B.A.O. Inyangala

• Dept of Animal Production• Animal Genetics and Breeding section• Door number 21• Consultation Wednesdays 2-4pm• Always in except when I am out• Email benson.inyangala@uonbi.ac.ke

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AAS 202: Animal Genetic Resources

• Definition of Biological diversity (Biodiversity), Economic importance of Biodiversity.

• Animal Genetic resources (AnGR) in East Africa, Domestic Animal Diversity:- their origins, what they are, Current and future roles, Links to environmental sustainability, Food security and poverty alleviation

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Cont’d

• Characterization of domestic animal genetic diversity, stakeholders of Animal Genetic Resources, State of the World Animal Genetic Resources, state of Agricultural biodiversity in the livestock sector, livestock Sector Trends, state of capacities in Animal Genetic Resources, state of the art in the management of Animal genetic Resources.

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Cont’d

• Threats to animal genetic diversity, counter initiatives, value addition, and sustainable use, conservation methods of Animal Genetic Resources, advantages and disadvantages of various conservation methods, convention on Biological Diversity,

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Cont’d

• Policies and institutional frameworks for access to and use of genetic resources and materials, including equity and ownership issues; global, regional and national collaboration, including trans-boundary and cross-border arrangements, conventions, policies and laws.

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AAS 202 :Animal genetic Resources

References• FAO publications• FAO Website• State of the World Animal Genetic

Resources• Domestic Animal Diversity Information

Service (DAD-IS)• Animal Genetics Training Resource

(www.ilri.org)6

Biodiversity

• Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems. The biodiversity found on Earth today consists of many millions of distinct biological species, which is the product of nearly 3.5 billion years of evolution. 2010 was declared as the International Year of Biodiversity. 7

Cont’d

• "Biological diversity" or "biodiversity" can have many interpretations and it is most commonly used to replace the more clearly defined and long established terms, species diversity and species richness. Biologists define biodiversity as the "totality of molecules, genes, species, and ecosystems of a region". There are four levels at which biological variety has been identified:

• genetic diversity • species diversity • ecosystem diversity • molecular diversity

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The Importance of Biodiversity

• Generation of Soils and Maintenance of soil quality

• Maintenance of air quality• Maintenance of water quality• Pest control• Detoxification and decomposition of

wastes

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The Importance of Biodiversity

• Pollination and crop production• Climate stabilization• Prevention and mitigation of natural

disasters• Provision of food security• Provision of health care• In come generation• Spiritual / cultural value

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Generation of Soils and Maintenance of soil quality

• The activities of microbial and animal species – including bacteria, algae, fungi, mites, millipedes and worms – condition soils, break down organic matter, and release essential nutrients to plants.

• These processes play a key role in the cycling of such crucial elements as nitrogen, carbon and phosphorous between the living and non-living parts of the biosphere. 11

Maintenance of air quality

• Plant species purify the air and regulate the composition of the atmosphere, recycling vital oxygen and filtering harmful particles resulting from industrial activities.

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Maintenance of water quality

• Wetland ecosystems (swamps, marshes, etc.) absorb and recycle essential nutrients, treat sewage, and cleanse wastes.

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Maintenance of water quality

• In estuaries, molluscs remove nutrients from the water, helping to prevent nutrient over-enrichment and its attendant problems, such as eutrophication arising from fertilizer run-off.

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Maintenance of water quality

• Trees and forest soils purify water as it flows through forest ecosystems. In preventing soils from being washed away, forests also prevent the harmful siltation of rivers and reservoirs that may arise from erosion and landslides.

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Pest control• Around 99 per cent of potential crop

pests are controlled by a variety of other organisms, including insects, birds and fungi.

• These natural pesticides are in many ways superior to their artificial equivalents, since pests can often develop resistance to chemical controls.

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Detoxification and decomposition of wastes

• Some 130 billion metric tons of organic waste is processed every year by earth’s decomposing organisms.

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Detoxification and decomposition of wastes

• Many industrial wastes, including detergents, oils, acids and paper, are also detoxified and decomposed by the activities of living things.

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Detoxification and decomposition of wastes

• In soils, the end product of these processes – a range of simple inorganic chemicals – is returned to plants as nutrients. Higher (vascular) plants can themselves serve to remove harmful substances from groundwater.

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Pollination and crop production• Many flowering plants rely on the activities

of various animal species – bees, butterflies, bats, birds, etc. – to help them reproduce through the transportation of pollen.

• More than one-third of humanity’s food crops depend on this process of natural pollination.

• Many animal species have evolved to perform an additional function in plant reproduction through the dispersal of seeds. 20

Climate stabilization• Plant tissues and other organic

materials within land and ocean ecosystems act as repositories of carbon, helping to slow the build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and thus contributing to climate stabilization.

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Climate stabilization• Ecosystems also exert direct

influences on regional and local weather patterns. Moisture released into the atmosphere by rainforests, for example, causes regular rainstorms, limiting water loss from the region and helping to control the surface temperature.

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Climate stabilization

• In cold climates, meanwhile, forests act as insulators and as windbreaks, helping to mitigate the impacts of freezing temperatures.

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Prevention and mitigation of natural disasters

• Forests and grasslands protect landscapes against erosion, nutrient loss, and landslides through the binding action of roots.

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Prevention and mitigation of natural disasters

• Ecosystems bordering regularly flooding rivers (floodplain forests and wetlands) help to absorb excess water and thus reduce the damage caused by floods.

• Certain coastal ecosystems (salt marshes, mangrove forests, etc.) prevent the erosion of coastlines.

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Provision of food security

• Biodiversity provides the vast majority of our foodstuffs.

• The annual world fish catch, for example (averaging 100 million metric tons), represents humanity’s most important source of wild animal protein, with over 20 per cent of the population in Africa and Asia dependent on fish as their primary source of protein.

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Provision of food security• Terrestrial animals, meanwhile, supply an

array of food products: eggs, milk, meat, etc.

• Wild biodiversity provides a wide variety of important foodstuffs, including fruits, game meats, nuts, mushrooms, honey, spices and flavorings. These wild foods are especially important when agricultural supplies fail.

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Provision of food security

• Wild biodiversity guards against the failure of even the most advanced agricultural systems. For example, the productivity of many of the developed world’s agricultural crops is maintained through the regular assimilation of new genes from wild relatives of these crops. These wild genes offer resistance to the pests and diseases that pose an ever-evolving threat to harvests.

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Provision of health care

• The World Health Organization estimates that 80 per cent of people in the developing world rely on traditional medicines derived mainly from plants.

• In Southeast Asia, for example, traditional healers use some 6,500 different plant species to treat malaria, stomach ulcers, syphilis, and other diseases.

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Provision of health care

• Biodiversity is also critical to the 'formal' health sector of the developed world. A recent survey showed that of the top 150 prescription drugs used in the United States, 118 are based on natural sources. Of these, 74 per cent are derived from plants.

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Provision of health care

• Microbes and animal species have also contributed a range of medicines, including Penicillin (derived from the fungus Penicillium notatum) and several drugs – including anesthetics– derived from the skin secretions of tree-frog species.

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Provision of healthcare

• The medicinal importance of biodiversity is particularly impressive considering that only a tiny fraction of earth’s species have been thoroughly investigated for medicinal properties.

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Provision of healthcare

• The investigative process is continually turning up new pharmaceuticals of great promise. A recent study of cone snails, for example, has identified a painkiller that is up to a thousand times more effective than morphine, but without morphine’s addictive properties.

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Income generation

• The above services are all essential to the functioning of the global economy. Yet biodiversity also has great importance as a direct source of incomes and economic development. One example is 'bioprospecting' (the search for previously unknown biotic products of specific utility, such as natural pesticides, anti-fungal toxins and ‘oil-eating’ enzymes).

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Income generation

• Such discoveries join an impressive list of ‘miscellaneous’ goods provided by biodiversity, including many of our most important building materials, fibres, fuels, waxes, resins, aromatics, dyes and gums.

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Income generation

• Even in its wholly untapped state, biodiversity does great service to economies through ‘ecotourism’. People taking nature-related holidays contribute at least $500 billion per year to the national incomes of the countries they visit. Florida’s coral reefs, for example, earn around $1.6 billion per year through tourism alone.

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Spiritual / cultural value

• It’s no mystery why people are prepared to spend so much to get close to nature. Human beings instinctively derive aesthetic and spiritual satisfaction from biodiversity.

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Spiritual / cultural value

• Recent studies have begun to confirm what has always been known: our emotional wellbeing is enhanced by the proximity of natural beauty.

• The umbilical bond between humanity and biodiversity is reflected in the art, religions and traditions of diverse human cultures: a spiritual heritage that will be lost for all time if its basis – nature itself – continues to be destroyed.

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