Harare — VETERINARY science experts from the developing world are calling for the establishment of gene banks to conserve livestock diversity and promote the indigenous breeds which are disease-resistant and suitable for poor farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

This comes after the Food and Agriculture Organisation unveiled the world's first report on the global inventory of farm animals which indicates that indigenous livestock breeds in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are at risk of extinction.

The majority of scientists from Africa, Asia and Latin America, who met recently at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), say there is an urgent need to establish gene banks to conserve the sperm and ovaries of key animals critical to enhance the world's animal biodiversity.

Biodiversity is a term widely used by scientists and environmental experts to describe the full range of living things in a particular area or on the earth as a whole. It is a measure of the richness of life valuable both to humans and other forms of life.

The new report, titled "The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources", was compiled by FAO in collaboration with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and other research groups across the world.

The animal study, which was done in some 169 countries, showed that multinational corporations in the agro-livestock sector in the developing world promoted the use of a limited range of animal breeds such as high-milk-yielding Holstein-Friesian cows, egg-laying White Leghorn chickens, and fast-growing Large White pigs.

The breeding of indigenous livestock varieties like the Tuli and the Mashona cattle, indigenous chickens and pigs is not being promoted, leading to a loss of animal biodiversity.

This, FAO said, is causing the loss of an average of one livestock breed every month.

According to the new FAO study, the black-and-white Holstein-Friesian dairy cow, for example, is now found in 128 countries and in all regions of the world.

It said at least 90 percent of cattle in industrialised countries come from only six very tightly defined breeds.

Close to 70 percent of the entire world's remaining unique range of livestock breeds are found in developing countries.

The FAO report was presented to over 300 policymakers, scientists, breeders, and livestock keepers at the First International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources, held in Interlaken, Switzerland, from September 3-7, 2007.

"Valuable breeds are disappearing at an alarming rate," Carlos Seré, the director general of ILRI, was quoted saying.

"In many cases we will not even know the true value of an existing breed until it's already gone. This is why we need to act now to conserve what's left by putting them in gene banks."

Sere told participants at the Interlaken conference that there was need for the rapid establishment of gene banks in Africa as one of four practical steps to better characterise, use, and conserve the genetic basis of farm animals for the livestock production systems around the world.

"This is a major step in the right direction," he said. "The international community is beginning to appreciate the seriousness of this loss of livestock genetic diversity. FAO is leading inter-governmental processes to better manage these resources. These negotiations will take time to bear fruit.

"Meanwhile, some activities can be started now to help save breeds that are most at risk."

According to a section of the FAO report on the state of agricultural biodiversity in the livestock sector, genetic diversity is threatened by a variety of factors which include the use of germplasm, changes in production systems, changes in producer preference because of socio-economic factors, and a range of disasters, drought, famine, disease epidemics, and civil strife, war.

These were cited as some of the major causes of genetic erosion.

According to a study done by Rege and Gibson (2003) cited in the report, loss of livestock biodiversity in Africa was due to replacement by other breeds, cross-breeding with exotic breeds or with other indigenous breeds, conflict, loss of habitat, disease, neglect and lack of sustained breeding programmes.

Displacement by other breeds and indiscriminate cross-breeding was cited as a major threat to small ruminant breeds in West Asia and North Africa.

Veterinary science experts say some of the major driving forces were economic, social, demographic and political factors.

The livestock sector, they said, is undergoing numerous changes and this was leading to quantitative and qualitative changes in demand for livestock products and services, changes in the availability of natural resources, external inputs or labour, changes affecting livestock trade at national and international levels, and shifts in the policy environment which, directly or indirectly, affect the nature of livestock production systems.

Rich countries in the North have invested heavily in the production of a limited range of breeds, significantly influencing production trends in the developing world with their own varieties.

Developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America still lack the capacity to promote the production of indigenous animal varieties.

FAO estimates that up to one billion people are involved in animal farming and 70 percent of the rural poor depend on livestock as an important source of livelihood.

"For the foreseeable future," Seré was quoted saying, "farm animals will continue to create means for hundreds of millions of people to escape absolute poverty."

Veterinary scientists noted with concern that many of the world's smallholder farmers are abandoning their traditional animals in favour of the high-yielding stock imported from Europe and the United States.

For example, in northern Vietnam, local breeds comprised 72 percent of the sow population in 1994, but within eight years, this had dropped to just 26 percent.

They noted that of the country's 14 local pig breeds, five are now vulnerable, two are in a critical state, and three are facing extinction.

Veterinary scientists say that Uganda's indigenous Ankole cattle -- famous for their graceful and gigantic horns -- could face extinction within 20 years because they are being rapidly being replaced by Holstein-Friesians breeds which produce more milk.

It was noted that during a recent drought that some farmers who had kept their hardy Ankole were able to walk them long distances to water sources while those who had traded the Ankole for imported breeds lost their entire herds.

Seré pointed out that the exotic animal breeds offer short-term benefits to their owners because they promise high volumes of meat, milk, or eggs, but warned that they also pose a high risk because many of these breeds cannot cope with unpredictable fluctuations in the environment or disease outbreaks when introduced into more demanding environments in the developing world.

The diversity of species and genes affects the ability of ecological communities to resist or recover from disturbances and any changes that can occur in the environment. Loss of variability may lead to adverse effects for fitness and adaptive change in animal populations.

In many cases, FAO reported, a fundamental problem is a lack of sufficient knowledge regarding the characteristics of animal genetic resources, their distribution geographically and by production system, their roles in the livelihoods of their keepers and the ways in which their utilisation is affected by changing management practices and broader trends in the livestock sector.

This, veterinary sciences experts said, often meant that emerging threats are not identified or that their significance is not appreciated.

Seres is pushing for long-term "insurance policies" to conserve animal genetic resources in the developing world.

"Put some in the bank," he said, calling for the establishment of gene banks to store semen, eggs, and embryos of farm animals. "In the US, Europe, China, India, and South America, there are well-established gene banks actively preserving regional livestock diversity."

In Zimbabwe and in seven other African countries, the Harare-based Community Technology Development Trust is spearheading programmes to establish community seed banks to conserve indigenous seed varieties through the Community Biodiversity Conservation and Development Africa region programme.

This can be replicated in the long run to conserve animal genetic resources.

In Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa, there are growing fears of bio-piracy, concern over the stealing of animal genetic materials by researchers from rich countries for cross-breeding purposes to enhance production and the quality of their livestock.

For example, the Tuli breed from Zimbabwe and four other countries in Southern Africa has now been crossed with European breeds in Australia to produce new other breeds without the countries benefiting anything from their genetic resources.

The Tuli breed is favoured for its disease resistance under harsh conditions.

The bio-piracy of other indigenous goat, sheep, pig, chicken and cattle breeds is going on unabated in Africa and there is need to put in place policies and mechanism to prevent the loss of animal genetic materials.

Veterinary scientists say there is need to encourage farmers to keep genetic diversity through the creation of incentives and other policies that can help the farmer to take interest in preserving indigenous animal breeds on the farm.

They say international organisations should scale up financial support to African countries to enable them to conserve their unique animal genetic resources.

"The international community needs to step forward in support," said Seré.

"We support FAO's call to action and the CGIAR stands ready to assist the international community in putting these words into action."

Veterinary science experts suggest that the management of threats to animal genetic resources needs to be better integrated into many aspects of livestock sector development.

Some of the concrete steps towards meeting this objective include:

• better characterisation of animal genetic resources and their locations;

• providing tools for the ex-ante assessment of the genetic impact of development interventions, including post-emergency restocking measures; and

• the elaboration, in advance, of plans to protect unique animal genetic resources in the event of disease outbreaks and other acute threats (including, where necessary, a reexamination of relevant legislation).

"It is likely that in many cases such measures would not only help to reduce the risk of genetic erosion, but would also promote efficient utilisation of existing animal genetic resources and hence would be complementary to wider livestock development objectives," the FAO report stated.