Following a recent Heifer Board meeting in Little Rock, Dr. Devendra sat down with Christian De Vries for a relaxed and candid interview. They discussed a wide range of issues on the development of goats, including: the evolution and importance of IGA, consistent interest and commitment to the development of the species, trends in their multi-functional values, and priorities for the future. Christian
You’ve been involved with IGA since the beginning. How did it start? Devendra “Few people know the background that led to the formation of IGA. It was born during a bus ride for a field excursion, during the 2nd International Goat Conference in Tours, France in 1971.* I made the suggestion to Prof. Christian Gall from Germany who was sitting next to me that that we move to form a professional association to provide information and promote the development of goats. This led to the formation of The World Committee on Goats in which Prof. Gall was made the President and I was elected as the Vice-President, with the Secretariat in France. Since then I have served over a record 17 years as Vice-President, by my own choice, to work with colleagues so that I could play a more effective role in spreading the regional focus and development of goats, assisting the Presidents, and finding venues for the international conferences in which I was directly involved with four.”
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![]() We wish to congratulate our long-term friend, a former IGA Vice-President and member of the Board of Directors and current Country Representative in Malaysia, Dr. Canagasaby Devendra. He was chosen to serve on the Heifer International Board of Directors as an At-Large Representative residing in the Asia/South Pacific region in November 2012. Dr. Devendra said that he was pleasantly surprised at the appointment and felt deeply honored to join this prestigious development organization. He is excited to be part of its noble mission and values to promote agricultural development in small farm systems and improve the livelihoods of poor rural communities. ![]() Biosecurity is a set of practices that are used to minimize the transmission of disease-causing organisms in animal populations, including their introduction, spread within the population, and release. Biosecurity is proactive and focuses on routine, day-to-day on-farm activities to protect the health of the herd. The Standard was developed through a partnership of the Canadian National Goat Federation (CNGF) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). An advisory committee made up of producers, along with representatives from regional and sector-specific goat industry organizations, colleges and universities, and the public sector, provided invaluable guidance throughout the process. The Standard is a useful tool for goat producers when developing and implementing on-farm biosecurity plans. It contains a set of recommendations that can be adapted to the needs of each farm to raise its current level of biosecurity. Why is biosecurity important? Animal health management has undergone significant change in recent years, influenced by:
As a result, using a proactive approach as the first line of defence in animal health is more important now than ever before. Livestock industries have therefore started to shift their focus to disease prevention and on-farm biosecurity. Clearly, biosecurity is important not only for improving animal health on the farm, but also for strengthening the Canadian goat industry as a whole. Read more… ![]() IGA regrets to inform its members of the passing of Dr. R. Ashley Robinson, a leading advocate for small ruminants in international development. Dr. Robinson was a native of New Zealand. He earned his bachelor's degree in veterinary science from the University of Sydney in Australia, and his master's in public health and doctorate in veterinary microbiology from the University of Minnesota, where he was a faculty member for 20 years. Dr. Robinson came out of retirement to serve as Associate Dean of Pre-Clinical Programs at Western University School of Veterinary Medicine in Davis, California. He was active in development work with FAO, Heifer International and many projects, especially in the Middle East and South Asia. “He was internationally renowned both as an epidemiologist and an educator. His expertise in zoonotic diseases, food safety, public health and international veterinary medicine has had an impact on veterinarians around the world,” says Shirley Johnston, DVM, PhD, Vice President of University Advancement at Western University of Health Sciences. ![]() A special issue on last advances on goat research in France has been recently published by The French Journal Productions Animals The articles published under the coordination of Pierre Morand-Fehr are in open access ELEVAGE CAPRIN - Productions animales You can use Google translate to have access to these documents in English. ![]() Dr. Irfan Daskiran IGA Country Representative for Turkey THE XIth INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GOATS in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands (Spain) was a big success with over 400 participants from 50 countries. Industrial, scientific and rural activities in the goat sector were discussed by experts and researchers with 18 sessions, 5 roundtables, and 3 satellites seminars. In addition, excellent information was displayed on attractive posters from many countries at the several poster sessions. I attended the conference as the representative of Turkey for IGA and participated in the IGA/IFAD workshop as well. The importance of this meeting was also the fact that Turkey was one of the candidates applying for organizing the next IGC in 2016. We competed with two other valuable candidates and it was an honour for us to have been chosen. We anticipate that all goat researchers, goat sector representatives and goat lovers will be joining us in 2016 in Antalya, Turkey for the XII IGC. Before the next meeting, however, I would like to share some information concerning the goat farming situation in Turkey with all the IGA family. What is the current goat situation in Turkey? The goat population of Turkey started a downward trend beginning in the 1990s (Table 1). Presently, the goat population totals approximately 7.25 million head, mostly from local breeds that have a low production capacity. ![]() The 11th International Conference on Goats in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands (Spain) was a big success with over 400 participants from 50 countries. Industrial, scientific and rural activities in the goat sector were discussed by experts and researchers with 18 sessions, 5 roundtables, and 3 satellites seminars. In addition, excellent information was displayed on attractive posters from many countries at the several poster sessions.
A special workshop was organized, to discuss the collaboration between the International Goat Association (IGA) and the International Fund on Agriculture and Development (IFAD), on the role of goats in the fight against poverty and operational aspects of building efficient projects with the participation of actors and specialists from all continents.
Goats and the Canary Islands The Canary Isles were conquered by Spain in the 13th and 14th centuries, and goats were already present on the isles. Canarian people have been raising goats for several centuries, and today goats are the most important livestock resource in the archipelago (more than 400,000 heads). There are three native dairy goat breeds in the Canary Islands – all with a common ancestor, the Paleocanaria goat – and almost 100% of their milk is used to make traditional cheese. The wild population disappeared during the last century although there are still signs of the ancient population in their domesticated offspring. Furthermore, recent studies using a linking network analysis of mitochondrial D-loop sequences has shown that Canary Island goats had an important influence in the building of American goat herds. ![]() A regional International Conference on sheep and goats in Paraiba (North-Eastern) Brazil, October 24-28, 2011 Consult the official programme of the Symposium The State Government of Paraiba, through the Secretary of State for Agriculture and Fisheries Development, The State Enterprise for Agricultural Research, The State Company for Agricultural Research of State of Paraiba - EMEPA-PB, The Brazilian Service of Support to Micro and Small Enterprises - SEBRAE, The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation - EMBRAPA Goats and Sheep, the Federation of Agriculture of the State of Paraíba - FAEPA, National Institute for Semiarid INSA will be held in the city of Joao Pessoa, Paraiba, Brazil, thought 24-28 October 2011, at Hotel Tambaú, the 5th International Symposium on Goat and Sheep for Meat Production – 5th SINCORTE and National Fair of Agribusiness on Goat and Sheep Production - FENACORTE 2011. Read the report, see picture and more information from this conference:
www.iga-goatworld.com/9th-icg-queretaro-mexico.html The IGA country representative, Alfredo Teixeira, for Portugal in association with National Serrana Goat Breeders Association (ANCRAS) and the Agriculture School (ESA) of the Bragança Polytechnic Institute I (IPB) organized the First Portuguese Goat Production Meeting which occurred in Bragança (Portugal) from October 19-21, 2006.
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