 Highlights
Improving local knowledge of
domestic animal breeds
Livestock is an important agricultural focus for the Pacific.
Livestock production in the region is mainly done to meet family and social
obligations, whether it is to provide beef carcases for bestowment of chiefly
titles in Samoa, king-size porkers for traditional ceremonies in Wallis and
Futuna, or the social status symbol associated with owning pigs in Papua New
Guinea. Cattle, pigs and chickens are the three main types of livestock raised
in the Pacific. Unlike cattle, free-ranging pigs and chickens are mostly
unimproved but highly adaptive breeds.
Knowledge of local domestic livestock for food and
agriculture is not well documented in the Pacific. A workshop to help address
the issue of Pacific animal genetic resources (AnGR) for food and agriculture
will be held from 6 to 8 August at the Tanoa Hotel, Nadi, Fiji. The workshop is
being co-organised by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the
Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)
and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
 Many
local breeds in the south-west Pacific region have not yet been sufficiently
identified or characterised, and this lack of information prevents the limited
available funds from being applied to appropriate conservation, sustainable use
and development projects. Understanding the unique nature of the region’s AnGR
will assist in ensuring the fair and equitable sharing of benefits deriving from
them, and aid the development of policies to manage them. The workshop will
offer informative presentations on the diversity of animal genetic resources in
the region and practical sessions will give delegates the relevant training to
accurately collect breed information, as well as practical experience in the
collection and storage of samples for DNA analysis.
In addition, the
workshop will be an opportunity for Australia to outline developments under
FAO’s Global Plan of Action (GPA) on animal genetics resources following a
recent meeting of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture. Elements of the GPA will be finalised at the FAO International
Technical Conference to be held 3–7 September 2007 in Interlaken, Switzerland,
and the Nadi workshop will provide a forum for the Pacific region to work
towards common policy positions on the GPA for the Interlaken conference.
3rd Meeting of the
Pacific Heads of Veterinary and Animal Production Services (PHOVAPS)
Concurrent with the
workshop on improving local knowledge on domestic AnGR is the 3rd PHOVAPS
Regional Meeting. Priority areas identified during this meeting will form the
basis of a work plan for the next three years for the Animal Health and
Production thematic group of SPC, which acts as the secretariat of PHOVAPS. The
Pacific Regional Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Plan (PRIPPP) and the
setting-up of a regional task force to combat pandemic influenza were among the
successful outcomes of last year’s PHOVAPS meeting.
For more information
on PHOVAPS and the animal genetic resources workshop, please contact Dr Ken
Cokanasiga, Adviser, SPC Animal Health and Production, at
KenC@spc.int.
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