Importing livestock 'not productive'

Importing livestock 'not productive'

BANGKOK (AP): When the chickens came home to roost during Indonesia's economic crisis, the farmers couldn't afford to feed them.

Livestock specialists from around Asia this week discussed the case of Indonesia's chickens as an example of the perils of turning away from indigenous breeds to imported animals that seemingly are capable of much greater production.

Although various farm animals bred in Europe and North America can have growth rates twice as high as their Asian counterparts, the high productivity often cannot be imported along with them, said David Steane of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

All too often, initial boosts in productivity are lost when crossbreeding with the newcomers causes local breeds to lose their genetic capability to thrive in local conditions, said Steane, the FAO's regional coordinator for animal genetic resources.

Officials from 11 Asian countries and experts from the FAO and other organizations concluded a meeting Tuesday on use and conservation of animal genetic resources in Asia, which will become part of a worldwide report.

An FAO commission launched the project in April, to be completed in 2003, in recognition that food production in much of the world relies on locally adapted breeds.

The case of the Indonesian chickens was a sharp reminder of the risks of relying on so-called exotic - or alien - breeds, said Dr. Keith Hammond, head of the FAO's Initiative for Animal Diversity.

Trying to cope with feeding the country's 200 million people, Indonesia's poultry industry turned to imported industrial breeds - requiring relatively expensive feed - to produce more meat and eggs.

The decision to take the high-input, high-output path left indigenous chickens accounting for only one-third of poultry meat production and indigenous eggs just one-sixth of egg production.

When Indonesia was rocked in 1997-98 by a series of crises - political, financial and climatic - the results for poultry farmers and consumers were catastrophic.

More than 70 percent of broiler and layer chicken farmers stopped farming for several months.

A sharp currency devaluation made imported feed prohibitively expensive. Bad weather adversely affected production of local substitutes.

Only with government subsidies has the industry recovered, but the affair convinced the government to institute a US$5 million program promoting indigenous ducks, goats and sheep.

Typically, high feed costs for exotic breeds is the major problem, but environmental and health factors also play a part.

Many regional countries - including Thailand, Vietnam, and Nepal - have imported Holstein-Friesian cows to boost milk production.

"The first cross with local breeds brings very good results, with much more milk than from the local animals - if you feed them," noted the FAO's Steane.

But when the levels of Holstein-Friesian blood in the crossbreeds reaches the level of 50 percent to 75 percent, performance falls. The breed is not adapted to the stress of Asia's climate, disease and bugs.

The flip side of introducing alien breeds is the preservation of indigenous ones. About 30 percent of the world's animal genetic resources are at risk of disappearing. Little organized effort is under way for their conservation.

Some breeds may not be of immediate economic use but could be useful in the future as genetic engineering allows the identification of and in some cases transfer of beneficial genes.

Steane cited the example of the Javanese thin-tailed sheep, which is resistant to worms. In other parts of the world, other breeds are becoming resistant to the drugs which kill worms.

Preserving the genetic material of the Javanese thin-tailed sheep leaves open the opportunity of breeding resistance to worms.