FAO director general worries about animal genetic resources.
Bats suck
Another great example of the interaction between wild and domesticated biodiversity. As the rain forest is cleared for ranching in Latin America, its blood-sucking bats are increasingly turning from tapirs and the like to cattle as something juicy to sink their teeth into. This is also leading to an uptick in rabies cases among humans.
Fido decoded
An article by Elaine Ostrander in the latest American Scientist summarizes recent advances in canine genomics, which have been considerable:
The dog genome has been mapped and sequenced. A host of disease loci have been mapped, and in many cases the underlying mutations identified. Our understanding of how dog breeds relate to one another is beginning to develop, and we have a fundamental understanding of the organization of the canine genome. The issue of complex traits is no longer off-limits. We have begun to understand the genetic portfolio that leads to variation in body size and shape, and even some performance-associated behaviors.
Some snippets:
- Between-breed genetic variation is about 27.5% of the total, compared to about 5% between human populations.
- Dog breeds fall into 4 main groups: Asian and African dogs, plus grey wolves; mastiffs; herding dogs and sight hounds; and modern huntings dogs.
- 75% of the 19,000 genes that have been identified in the dog genome show close similarities with their human counterparts.
- Variation in a single gene (IGF1) explains a lot of the size differences among and within breeds.
What to do with all this information?
It is certainly hoped that the disease-gene mapping will lead to the production of genetic tests and more thoughtful breeding programs associated with healthier, more long-lived dogs. It will be easier to select for particular physical traits such as body size or coat color… Finally, canine geneticists will have a chance to develop an understanding of the genes that cause breed-specific behaviors (why do pointers point and herders herd?).
Micro-livestock training in Nigeria
Teaching Nigerians to raise snails and grasscutters.
Animal Health for the Environment and Development
We sometimes talk about agricultural biodiversity as if there’s a line that separates it from other kinds of — wild — biodiversity, but of course it doesn’t work like that. There are all kinds of intearactions. For example, diseases can move from wild to domesticated species. Given all the zoonotic diseases that have made the news lately, it seems like it would be sensible to look at human, domestic animal and wildlife health together, rather than in isolation from each other. But apparently such an integrated approach is pretty rare. An initiative of the Wildlife Conservation Society is trying to change all that:
…improving livestock health not only improves human nutrition and incomes, but in the case of zoonotic diseases also contributes directly to improved human health. In addition, healthier domestic animals contribute to securing healthier wildlife (and vice versa), decreasing chances of disease transmission at the livestock/wildlife interface. These cross-sectoral benefits are not all “automatic,” but require that explicit linkages be made between improved food security and health and more sustainable environmental stewardship from the household and community levels on up.