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
Measuring milk for sale in India (photo credit: ILRI). ‘The World Bank signs an agreement with India to inject $352 million into the National Dairy Support Project, an initiative designed to revive the flagging fortunes of milk production in the country. Other than being crucial to the nutritional security of the country’s population; dairy farming … Continue reading
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
Since 1999, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has partnered with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) to provide capacity building on the sustainable use of Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR). This report by Julie Ojango, Birgitta Malmfors, Okeyo Mwai, and Jan Philipsson on Training the trainers – An innovative and successful model for capacity building in animal … Continue reading
Although livestock play a central role in rural development in West Africa, traditional livestock systems have high death rates, low reproductive rates and low offtake rates. Furthermore, the presence of trypanosome-infected tsetse flies in the sub-humid and humid areas hurts the potential for livestock production. The region’s endemic ruminant livestock, however, are highly adapted to … Continue reading
We need to conserve the most important livestock genetic diversity for possible future use – by poor and rich farmers alike Continue reading
Developing countries such as Ethiopia have many indigenous chicken varieties which are well adapted to local environments as they are excellent foragers, better able to avoid predator attacks and demonstrate better immunity to common diseases. However, due to relatively low genetic potential and poor levels of husbandry, most of these indigenous chicken breeds grow slowly … Continue reading
During the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, we video recorded reports back from group discussions in three of the sessions: Animal health and genetics – issues and controversies for ILRI research. This session discussed significant or controversial developments; the next big thing in animal genetics, breeding, health, genomics, and feeding. Livestock … Continue reading
Between 15 and 17 November 2011, scientists, experts and development practitioners from the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, universities and non-governmental and international organizations gathered in Addis Ababa to share research results on trypanotolerance in indigenous local cattle breeds in Ethiopia (Sheko, Abigar, Horro and Gurage) and experiences with community-based sheep breeding. The Sheko breed got … Continue reading
For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Azage Tegegne and Dirk Hoekstra prepared an issue brief on genetic improvement of cattle in the ‘Improving the Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian farmers’ (IPMS) project … A key intervention for dairy and meat value chains in Ethiopia is the use of genetically improved cows. … Continue reading
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