[All] Fwd: Indigenous Livestock in Africa

[Robert Milligan]

FYI
R

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "foodforethought.net" <editor at foodforethought.net>
> Date: July 27, 2010 10:16:06 AM GMT-04:00
> To: mill at continuum.org
> Subject: Indigenous Livestock in Africa
> Reply-To: editor at foodforethought.net
>
> Editor’s Note: Bio-diversity of livestock in Africa is under stress.  
> Farmers are cross-breeding ‘native’ cattle with ‘exotic’ breeds from  
> Europe and North America. For the farmer, this provides a short term  
> benefit as the herds tend to be more productive. However, the cost  
> is high as the genetic base of livestock becomes smaller. Ancient  
> varieties have built up a resistance to many insects and extreme  
> climate conditions over time. If bio-diversity of livestock is to be  
> preserved, policies need to be developed to accomplish this in a way  
> that does not negatively impact the income prospects of herdspeople.
>
>
> Experts warn rapid losses of Africa's native livestock threaten  
> continent's food supply
>
> Resilient disease-resistant, 'ancient' West African cattle among  
> breeds at risk of extinction as imported animals supplant valuable  
> native livestock
>
>
> Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, July 20, 2010 -- Urgent action is needed  
> to stop the rapid and alarming loss of genetic diversity of African  
> livestock that provide food and income to 70 percent of rural  
> Africans and include a treasure-trove of drought- and disease- 
> resistant animals, according to a new analysis presented today at a  
> major gathering of African scientists and development experts.
>
> Experts from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)  
> told researchers at the 5th African Agriculture Science Week (www.faraweek.org 
> ), hosted by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA),  
> that investments are needed now to expand efforts to identify and  
> preserve the unique traits, particularly in West Africa, of the  
> continent's rich array of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs developed  
> over several millennia but now under siege. They said the loss of  
> livestock diversity in Africa is part of a global "livestock  
> meltdown." According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture  
> Organization, some 20 percent of the world's 7616 livestock breeds  
> are now viewed as at risk.
>
> "Africa's livestock are among the most resilient in the world yet we  
> are seeing the genetic diversity of many breeds being either diluted  
> or lost entirely," said Abdou Fall, leader of ILRI's livestock  
> diversity project for West Africa. "But today we have the tools  
> available to identify valuable traits in indigenous African  
> livestock, information that can be crucial to maintaining and  
> increasing productivity on African farms."
>
> Fall described a variety of pressures threatening the long-term  
> viability of livestock production in Africa. These forces include  
> landscape degradation and cross-breeding with "exotic" breeds  
> imported from Europe, Asia and the America.
>
> For example, disease-susceptible breeds from West Africa's Sahel  
> zone are being cross-bred in large scale with breeds adapted to sub- 
> humid regions, like southern Mali, that have a natural resistance to  
> trypanosomosis.
>
> Trypanosomosis kills an estimated three to seven million cattle each  
> year and costs farmers billions of dollars each year in, for  
> example, lost milk and meat production and the costs of medicines  
> and prophylactics needed to treat or prevent the disease. While  
> cross-breeding may offer short-term benefits, such as improved meat  
> and milk production and greater draft power, it could also cause the  
> disappearance of valuable traits developed over thousands of years  
> of natural selection.
>
> ILRI specialists are in the midst of a major campaign to control  
> development of drug resistance in the parasites that cause this  
> disease but also have recognized that breeds endowed with a natural  
> ability to survive the illness could offer a better long-term  
> solution.
>
> The breeds include humpless shorthorn and longhorn cattle of West  
> and Central Africa that have evolved in this region along with its  
> parasites for thousands of years and therefore have evolved ways to  
> survive many diseases, including trypanosomosis, which is spread by  
> tsetse flies, and also tick-borne diseases. Moreover, these hardy  
> animals have the ability to withstand harsh climates. Despite their  
> drawbacks—the shorthorn and longhorn breeds are not as productive as  
> their European counterparts—their loss would be a major blow to the  
> future of African livestock productivity.
>
> "We have seen in the short-horn humpless breeds native to West and  
> Central African indiscriminate slaughter and an inattention to  
> careful breeding that has put them on a path to extinction," Fall  
> said . "We must at the very least preserve these breeds either on  
> the farm or in livestock genebanks because their genetic traits  
> could be decisive in the fight against trypanosomosis , while their  
> hardiness could be enormously valuable to farmers trying to adapt to  
> climate change."
>
> Other African cattle breeds at risk include the Kuri cattle of  
> southern Chad and northeastern Nigeria. The large bulbous-horned  
> Kuri, in addition to being unfazed by insect bites, are excellent  
> swimmers, having evolved in the Lake Chad region, and are ideally  
> suited to wet conditions in very hot climates.
>
> ILRI's push to preserve Africa's indigenous livestock is part of a  
> broader effort to improve productivity on African farms through what  
> is known as "landscape genomics." Landscape genomics involves, among  
> other things, sequencing the genomes of different livestock  
> varieties from many regions and looking for the genetic signatures  
> associated with their suitability to a particular environment.
>
> ILRI experts see landscape genomics as particularly important as  
> climate change accelerates, requiring animal breeders to respond  
> every more quickly and expertly to shifting conditions on the  
> ground. But they caution that in Africa in particular the ability of  
> farmers and herders to adapt to new climates depends directly on the  
> continent's wealth of native livestock diversity.
>
> "What we see too often is an effort to improve livestock  
> productivity on African farms by supplanting indigenous breeds with  
> imported animals that over the long-term will prove a poor match for  
> local conditions and require a level of attention that is simply too  
> costly for most smallholder farmers," said Carlos Seré, ILRI's  
> Director General. "What marginalized livestock-keeping communities  
> need are investments in genetics and genomics that allow them to  
> boost productivity with their African animals, which are best suited  
> to their environments."
>
> Seré said new polices also are needed that encourage African  
> pastoralist herders and smallholder farmers to continue maintaining  
> their local breeds rather than abandoning them for imported animals.  
> Such policies, he said, should include breeding programs that focus  
> on improving the productivity of indigenous livestock as an  
> alternative to importing animals.
>
> Steve Kemp, who heads ILRI's genetics and genomics team, added that  
> in addition to conservation on the farm, there must also be  
> investments in preserving diversity by freezing sperm and embryos  
> because farmers cannot be asked to forgo productivity increases  
> solely in the name of diversity conservation.
>
> "We cannot expect farmers to sacrifice their income just to preserve  
> the future potential of diversity," Kemp said. "We know that  
> diversity is critical to dealing with the challenges that confront  
> African farmers, but the valuable traits that may be important in  
> the future are not always immediately obvious."
>
> Kemp called for a new approach to measuring the characteristics of  
> livestock genetic resources. Today, he said, these estimates focus  
> mainly on such things as the value of meat, milk, eggs and wool and  
> do not include qualities that can be of equal or even greater  
> importance to livestock keepers in Africa and other developing  
> regions. These attributes include the ability of an animal to pull a  
> plough, provide fertilizer, serve as a walking bank or savings  
> account, and act as an effective form of insurance against crop loss.
>
> But associating this wider array of attributes with an animal's DNA  
> requires new ways of exploring and understanding livestock  
> characteristics in a region where there is so much diversity in so  
> many different environments.
>
> "The tools are available to do this now, but we need the will, the  
> imagination and the resources before it is too late," Kemp said.
>
> ###
>
> About International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI):
> The Africa-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)  
> works at the crossroads of livestock and poverty, bringing high- 
> quality science and capacity building to bear on poverty reduction  
> and sustainable development. ILRI is one of 15 centers supported by  
> the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research  
> (CGIAR). It has its headquarters in Kenya and a principal campus in  
> Ethiopia. It also has teams working out of offices in Nigeria, Mali,  
> Mozambique, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam and China. For  
> more information, please visit: www.ilri.org.
>
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