Referring to the second paragraph of Ahmed Tibary's message (4 July):

I agree with him about the fate of "development projects" in the developing country that usually stop when the budget is gone, but I think we can change this to a better condition if we apply the step-by-step plan, not with a big project as "one go" and also not in a too wide area. It is better to start with a pilot project where we can be sure that the success goal is in our hand, in other words, we should be able to prove that artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer (ET) technologies can benefit the farmers.   I have experience early this year where I did ET in one location for dairy cattle. We transferred the embryos (that have better milk production and adaptive to the local environment) to local dairy cattle and got quite a good pregnancy rate. Now, there are many farmer groups asking me and my team to serve their cattle, for I am sure the farmers would not mind paying for the service (ET) as they did for AI. Unfortunately, at the moment we are running out of the budget, so we cannot cover bigger area for the service.

My point for this explanation is: we better start the project not in a big area but slowly and surely, we could cover more area if we can prove our success technology. One thing that is really important is that the farmers are involved in this business by paying the service because they feel the need for the technology for their benefit, so the supply and demand of the technology starts to roll over that make the economic growth to develop. I think we can start the animal industry (dairy or beef cattle) through biotechnology in the developing countries using the step by step method. This forum would be a great opportunity for me and my team for possible collaboration in AI and ET industries.

Caroline Wiwie, PhD
Researcher at The Research Institute for Animal Production
Bogor, Ciawi, Indonesia

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-----Original Message-----
From: Biotech-Mod3
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2000 3:55 PM
To: 'biotech-room3@mailserv.fao.org'
Subject: genotype X nutritional environment interaction

To use the existence of genotype x environment (G xE) interactions as an argument to defer the application of biotechnology until all genotypes have been tested in all environments is clearly unacceptable, given the time-frame imposed on us by the demand for food for a growing human population. To my mind, this problem can only be solved using biotechnology, but two paradigm shifts are necessary:

1. Simplistically stated, many interactions between genotype and the nutritional environment arise from interactions between nutrients and genes at the molecular level. There is growing awareness that many differences between individuals can be ascribed not only to differences in the DNA code but, more importantly, to regulation of the steps between the reading of the DNA code and its conversion into a functional protein (transcription and translation). There is also mounting evidence that the concentrations of individual nutrients are important regulators of this process. Most of the effort in the race to decipher the human genome and to a lesser extent in animal genomics has been devoted to the sequencing of the DNA itself. Over the next few years, the focus of pharmaceutical companies will likely turn from the DNA code itself to the understanding of the regulation of the expression of genes encoded by DNA so that agents that manipulate this process can be patented. Although much of this information will probably not enter the public domain, and little attention will be given to domestic livestock, it is probable that there will be advances in biotechnological methodology (e.g. gene array kits) that would enable sensible use to be made of biotechnology to unravel GXE interactions and develop diagnostic indices without resorting only to the endless cycle of testing every genotype in every environment.

2. If the above approach is to be followed, then the conventional feeding standard approach of lumping all types of energy under generic 'black box' categories such as metabolisable energy (ME) or net energy (NE) must be abandoned in favour of an individual nutrient approach, as it is individual nutrients that interact with genes, not ME (UK and US feeding standards just don't work with ruminants in my country and, I suspect, in many others, and I will not be told otherwise - sorry !). The individual nutrient approach has, in fact, been strongly advocated in the latest review of the British feeding standards for Dairy Cows (see Nutrition abstracts & reviews, series B, Vol 68 no 11) with the rather telling comment that "they (the current systems) lack relevance to the future needs of milk producers". The merit of hormone challenges and blood metabolite concentrations to assess G X E interactions has already be shown by Hugh Blair's group in New Zealand, and in my opinion, this is the most viable measure of nutrient status for free-ranging animals in developing areas. Here too, the use of biotechnology to develop quick and simple (dipstick, elisa) methods of quantifying metabolite and hormone concentrations in blood, milk and other body fluids would be warranted.

The bottom line is that biotechnology is appropriate, indeed vital, for the developing world, but a paradigm shift is necessary in terms of the relative importance of the various applications thereof (molecular biology (gene arrays, nutrient gene interactions,etc) vs AI vs ET), and also in terms of an appropriate system for animal nutrition.

Pierre Cronjé
Associate Professor: Physiology
Dept. Animal and Wildlife Sciences
University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002
South Africa
Tel: +27 12 420 3273
Cel:083 3727 008
Fax:+27 12 420 3290
Editor: South African Journal of Animal Science
(SASAS website: www.sasas.co.za: http://www.sasas.co.za )

[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 ]