WORLD / Health
Farm animal diversity under threat, FAO says
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-06-15 03:46
The rapid spread of large-scale industrial livestock production focused
on a narrow range of breeds is the biggest threat to the world's farm
animal diversity, according to a report presented on Thursday to the
Commission on Genetic Resources for the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization ( FAO).
Surging global demand for meat, milk and eggs has led to heavy reliance
on high-output animals intensively bred to supply uniform products,
according to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food
and Agriculture.
The problem is compounded by the ease with which genetic material can now
be moved around the world, said the report, which draws on information
from 169 countries.
"In the next 40 years, the world's population will rise from today's 6.2
billion to 9 billion, with all the growth occurring in the developing
countries," said FAO Assistant Director-General Alexander Muller in his
address to the commission.
"We need to increase the resilience of our food supply, by maintaining
and deploying the widest possible portfolio of genetic resources, which
are vital and irreplaceable", he said.
"Global warming is an additional threat to all genetic resources,
increasing the pressure on biodiversity," Muller added. "Yet we need
these genetic resources for the adaptation of agriculture to climate
change."
"One livestock breed a month has become extinct over the past seven
years, and time is running out for one-fifth of the world's breeds of
cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry," said Muller. " This report, the
first-ever global overview of livestock biodiversity and of the capacity
within countries to manage their animal genetic resources, is a wake-up
call to the world."
"Effective management of animal genetic diversity is essential to global
food security, sustainable development and the livelihoods of millions of
people," said Irene Hoffmann, Chief of FAO's Animal Production Service.
According to the report, 48 percent of the world's countries report no
national in vivo conservation programs, and 63 percent report that they
have no in vitro programs, that is, the conservation of embryos, semen or
other genetic material, with the potential to reconstitute live animals
at a later date. Similarly, in many countries, structured breeding
programs are absent or ineffective.
At this week's meeting of FAO's Commission on Genetic Resources -- the
only international institution dealing with all genetic resources in
agriculture, forestry and fisheries -- experts from around the world are
expected to endorse the findings of the report, which will be formally
launched at the International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic
Resources in Interlaken, Switzerland, in September 2007.
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