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Book reviews for livestock science
Livestock Science 104 (2006) 217 – 221 www.elsevier.com/locate/livsci
Book reviews The Role of Biotechnology in Exploring and Protecting Agricultural Genetic Resources, John Ruane, Andrea Sonnino (Eds.). FAO, Rome, Italy(2006). 187 pp., Soft cover, ISBN: 92-5-105480-0 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations holds periodic Biotechnology Forums which are email discussions moderated by FAO over a period of 4 weeks. The 13th Conference in the series was dedicated to the topic given in the title of this book and was held from 4 June to 4 July 2005 in which 650 people took part, most being from the developing world. Prior to the electronic Conference, FAO held a meeting in Torino, Italy in March 2005 by way of preparation and to provide a review of the current state of affairs in the use of biotechnology now in use or capable of being in the conservation of genetics resources of crops, forestry, animals and fish. The book consists of four sections: 1. four papers on the status the world's genetic resources for food and agriculture; 2. the use of cryopreservation and reproductive technologies for conservation and genetic resources; 3. use of molecular markers for characterization and conservation of genetic resources 4. two documents, one providing background to the role of biotechnology. This document was made available to all who participated in the electronic Conference. The second is a summary of the main points raised by participants in the electronic conference discussion. This book provides the reader with the complete papers presented at the Torino Conference, plus the discussion in Torino and a comprehensive summary of the issues raised and position taken during the electronic Conference which followed. The reader is thus given a view across the complex and worldwide field of conserving the major agriculture and food resources. This is a great advantage as most publications on such a diverse range of species, regions, and ecosystems present far more detail in different languages and formats.
This publication offers the reader an overview which does not skimp on technical details while also commenting upon the options, benefits and disadvantages of use. The chapters on animal genetic resources are particularly interesting for readers of Livestock Science. In the introductory chapter, Ricardo Cardellino gives details of the current FAO global project which aims to report on the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources. He points out the urgent need for action by pointing out that during the last 15 years 300 breeds out of a total of 6000 have become extinct. This tragedy has happened despite the fact that in 1980 FAO held the 1st Intergovernmental Expert Conference on Animal Genetic Resources. As a result FAO launched its programme for the Conservation and Improved Utilization of Animal Genetic Resources and spent 10 years during the 1980s building up the needed infrastructures. At the end of that time in 1990 many governments were equipped with knowledge, skills and enthusiasm to start their national conservation programmes. Only the larger countries including Argentina, Brazil, China, India etc. had sufficient national resources to operate their own programmes. Strategically the time was then ripe to capture some of the 6 billion dollars made available for conservation by the Convention of Biodiversity through the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The need for animal genetic conservation was, and remains, most critical in the poorer and smaller developing countries where a wealth of livestock breed diversity exists. Those impoverished countries are where most of the breeds have been lost in the last 15 years and where the greatest threat exists today. This was shown clearly in the FAO World Watch List first published in the early 1990s, now nearly 15 years ago. Individual conservation projects could have been designed using the information that had been built up during the previous decade of the 1980s. However, few funds were sought or made available for conservation action and more energy was put during the 1990s into building centralized infrastructures. Ten years later in 2001, FAO decided to carry out the current information gathering project called the State of
218
Book reviews
the World's Animal Genetic Resources which is a far more detailed attempt to document the position in each country by asking the following three questions as described by Ricardo Cardellino: Where are we? Where do we go from here? How do we get to where we need to be? The country reports will provide an assessment of the state of diversity, the national capacity to act and the state of the art in available methodologies and technologies. In its final form the report will be presented in 2007 to the 2nd Intergovernmental Technical Conference which is 27 years after the first such conference. In international affairs it is always easier to talk, collect information, identify and analyse situations than it is to establish action programmes on the ground. Conservation of threatened livestock breeds requires funds and co-operation from the highest intergovernmental bodies through governments to the grassroots levels. It is to be hoped that the 2007 Conference will not simply talk but will act decisively to arrest the further extinction of breeds before it is too late by supporting conservation actions in needy developing countries. In moving to this action plan, one hopes that the Conference will treat seriously the input made by over 600 participants, mostly from developing countries, during the electronic conference. These voices are rarely heard at the highest levels but come from people who are already engaged in thought on these matters and would like to be engaged in conservation actions. Although this review has examined animal genetic resources in more detail, this valuable book also provides similar and fascinating background to the state of affairs in crop, forest and fish genetic resources. John Hodges A-5730 Mittersill, Austria E-mail address: [email protected]. doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2006.07.011
Foot and mouth disease: New values, innovative research agenda's and policies, J. van der Zijpp, M.J.E. Braker, C.H.A.M. Eilers, H. Kieft, T.A. Vogelzang, S.J. Oosting (Eds.), Wageningen Academic Publishers, The Netherlands (2004). pp. 100 Euro30. US$42, ISBN: 9076998272 In 1999 at its Jubilee (50th) Annual Meeting of the EAAP (European Association for Animal Production) a decision was made to launch a series that could complement the existing EAAP Scientific Series, fulfilling the requirement to publish the more practical and technical information available in the field of animal pro-
duction. The above valuable piece of work was the 5th volume in this series, meeting in every respect the intentions of the decision makers. Following the notification of FMD (Foot and Mouth Disease) in the United Kingdom on 19th February, 2001, The Netherlands was infected with the virus on 21st of March, 2001. In the following month a total of 26 farms were infected and about 3000 farms including 1800 hobby farms were cleared as a preventive measure. The clearance was completed by 23rd of May with 265 000 animal slaughtered, including 93 000 cattle, 118 000 pigs, 35 000 sheep, 8000 goats and 11 000 other animals. On the 26th of June, 2 months after the last animal was stamped out, the country was declared free from FMD. Although direct costs of the eradication was huge (estimated over 800 million Euros) the Veterinary Health Service of The Netherlands received the best grade for implementing all the needed actions, tasks, competencies and responsibilities of various stakeholders that had been prepared in readiness for addressing the occurrence of an unforeseen epidemic. In spite, however, of the efficient implementation of the action plan that prevented the disease from spreading and the relatively quick eradication of FMD the epidemic became a socioeconomic crisis. This was because many groups and individuals, including many of the farmers affected, neither understood nor accepted the measures that were imposed on them. In particular they were averse to the killing of healthy animals instead of vaccinating them. This nation-wide crisis had to be addressed along with other actions. Therefore a FMD Workshop was brought to life proposed by Prof. Dr. Akke J. van der Zijpp of Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR). This workshop was the forum where stakeholders and scientists could enter into dialogue and where all parties could determine the direction of the research. The objective of the workshop was also to analyse all aspects of the complex problem of FMD in collaboration with stakeholders and to learn from their experience. Actually, the workshop consisted of 6 sets of events between January and September, 2002. The first goal was to create an inventory of the stakeholders. On this basis a workshop was held with their participation. Then a workshop was organised with the research workers. This was followed by reviewing the draft report prepared by a selected group of stakeholders. After further commenting the stakeholders' suggestions the workshop was concluded by the presentation of the final report. This series of workshops sent a number of clear messages to different parties. In particular there are messages to the research sphere. It became obvious that more fundamental research is needed on the prevention,
Book reviews The Role of Biotechnology in Exploring and Protecting Agricultural Genetic Resources, John Ruane, Andrea Sonnino (Eds.). FAO, Rome, Italy(2006). 187 pp., Soft cover, ISBN: 92-5-105480-0 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations holds periodic Biotechnology Forums which are email discussions moderated by FAO over a period of 4 weeks. The 13th Conference in the series was dedicated to the topic given in the title of this book and was held from 4 June to 4 July 2005 in which 650 people took part, most being from the developing world. Prior to the electronic Conference, FAO held a meeting in Torino, Italy in March 2005 by way of preparation and to provide a review of the current state of affairs in the use of biotechnology now in use or capable of being in the conservation of genetics resources of crops, forestry, animals and fish. The book consists of four sections: 1. four papers on the status the world's genetic resources for food and agriculture; 2. the use of cryopreservation and reproductive technologies for conservation and genetic resources; 3. use of molecular markers for characterization and conservation of genetic resources 4. two documents, one providing background to the role of biotechnology. This document was made available to all who participated in the electronic Conference. The second is a summary of the main points raised by participants in the electronic conference discussion. This book provides the reader with the complete papers presented at the Torino Conference, plus the discussion in Torino and a comprehensive summary of the issues raised and position taken during the electronic Conference which followed. The reader is thus given a view across the complex and worldwide field of conserving the major agriculture and food resources. This is a great advantage as most publications on such a diverse range of species, regions, and ecosystems present far more detail in different languages and formats.
This publication offers the reader an overview which does not skimp on technical details while also commenting upon the options, benefits and disadvantages of use. The chapters on animal genetic resources are particularly interesting for readers of Livestock Science. In the introductory chapter, Ricardo Cardellino gives details of the current FAO global project which aims to report on the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources. He points out the urgent need for action by pointing out that during the last 15 years 300 breeds out of a total of 6000 have become extinct. This tragedy has happened despite the fact that in 1980 FAO held the 1st Intergovernmental Expert Conference on Animal Genetic Resources. As a result FAO launched its programme for the Conservation and Improved Utilization of Animal Genetic Resources and spent 10 years during the 1980s building up the needed infrastructures. At the end of that time in 1990 many governments were equipped with knowledge, skills and enthusiasm to start their national conservation programmes. Only the larger countries including Argentina, Brazil, China, India etc. had sufficient national resources to operate their own programmes. Strategically the time was then ripe to capture some of the 6 billion dollars made available for conservation by the Convention of Biodiversity through the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The need for animal genetic conservation was, and remains, most critical in the poorer and smaller developing countries where a wealth of livestock breed diversity exists. Those impoverished countries are where most of the breeds have been lost in the last 15 years and where the greatest threat exists today. This was shown clearly in the FAO World Watch List first published in the early 1990s, now nearly 15 years ago. Individual conservation projects could have been designed using the information that had been built up during the previous decade of the 1980s. However, few funds were sought or made available for conservation action and more energy was put during the 1990s into building centralized infrastructures. Ten years later in 2001, FAO decided to carry out the current information gathering project called the State of
218
Book reviews
the World's Animal Genetic Resources which is a far more detailed attempt to document the position in each country by asking the following three questions as described by Ricardo Cardellino: Where are we? Where do we go from here? How do we get to where we need to be? The country reports will provide an assessment of the state of diversity, the national capacity to act and the state of the art in available methodologies and technologies. In its final form the report will be presented in 2007 to the 2nd Intergovernmental Technical Conference which is 27 years after the first such conference. In international affairs it is always easier to talk, collect information, identify and analyse situations than it is to establish action programmes on the ground. Conservation of threatened livestock breeds requires funds and co-operation from the highest intergovernmental bodies through governments to the grassroots levels. It is to be hoped that the 2007 Conference will not simply talk but will act decisively to arrest the further extinction of breeds before it is too late by supporting conservation actions in needy developing countries. In moving to this action plan, one hopes that the Conference will treat seriously the input made by over 600 participants, mostly from developing countries, during the electronic conference. These voices are rarely heard at the highest levels but come from people who are already engaged in thought on these matters and would like to be engaged in conservation actions. Although this review has examined animal genetic resources in more detail, this valuable book also provides similar and fascinating background to the state of affairs in crop, forest and fish genetic resources. John Hodges A-5730 Mittersill, Austria E-mail address: [email protected]. doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2006.07.011
Foot and mouth disease: New values, innovative research agenda's and policies, J. van der Zijpp, M.J.E. Braker, C.H.A.M. Eilers, H. Kieft, T.A. Vogelzang, S.J. Oosting (Eds.), Wageningen Academic Publishers, The Netherlands (2004). pp. 100 Euro30. US$42, ISBN: 9076998272 In 1999 at its Jubilee (50th) Annual Meeting of the EAAP (European Association for Animal Production) a decision was made to launch a series that could complement the existing EAAP Scientific Series, fulfilling the requirement to publish the more practical and technical information available in the field of animal pro-
duction. The above valuable piece of work was the 5th volume in this series, meeting in every respect the intentions of the decision makers. Following the notification of FMD (Foot and Mouth Disease) in the United Kingdom on 19th February, 2001, The Netherlands was infected with the virus on 21st of March, 2001. In the following month a total of 26 farms were infected and about 3000 farms including 1800 hobby farms were cleared as a preventive measure. The clearance was completed by 23rd of May with 265 000 animal slaughtered, including 93 000 cattle, 118 000 pigs, 35 000 sheep, 8000 goats and 11 000 other animals. On the 26th of June, 2 months after the last animal was stamped out, the country was declared free from FMD. Although direct costs of the eradication was huge (estimated over 800 million Euros) the Veterinary Health Service of The Netherlands received the best grade for implementing all the needed actions, tasks, competencies and responsibilities of various stakeholders that had been prepared in readiness for addressing the occurrence of an unforeseen epidemic. In spite, however, of the efficient implementation of the action plan that prevented the disease from spreading and the relatively quick eradication of FMD the epidemic became a socioeconomic crisis. This was because many groups and individuals, including many of the farmers affected, neither understood nor accepted the measures that were imposed on them. In particular they were averse to the killing of healthy animals instead of vaccinating them. This nation-wide crisis had to be addressed along with other actions. Therefore a FMD Workshop was brought to life proposed by Prof. Dr. Akke J. van der Zijpp of Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR). This workshop was the forum where stakeholders and scientists could enter into dialogue and where all parties could determine the direction of the research. The objective of the workshop was also to analyse all aspects of the complex problem of FMD in collaboration with stakeholders and to learn from their experience. Actually, the workshop consisted of 6 sets of events between January and September, 2002. The first goal was to create an inventory of the stakeholders. On this basis a workshop was held with their participation. Then a workshop was organised with the research workers. This was followed by reviewing the draft report prepared by a selected group of stakeholders. After further commenting the stakeholders' suggestions the workshop was concluded by the presentation of the final report. This series of workshops sent a number of clear messages to different parties. In particular there are messages to the research sphere. It became obvious that more fundamental research is needed on the prevention,