Animal genetic resource trade flows: Economic assessment

Throughout human history, livestock producers have relied on a vibrant international exchange of genentic resources to achieve improvements in the quality and productivity of their animals. In recent years, however, some observers have argued that changes in the legal, technological, and economic environment now imply that international exchanges of animal genetic resources (AnGR) systematically benefit rich countries at the expense of poor countries. It is argued that international flows of AnGR are displacing the indigenous animal genetic resources of developing countries, and alos that the genetic wealth of the developing world is being expropriated by rich countries. In reaction, there have been growing calls for limitations and/or barriers to the exchange of animal genetic resources. These discussions, however, seem to be based on limited information about the magnitude and direction of current trade flows in AnGR. This paper offers an analysis of AnGR trade flows from 1990 to 2005. The paper draws on national-level data from 150 countries that reported information to the United States Statistics Division. Three major trade categories were evaluated: live cattle and pigs for breeding, and cattle semen. Over the period studied, Europe and North America were the primary exporters of genetic resources for the species evaluated. OECD countries accounted for 98.7, 92.5, and 95% of cattle semen, live cattle, and swine exports in 2005, respectively. In evaluation the direction of trade between developed (North) and developing (South) countries, North-South trade had the largest magnitude, followed by North-South, South-South, and South-North. The data do not support the notion that Southern genetic resources are being used on a large scale in the North. We believe that importation from South to North is limited by the vast discrepancies in production efficiency and production systems between countries in the North and South. Given the low volume of South-North exchange, it seems doubtful that sufficient revenues could be acquired through a “benefit-sharing mechanism" to have any substantial impact on in situ or ex situ conservation efforts, or to generate benefits for poor livestock keepers in developing countries. We question whether global agreements or restrictions on trade will achieve the improving the well-being of the poor. We suggest that resources instead be urgently employed for conservation and that more direct measures should be taken to aid poor farmers, ranchers, and herders in their efforts to conserve genetic resources.animal genetic resources, gene flow, germplasm trade

The Animal Genetic Resource Information Network (AnimalGRIN) Database: A Database Design & Implementation Case

This case describes a database redesign project for the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Germplasm Program (NAGP). The case provides a valuable context for teaching and practicing database analysis, design, and implementation skills, and can be used as the basis for a semester-long team project. The case demonstrates the broad applicability of database skills to domains outside typical business applications. The functional requirements for the NAGP’s information system are documented with a detailed set of use cases, which are commonly used in practice and which provides a link between the database course and the systems analysis and design course in many information systems curricula. The NAGP database redesign project was initiated because the original database design was not flexible or rigorous enough to handle the ways in which the organization’s needs grew. The case provides several opportunities to emphasize design flexibility and data integrity controls

A Different kind of normal: parents' experiences of early care and education for young children born prematurely

The number of preterm births is increasing globally and in England, yet professional knowledge about the short and long-term developmental consequences and the psycho-social effect on parents is limited amongst the early years workforce. Using a social ecological systems theory approach this paper reports on a mixed-methods study that aimed to explore parents’ experiences of early care and education for young children born prematurely. Findings suggest that having a baby born prematurely has the potential to have a detrimental effect on parent-child bonding and can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder for parents. Parents identified a need for professional training for early years practitioners and teachers to help them understand the concept of ‘corrected age’ and the extra support that children born prematurely (and their parents) might need in attending parent and toddler groups, early years settings and on transition to school especially if there are also multiple births

Molecular phylogenetics reveals a complex history underlying cryptic diversity in the Bush Squeaker Frog (Arthroleptis wahlbergii) in southern Africa

Throughout the Miocene, the African landscape underwent broad climatic shifts that profoundly influenced the distribution of fauna and flora. Since the late Miocene, these shifts have created a landscape in southern Africa that is strongly characterised by savanna and arid environments. Forests persist in small fragments, primarily in mountainous or heterogeneous landscapes. Arthroleptis wahlbergii is a small frog endemic to eastern South Africa that has presumed low dispersal ability. Because of its preference for forests, the dynamics of forests since the late Miocene in this region might have promoted diversification within A. wahlbergii. To investigate whether habitat fragmentation might have driven divergences among populations, we carried out species distribution modelling and population level and phylogenetic analyses using two genetic loci (16S, mitochondrial; RAG-1, nuclear) sequenced for 48 individuals from 14 forests across the c. 500 km range of this species. There is substantial population level structuring within A. wahlbergii, however the structure does not relate to forest types or catchments. We instead propose that the structure is a result of dynamic and idiosyncratic changes in forest connectivity over the Pleistocene. We identified two geographically circumscribed clades, the northern of which corresponds to true A. wahlbergii. The southern clade corresponds to populations from which Arthroleptis wageri FitzSimons, 1930 was described. This has long been considered a synonym of A. wahlbergii, but our molecular phylogenetic and distribution modelling supports recognising A. wageri as a distinct species

Reference to index of Trooper Blackburn's Diary 1901-1902

Diary kept by Trooper Harvey Stanley Hyde Blackburn while a member of the 2nd Tasmanian Imperial Bushmen's Contingent at the Boer War. He noted the voyage, weather, work with the horses, marches, casualties, camps and the return voyage

Assessing Population Structure and Genetic Diversity in US Suffolk Sheep to Define a Framework for Genomic Selection

Long-term sustainability of breeds depends on having sufficient genetic diversity for adaptability to change, whether driven by climatic conditions or by priorities in breeding programs. Genetic diversity in Suffolk sheep in the United States was evaluated in four ways: 1) using genetic relationships from pedigree data [(n = 64 310 animals recorded in the US National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP)]; 2) using molecular data (n = 304 Suffolk genotyped with the OvineHD BeadChip); 3) comparing Australian (n = 109) and Irish (n = 55) Suffolk sheep to those in the United States using molecular data; and 4) assessing genetic relationships (connectedness) among active Suffolk flocks (n = 18) in NSIP. By characterizing genetic diversity, a goal was to define the structure of a reference population for use for genomic selection strategies in this breed. Pedigree-based mean inbreeding level for the most recent year of available data was 5.5%. Ten animals defined 22.8% of the current gene pool. The effective population size (Ne) ranged from 27.5 to 244.2 based on pedigree and was 79.5 based on molecular data. Expected (HE) and observed (HO) heterozygosity were 0.317 and 0.306, respectively. Model-based population structure included 7 subpopulations. From Principal Component Analysis, countries separated into distinct populations. Within the US population, flocks formed genetically disconnected clusters. A decline in genetic diversity over time was observed from both pedigree and genomic-based derived measures with evidence of population substructure as measured by FST. Using these measures of genetic diversity, a framework for establishing a genomic reference population in US Suffolk sheep engaged in NSIP was proposed

Semiparametric Bayesian inference in smooth coefficient models

We describe procedures for Bayesian estimation and testing in cross-sectional, panel data and nonlinear smooth coefficient models. The smooth coefficient model is a generalization of the partially linear or additive model wherein coefficients on linear explanatory variables are treated as unknown functions of an observable covariate. In the approach we describe, points on the regression lines are regarded as unknown parameters and priors are placed on differences between adjacent points to introduce the potential for smoothing the curves. The algorithms we describe are quite simple to implement - for example, estimation, testing and smoothing parameter selection can be carried out analytically in the cross-sectional smooth coefficient model. We apply our methods using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Using the NLSY data we first explore the relationship between ability and log wages and flexibly model how returns to schooling vary with measured cognitive ability. We also examine a model of female labor supply and use this example to illustrate how the described techniques can been applied in nonlinear settings

Can sexual selection drive female life histories? A comparative study on Galliform birds

Sexual selection is an important driver of many of the most spectacular morphological traits that we find in the animal kingdom (for example see Andersson, 1994). As such, sexual selection is most often emphasized as

Testing abundance-range size relationships in European carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae).

between abundance and range size (the sampling artifact, phylogenetic non-independence, range position and resource breadth hypotheses) were tested by using atlas data for carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) from Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands. A positive relationship between abundance and partial range size was found in all three countries, and the variation in abundance was lower for widespread species. Analysis of the data did not support three of the proposed hypotheses, but did support the resource breadth hypothesis (species having broader environmental tolerances and being able to use a wider range or resources will have higher local densities and be more widely distributed than more specialised species). Examination of species’ characteristics revealed that widespread species are generally large bodied, generalists (species with wide niche breadths occurring in a variety of habitat types) and are little influenced by human-altered landscapes, while species with restricted distributions are smaller bodied, specialists (species with small niche breadths occurring in only one or two habitat types), and favour natural habitat. Landscape alteration may be an important factor influencing carabid abundance and range size in these three countries with a long history of human-induced environmental changes

Comparing parasitoid life histories

Species and clades are characterized by their unique combinations, or suites, of different life history traits. In parasitoids, traits include a core group common to other organisms, and a parasitoid-specific group. These organize into several sets of mutually covarying traits which overlap a little, but not wholly, with other sets. Across parasitoid species, host size, clutch size and body size tend to covary. Roughly independent of these is a dichotomy between idiobionts (host does not develop after parasitization), which tend to have fast development but slow adult life histories, and koinobionts (hosts develop after parasitization) with the opposite set of traits. Consistent links between the dichotomy and host characteristics remain elusive. A low ovigeny index (low allocation to early reproduction) is found in idiobionts, and is a predictor of some of the dichotomous set, but also more host feeding, egg resorption, solitary development, and larger bodies. Variation in fecundity, in taxonomically-restricted studies, is predicted by the host stage attacked, but this is not reflected in taxonomically-broad studies. The reasons behind trait co-variation are only partly understood. Analyses of evolutionary lability suggest that variation in development mode and body size tends to be clustered within higher taxonomic levels, with variation in other traits such as lifespan, fecundity and egg size more evenly distributed across taxonomic levels. Thus, taxonomically constrained radiations of parasitoids tend to retain a particular suite of traits that revolve around fundamental shifts in hosts and their use that occur relatively rarely. Parasitoids illustrate how the fast-slow continuum can be much less extensive than in mammals, how the ecology of the host affects the life histories of parasitic organisms, how different taxa require different life history theories, and how understanding resource allocation in early adult life can help explain life history variation