I'm new on the conference but I'm very excited with this topic because is my philosofy of work. I'm a veterinary student of brazil, a tropical country that have a enourmous potential -to became the major food supplier of the world in the next century ( I hope so ). This is my motivation in suport this kind of meeting, to expose to those that don't see the animal production as a serious question.
Thanks and best regards from Brazil

Guilherme Klafke
School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences
University of Sao Paulo
Brazil

[Moved from Forum 1 - Webmaster]

Thank you for registering my name and the password. It is my hope that the topics which I am preparing to post will elicit vibrant discussions among the discussants. Iam a lecturer in Animal Breeding and Genetics virtually trained in my developing country Nigeria but I try to keep abreast with the world in my field and now on the internet.
One thing has been bothering me about the kind of assistance and advice being offered by the developed countries to developing countries like Nigeria. And our political leaders tend to beleive anything and everything the foreign experts tell our leaders about improving animal productivity in these developing countries especially in ruminant livestock production. This has led to the total neglect of what local experts tell them. As the discussion goes on I will provide specific examples of what is meant above. We know that for any sustainable animal production in our stressful environment, the adapted though low producing indigeneous genetic resources must ab initio form the base. But before these are utilized it is important to characterize their useful traits. And very little has been published on these traits.There are many of these adapted traits that are not yet documented. I will elaborate as we go on.
This letter is just to say thank you and mark my entry into the discussion group.
Sanya Olutogun
Department of Animal Science
University of Ibadan
Nigeria
West Africa

I would like to respond to Dr. Sanya Olutogun's observation that little has been published on the useful traits of indigenous genetic resources.

Take for example the West African Dwarf Goat, fundamental and applied research has been carried out by the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in collaboration with Wageningen University (the Netherlands) for over 14 years starting in the 1980s ending 1993. Other partners involved include Ibadan based ILCA & IITA and Benin Republic applied WADGoat reserch as well. This initiative has spawned numerous publications and graduates up-to-PHd level in both Nigeria and the Netherlands. After measuring the production potential of these WADG some local people when visiting the OAU research site believed the animals were imported or genetically improved, while the only input was proper animal production practice of nutrition, environment and preventive animal health-care. One of the results is an extension booklet on improved WADG keeping under local circumstances, considering extreme lost cost inputs and the flexibility to adopt one or more measures depending on available resources (tethering to bambou hut)

I would advise our colleague to contact OAU, ILCA or Wageningen University if he does not want to duplicate, as often happens, invaluable research which was carried out in a true collaborative spirit headed first by Prof. Akin Ademosun and later by the late Dr. Ayeni.

Last but not least, I hope this forum will also include discussions on how to improve the reputation and image of livestock producers.

Thanks to Dr. Eric Koper for his response to my contribution. Perhaps the study on WADGoat mentioned is a case in point on some of the issues raised in my contribution. I am aware of so much that was done at Ife but the problem is : " the improvement observed in performance" can be traced largely to the improvement in the environment. It is not known how much of this is due to the genetics of the WADGoat. And if we are looking for a permanent and sustainable improvement we need to go deeper than this. It is nice to carry out basic research in this environment but applied and sustainable research will be more cost effective. This will be in the realm of genetics.
One more point that the WADGoat research at Ife throws up in developing countries is that when the leaders of such pioneering work disappear so also will the research and hence its sustainability. Dr. Jorg Steinbach did a lot at Ibadan in the 1970s particularly on their bioclimatology but as soon as he left, much if not all he did collapsed.
Besides WADGoat,there are others like WADSheep, the Muturu and of course the N'Dama(which has caught the attention of the whole world lately) in the sub- and humid sub-saharan African countries . Others like Rahaji (Bororo), Gudali, and even Bunaji etc. As for livestock producers themselves in the developing countries, it is largely a political problem and the solution lies in education. The elites in these developing countries are unwilling to educate the masses of these livestock producers except in areas that enhance the continued domination of these producers by the elites.

Reflections on "Sustainable Animal Production"

Th. Blaha
University of Minnesota, College of Veterinary Medicine, Allen D. Leman Chair in Swine Health and Epidemiology

The following is an attempt to set the stage for the discussion about "Sustainable Animal Production" to avoid unnecessary arguments due to the fact that individual participants in the virtual conference may mean different things by using the term "sustainability". These reflections are not meant to come up with the only truth about sustainability, they are just to find kind of an intellectual consensus on how to use the term in the framework of the very timely "Virtual Conference Sustainable Animal Production".

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