I am A.D.N. Chandrasiri (PhD), Veterinary Research Officer
Although AI can be considered as an alternative reproductive method to natural service, this technique is not very popular among the small scale dairy farmers. [Some further information on why AI is not popular with the small scale farmers or not extensively used would be very useful....Moderator]. In Sri Lanka, the first AI calf was born in 1938.
A.D.N. Chandrasiri, PhD
Veterinary Research Institute
P. O. Box 28
Peradeniya
Sri Lanka
Tel: 0094 8 388311-2
Fax: 0094 8 388125
E mail: ddvri@slt.lk
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-----Original Message-----
From: Biotech-Mod3
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 4:22 PM
To: 'biotech-room3@mailserv.fao.org'
Subject: Re: How best to use biotechnology in developing countries
[Thanks to Professor Gibson for this long (messages should not exceed 600 words) but highly relevant and clear contribution, touching on the appropriateness for developing countries of the different biotechnologies available in the livestock sector.....Moderator]
I would like to commend Dr Martyn Jeggo's well thought through and tempered comments [20 July] on some of the potential benefits of biotechnologies and the difficulties in applying them.
Clearly there are many difficulties in applying new technologies in general in the developing world when compared to the developed world. The chief among these is that the vast majority of new technologies build upon and depend upon a highly developed physical, social and educational infrastructure, which makes transplantation to other settings very difficult. Sometimes even technologies that have been routine for 30 or 40 years and which we now take for granted in developed countries have only rarely been sustainable when set up in developing country settings. Breeding of cattle using frozen semen is a good example, which has proven sustainable in a few settings, but in most cases has collapsed once international or national aid has been withdrawn.
Through experience we have learned that development that is based locally and driven locally will have the greatest chance of being sustainable. Coupled with that is the natural human aspiration, which translates to national aspirations, to control one's own destiny and take pride in ownership. But, pushing in the other direction, the complexity of infrastructure (physical, social and educational) and the scale of effort (financial and human) required to run effective biotechnology research and development puts it out of the reach of all but the wealthiest economies. Thus, while the trend at present is to devolve development activities to the regional level and move away from large centres serving multinational and multiregional needs, a powerful argument can be made that the need for, and the opportunity for meaningful effect of, large international centres of specialised technologies has never been greater.
The application of biotechnologies to developing world livestock agriculture will form a continuum. At one end, certain products of biotechnology could be applied in virtually any setting (two examples would be recombinant vaccines that can be stored without refrigeration, and genetically improved livestock). At the next level are relatively straightforward technologies that can be applied in more limited areas where a moderate amount of infrastructure support allows (examples might be, artificial insemination in cattle, and molecular diagnostic tools). At the next level are more complex technologies requiring fairly advanced laboratories and infrastructure (an example might be development of breeding stock using embryo transfer and/or molecular marker techniques). At the highest level are the most complex technologies and research leading to products which requires very high levels of infrastructure which are only likely to be available in the wealthiest of developing countries or at major international research centres linked to developed world laboratories (examples might include development of recombinant vaccines, detection of quantitative trait loci (QTL) and initial design of breeding programs, advanced genomics based research and research and development of genetically modified livestock).
I think also in this debate about potential applications of biotechnologies to developing world livestock production it behoves us to stick fairly closely to foreseeable realities. Thus, for example, despite the major research effort in developed countries, there is no evidence that cloning technologies can be developed to the point of being economically viable for dissemination of livestock in developed countries. And even if that level of success can be developed, costs would have to be further reduced manifold before use of clones in routine production was viable. The almost total lack of improvement in embryo transfer (ET) technologies observed over the past 25 years and in in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) over the past 8 years or so suggests that we should exercise extreme caution in predicting future applications of cloning technologies.
The one area where cloning technologies might have major effect is in production of genetically modified livestock, where the associated stem-cell like properties of the cultured cells used to produce clones can allow targeted gene insertions/mutations. These technologies are likely to remain expensive, but can easily be justified when set against the potential benefits of genetically modified (GM) livestock in the developed world.
On genetically modified livestock, I take a rather different stance to some previous contributors. The testing of new technologies has always to be set in the context of potential benefits and harm and should be applied consistently across technologies (an important point that is entirely missing from the rather hysterical debates about GM crops in the developed world, where potentially damaging technologies are already allowed and continually being developed without debate, while the fairly innocuous GM technologies receive intense debate). It is right and proper that a debate on testing GM livestock take place, but I firmly believe that when put into its proper context, appropriate testing is not a substantive issue or limitation. The point was also made that GM may have less potential for livestock than crops at present. I'm not convinced that this is true. There is a great deal of research on GM livestock going on behind closed doors in developed countries that demonstrates that innovative and potentially profound changes can be made. The developments in transgenic technologies have already made production of GM livestock economically feasible (but not cheap), and current developments of cloning and stem-cell like properties promise an order of magnitude increase in ease of production (some companies claim already to be applying these technologies). The issue for the international community is whether it is prepared to provide the resources to explore genetic modifications of livestock that could be of benefit to the developing world. I personally would focus on efforts to modify resistance to disease and parasites. But I'm sure that innovative thinkers could come up with several, perhaps many other useful types of change. Such research is long-term, but the potential benefits are enormous and we need to start substantial research in this field as soon as possible.
John Gibson
___________________________________________
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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 ]
***** NOTE NEW EDINBURGH ADDRESS FROM JULY 3RD******
Professor John P. Gibson
Program Leader, Genetics and Genomics
International Livestock Research Institute
P.O. Box 30709, Nairobi, Kenya
tel [254] 2 630743 ext 4709 or [1] 650-833-6660 ext 4709
facs [254] 2 631499 or [1] 650-833-6661
E-mail: j.gibson@cgiar.org
{Note that telephone calls from most countries will be cheaper and
receive better connections if routed via the USA numbers given above}