Category Archives: Genetics

Biotechnology / Environment / Food security / Genetics / Opinion piece / PA / Policy / USA

Greening our meat: A vegan conservationist speaks out, and considerately, on controversial food issues

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Vegan and conservationist Mark Tercek, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, the largest environmental non-profit organization in the Americas, had an interesting response this week to a question about eating meat and genetically modified foods—two of the most durable of the hot ‘foodie’ topics of the North, with vegetarian and carnivore consumers, organic and high-tech … Continue reading »

Agriculture / Article / Asia / Biotechnology / Environment / Genetics / ILRI / India / North America / PA / Seeds / USA

‘Nature’ takes a hard look at the ‘messy middle ground’ — the ‘difficult adolescence’ — of GM crops

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Cover of a special issue of ‘Nature’ on GMOs, 2 May 2013. The leading British science journal Nature has published a special issue on GM crops: Promise and reality  (2 May 2013). This hub of updated science-based information on GM crops includes feature news stories, commentaries, a podcast and more. ‘Foreign genes were successfully introduced into … Continue reading »

Article / Biotech / Genetics / Indigenous Breeds / PA / USA

Of mice (pupfish) and men: Existential matters rising in genetic rescues of endangered species

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Bio-repository of livestock genetic material at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). WIRED Magazine recently published an interesting article, ‘Attack of the mutant pupfish’, on some existential matters rising in attempts to make genetic rescues of endangered species. The author explores an interesting case study of the conflicting stands/approaches of animal … Continue reading »

Animal Breeding / Biotech / Biotechnology / East Africa / Event / Film and video / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Interview / Kenya / PA / Staff

Kenyan Bridgit Muasa on cross-breeding ‘supercows’ for Africa

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Watch ‘The Importance of Livestock Production in Kenya’, a short (3:12) filmed interview by FarmingFirst at Rio+20 of 2010 AWARD Fellow Bridgit Muasa, a Kenyan livestock breeding specialist mentored by ILRI scientist Karen Marshall. Bridgit Muasa, from Kenya, is a veterinary officer with the Kenya Ministry of Livestock Development. She has been mentored in the African … Continue reading »

Africa / Animal Diseases / Article / Biotech / Cattle / CBPP / Genetics / Geodata / Goats / ILRI / PA

Lethal family tree: ILRI research shows livestock bacterium is as old as the livestock it kills

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Aurochs were the ancestors of domestic cattle (photo on Flickr by Marcus Sümnick). Lucas Brouwers, in a blog on Scientific American, has picked up on an interesting genetics study conducted at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, which targets a cattle disease known as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (or CBPP for short). The study … Continue reading »

Animal Breeding / Biotechnology / Cattle / Dairying / Genetics / PA

Dairy scientists of the genomics age: How big data transformed the dairy industry

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Holstein-Friesian cow, Biggle cow book, Philadelphia, W Atkinson Co., 1898 (photo on Flickr by Biodiversity Heritage Library). Dairy scientists are the Gregor Mendels of the genomics age, developing new methods for understanding the link between genes and living things, all while quadrupling the average cow’s milk production since your parents were born. ‘While there are … Continue reading »

Animal Breeding / Animal Feeding / China / Genetics / Intensification / PA / Pigs / Poultry / Trade / USA

Exporting American livestock genetics to China: Grain to follow?

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Min piglets at the experimental station at the Institute for Animal Science, in Beijing, China (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). America is breeding farm animals for China, Reuters and the New York Times report, to supply China with more meat. ‘. . . In a country where pork is a staple, the demand for a protein-rich … Continue reading »

Animal Breeding / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / BecA / Biodiversity / Biotech / Disease Control / East Africa / Event / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Kenya / PA / Poultry / Vaccines / Women

Small livestock, big impact

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Kenyan geneticist and new PhD Sheila Ommeh (right) works at the Biosciences eastern and central Africa Hub (BecA Hub) and ILRI’s animal health laboratories in Nairobi, Kenya, studying Africa’s native chicken breeds (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). ‘Sheila Ommeh, a poultry geneticist at the International Livestock Research Centre in Nairobi, hopes to introduce a disease-resistant chicken … Continue reading »

Africa / Drought / Drylands / Food security / Forages / Genetics / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / PLE / Vulnerability

Landscapes of chronic hunger: Eating food aid in empty deserts and desert slums

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Untitled (Desert Landscape), by Salvador Dali, 1934 (source: Wikipaintings.org). Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek has published in Foreign Policy this week a feature article, at times lyrical and elegiac, stemming from a walking trip he and his wife made last August, as a great drought gripped the Horn of Africa, across a part of the arid Turkana … Continue reading »

Africa / BecA / Biodiversity / Biotech / Capacity Strengthening / Event / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Kenya / Opinion piece / PA / Poultry / Women

Changing the face of agriculture in Africa–one (emerging woman) leader at a time

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CGIAR AWARD Fellow Sheila Ommeh, working at ILRI-BecA, gives a presentation on the importance of conserving and better using Africa’s native chicken breeds for World Bank vice president Rachel Kyte on 2 Feb 2012 at the World Agroforestry Centre (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). The Huffington Post this week carries a blog by Sir Gordon Conway, professor of … Continue reading »