- The joy of soy.
- Earliest known domestic horses.
- More than anyone could possibly want to know about biochar and biodiversity (Part III).
- Sorghum difference yield map, see how they grow.
- Mathilda on ensete in highland Ethiopia.
Rare breeds at risk of disease
BBC News says that “regional breeds of sheep face a heightened risk of disease because of their tendency to remain together in one location”. It is summarising a report from The Sheep Trust, which was founded during the epidemic of Foot and Mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001. That’s important.
What the Trust’s report seems to be saying that when there is an outbreak of disease, the regional, heritage, breeds are vulnerable because they are concentrated in a single geographical location. But that does not put them at greater risk of disease. It puts them at greater risk of being culled as part of government’s policy-based response to the disease. If the policy is to slaughter all animals within, say, 5 km of an affected farm, regardless of whether they have the disease or not, then yes, geographical concentration is a threat to the breed. But it isn’t the disease as such that is the threat, it is the policy response. It is even possible that the policy would wipe out flocks that contain genetic resistance.
What’s the answer? Given that regional breeds are interesting precisely because they are adapted to a small region, simply spreading them about might not be much of a solution. Gene-banking? Well, that’s where we came in: The Sheep Trust is an outgrowth of the Heritage Genebank. So what exactly do they want?
“We are strongly recommending that new measures are put in place to protect these important genetic resources now that their vulnerability has been so clearly demonstrated,†says Professor Dianna Bowles OBE, founder and Chair of The Sheep Trust.
No further details are forthcoming. How very frustrating. Maybe all they want is government money for the sheep genebank.
New Agriculturist tackles animals
Yes, the new New Agriculturist is out, and this time it has animal genetic resources in its sights. But not only. As always, it’s got lots of great stuff, including cotton expert Karim Hussein on the International Year of Natural Fibres. Don’t forget to do the online survey.
LATER: The State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is now multi-lingual, at least in part.
LATER STILL: The Sheep Trust has just published a report that says that rare local breeds are more vulnerable to diseases because they live all together in a relatively restricted geographical area.
Nibbles: Databases, Hell squared, Genebanks, Goats, Olives, Safe movement, Pouteria, Roman wine
- iSPOT to map common names to Latin names. Jeremy says “Good luck with that.”
- International Conference on Biodiversity Informatics. Jeremy says “Good luck with that too.”
- Online discussion forums for the ICBI, above. Agriculture! Forestry! Fisheries!
- Uganda joins the rush to Svalbard global genebank.
- Scientists to clone pashmina goat. Er … why?
- Adopt-an-Italian-olive-tree.
- International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) meets so we can eats.
- Inverted root grafting of canistel at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
- In vino veritas.
The spread of the ass
Great find by Mathilda: “The history and spread of donkeys in Africa,” by Roger Blench. It’s from the book Donkeys, people and development, edited by Paul Starkey and Denis Fielding. That came out of a 2004 Animal Traction Network for Eastern and Southern Africa workshop. There’s lots of other interesting stuff on the network’s site, including a donkey bibliography.
In brief:
- domesticated probably in Egypt/Nubia at the beginning of the Neolithic in Africa, 6,500 years ago
- but perhaps several times in regions of its former range no longer represented by its present-day distribution
- expansion paralleled that of cultivated sorghum
LATER: And a thousand year later, on another continent, it’s the horse’s turn.