 years for the Latin America and
Caribbean office of the
International Development Research Centre (Canada), first managing a
portfolio of agricultural and natural resource management projects and, from
1996, serving as a regional director. For more information on the Livestock
Revolution, visit the website of the
International Food Research Institute.
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