I agree fully with David Steane [30 June], adequate planning is essential, to include aggressive outreach efforts to all sectors of society in developing countries. In regards to planning of studies, there certainly is a need for much more effort to plan what breeds and breeding structure will best achieve sustainable and efficient production. Certainly this will be true in considering the use of indigenous livestock which are better adapted to their environment, especially in terms of disease resistance genes such as trypanotolerant cattle and vaccination practices. Thorough characterization of disease resistance loci in indigenous breeds is essential and efforts to actually classify breeds of livestock in Africa and, from thence, to characterize their genetic makeup will benefit from partnerships between local scientists and those engaged in the identification of useful markers at a more advanced level. The current efforts underway are commendable and need to be extended to facilitate successful utilization of resources and knowledge at all levels. I am very interested in participating in such efforts to define disease resistance loci in indigenous livestock, particularly in Africa. This forum would be a great opportunity for us to share information concerning possible areas for collaboration.
Mulumebet Worku, PhD (worku@ncat.edu)
Adjunct Assistant Professor/Biotechnologist
Department of Animal science
North Carolina A&T University,
USA
[To contribute to this conference, send your message to biotech-room3@mailserv.fao.org For further information on the Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture see http://www.fao.org/biotech/forum.asp ]
-----Original Message-----
From: Biotech-Mod3
Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2000 1:11 PM
To: 'biotech-room3@mailserv.fao.org'
Subject: Breeding stations versus farm environment
Referring to the first paragraph of Hugh T. Blair's message [30 June]:
"I agree that central breeding stations can 'get it wrong', but that simply
means the breeding objective hasn't been correctly specified. Nothing wrong
with the techniques, only the application."
I refer you to
Pierre Cronje's statement (29 June) that
" a study by Waldron et al 1990 showed that the correlation between
results for Suffolk sheep in a central test in the USA where animals were
evaluated under feedlot conditions and the performance of their progeny in
the commercial environment was less than 2%. "
Under those conditions it is impossible for BLUP or any other procedure to account for the genotype by environment (GxE) interaction in selection of animals. If the correlation is close to zero, that is saying that there is no relationship between performance in one environment with the other. The only way to correct for this problem is to select under the environment of production, in this case not the central test station. The other option is to downgrade the central test station such that the management conditions are the same as that of the farm.
Bill Muir, PhD
Professor of Genetics
Department of Animal Sciences
Purdue University
W. Lafayette IN 47907-1151, USA
Phone 765-494-8032
FAX 765-494-9346
http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/faculty/muir.htm
bmuir@purdue.edu
[To contribute to this conference, send your message to biotech-room3@mailserv.fao.org For further information on the Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture see http://www.fao.org/biotech/forum.asp ]