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Practical Steps to Preserve the
World's Barnyard Diversity
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."
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