Critical Role of Animal Science Research in Food Security and Sustainability (2015) / Chapter Skim
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4 Global Considerations for Animal Agriculture Research
4 Global Considerations for Animal Agriculture Research
Pages 215-310
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Because animal products and animal feed are critical components of world food trade, understanding trends in supply and demand for animal products globally is also crucial. Additionally, corollary needs must be fulfilled with respect to understanding the socioeconomic contexts in which food animals are produced worldwide, such as infrastructural gaps, food insecurity in some world regions, and barriers to technology transfer.
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In general, animal science research can be grouped into the following broad categories: animal health, food safety, food and feed security, climate change, animal well-being, and water quantity and quality. An EU Animal Task Force identified the following four areas as priorities for research: (1)
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1999) World 36.4 78.1 Developing countries 25.5 44.6 Near East and North Africa 21.2 72.3 a Sub-Saharan Africa 9.4 29.1 Latin America and the 53.8 110.2 Caribbean East Asia 37.7 10.0 South Asia 5.3 67.5 Industrialized countries 88.2 212.2 Transition countries 46.2 159.1 a Excludes South Africa SOURCE: WHO (2014)
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In broad terms, the animal science research goals of the United States and Europe are similar, with a focus on food safety, global food security, sustainability, and animal well-being. These are global goals and are applicable to developing countries as well.
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• What are the environmental impacts of different kinds of food animal-rearing and aquaculture systems? " From a funding perspective, there are several important points to consider for the future of animal sciences research worldwide.
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Recommendation 4-1 The committee notes that per capita consumption of animal protein will be increasing more quickly in developing countries than in developed countries through 2050. Animal science research priorities have been proposed by stakeholders in high-income countries, with primarily U.S.
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. A summary of the positive and negative aspects of food animal production on food security can be found in Erb et al.
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In addition to traditional food animal raising, other sources of animal protein are currently utilized worldwide and may play a key role in ensuring protein security in the future. Using raised insect protein as a means of meeting global protein demand has been a topic of recent discussion (Box 4-1)
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Aquaculture plays a key role in global animal agriculture and constituted 47 percent of global food fish production in 2010 compared with 9 percent in 1980 (FAO, 2012b)
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Rapid growth of technological innovations has resulted in opportunities to improve global food security, if the innovations can be introduced and accepted. Research priorities in this area include: • Research should focus on the identification of socioeconomic, infrastructural, and animal science issues relevant to technology adoption to achieve food security in different nations and world regions.
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Countries with extensive land resources such as the United States, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, and India have a comparative advantage in land-using animal production activities. It is the opinion of the committee that in order to meet the growing world demand for animal products, land resources to produce live animals, along with capital for investment in the necessary technology, systems, and infrastructure will be required to efficiently produce and export those products.
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. Because nonruminant production requires less land, more intensive production, higher capital resources, and a higher level of technology than the production of grazing ruminants, developed countries will easily dominate world production and export of food animal products in the coming years.
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The disadvantage of developing countries in the production and export of food animal products is even more pronounced given the global changes in sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreements now in place under the World Trade Organization (WTO)
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. The pressures to impose standards on methods of intensive food animal production in developed countries to protect animal welfare are increasingly focused on developing countries.
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are focused on improving animal housing, husbandry, transport, and slaughter across a range of production systems, from intensive to extensive. Following these kinds of standards can benefit producers by increasing production efficiency, for example, via improving animal health and product quality (FAO, 2009)
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. Thus, future global food security and our ability to meet the future demand for animal protein are dependent to a large extent on smallholder animal production systems.
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Perry and Grace (2009) consider in detail the impacts that food animal diseases, and control of these, can have on rural poverty in poor developing countries.
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Intensive poultry production systems where meat birds are raised in large flocks at high stocking densities have the most efficient feed-to-gain ratios of any animal production system and thus can provide cheap, high-quality animal protein for people in developing countries. Such intensive production systems, however, can only be implemented successfully if the many infectious diseases that would otherwise inflict severe losses can be prevented or controlled (Tomley and Shirley, 2009)
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Women comprise roughly two-thirds of the 400 million poor food animal keepers in the world who rely mainly on animal production for their income (FAO, 2011b; Köhler-Rollefson, 2012)
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. Marginal small-scale food animal producers commonly face critical barriers to participating in the potential benefits of a growing animal industry, including inadequate access to technology, credit, resources, markets, information, and training, and in some cases, maintain values and norms resistant to exogenous forces of change (Ferguson, 1985; Hydén, 2014)
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Personal food animals can play an important financial role in the developing world (Box 4-3)
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It has been documented that investing in livestock is of financial importance for the rural poor, because it allows for the creation of cash flow through the sales of animal products, such as milk or wool, which can cover necessary household expenses, and adds financial and food security in areas where limited or no formal financial services are established (IFAD, 2001)
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Research that will improve outputs in these systems, or that fosters transitions to more efficient semi-intensive or small-scale intensive systems (FAO, 2014a) , is important for improving food security in these countries.
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The FAO (2014a) emphasizes that technological innovations developed to foster improvements in family poultry production will be most successful if accompanied by hands-on training and capacity building via formation of producer groups.
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This condition may be a critical barrier to sustainable intensification of animal agriculture in developing countries. Small-scale operators are responsible for most aquaculture production in both Asia and Africa, for example, primarily from inland pond culture.
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• Research that examines the economics of sustainable animal production is necessary to determine the optimal strategies for integrating smallholders into global animal product supply chains while mitigating negative associated environmental, social, and other impacts. Higher education and research institutions in the animal science arena should focus on creating a pool of experts capable of adapting science and technology to the local context and promoting local adoption in producing food.
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. Animal production sector policies and programs often have been designed by technical staff in food animal departments and NGOs or international organizations who have limited appreciation or understanding of the broader set of policies, markets, and institutional constraints that are relevant for farm-level decision making (Otte et al., 2012)
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Over the years, no land-based protein production system has been subjected to such a high level of scrutiny about sustainability as that confronting aquaculture. Being recognized as the fastest growing food production sector in the world, this high degree of oversight is a natural byproduct of its dramatic rise to become a significant contributor to global food security (Tidwell and Allan, 2001)
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. Although the objectives of animal science research are not necessarily to produce policy outcomes, such research can impact and is impacted by policy decisions.
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4-5.1 Certification and Technology Development and Transfer Technology has been and will continue to be important in meeting the increasing demands for producing safe, affordable food in an environmentally sustainable manner that is socially accepted. Adopted technological advancements including health, genetics, breeding, nutrition, physiology, management, and food and feed safety in animal agriculture have resulted in improved production, efficiency, and environmental and water footprints for food animals (see Chapter 3)
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Sustainable intensive operations may successfully utilize breeds and genetic advancements that have global utilization, such as for pigs and poultry. Typically, developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, have underinvested in animal science research, infrastructure, and technology.
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246 CRITICAL ROLE OF ANIMAL SCIENCE RESEARCH TABLE 4-2 Possible Applications of Biotechnology to the Solution of Problems of Food Animal Production in Developing Countries Probable Time to Scale of Commercial Use Problem Possible Solution1 Economic Impact (years) Animal diseases New vaccines and Large <5 new diagnostics Poorquality forages Microbial treatment Moderate 5-10 of forages Modification of Moderate/Large >10 rumen microflora Genetic Moderate 5-10 improvement of forages and their symbionts Difficulty of Selection of nucleus Large 5-10 implementing herds, using AI, ET, selection programs embryo sexing Marker-assisted Moderate 5-10 selection Difficulty of Use of IVF, ET, and Large Medium >10 maintaining dairy embryo sexing cattle performance Selection among Large >10 after F1 cross local breeds using AI, MOET Development of Large >10 composite breeds Cost and Use of ET to import Small <5 environmental embryos challenge to imported cattle Need for increased Use of rbST and Large <5 efficiency in rpST in dairy and pig intensive systems production NOTE: AI, artificial insemination; ET, embryonic transfer; IVF, in vitro fertilization; rbST, recombinant bovine somatotropin; rpST, recombinant porcine somatotropin; MOET, multiple ovulation embryo transfer.
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reducing excrement waste, and (4) use of biotechnology for improving efficiency of feed and food animal production to increase food security.
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food animal science and technology as a driver of change (Thornton, 2010)
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notes that "the major technologies that are used effectively in livestock production in the developing world include conserving animal genetic resources, augmenting reproduction, embryo transfer and related technologies, diagnosing disease and controlling and improving nutrient availability." In 2008, the National Research Council published a report that addressed technologies for improving animal health and production in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (NRC, 2008)
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Growth promotants have been safely used in beef cattle production for over 50 years in the United States, and bovine somatotropin has been used in lactating dairy cattle as a productivity enhancer for over two decades in the United States and other countries. These technologies contribute to enhanced food security and sustainability.
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; • Reduction in maintenance cost per unit of animal protein; • Better utilization of wastes streams from other industries (e.g., human food processing and biofuels) into animal products; • Proteomics (Lippolis and Reinhardt, 2008)
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A key barrier to technological adoption is the lack of extension to smallholder farmers about how to utilize the novel technologies for sustainable and improved production as well as to articulate smallholder concerns and needs to the research community. Research objectives to meet the challenge of global food security and sustainability should focus on the transfer of existing knowledge and technology (adoption and, importantly, adaptation where needed)
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• Existing technologies that are deemed safe and efficacious in the developed world should undergo research evaluations to determine whether alteration is possible to achieve feasible use and efficacy in developing countries. • Research in genetics and breeding, reproductive technologies, and animal health in conjunction with nutrition, management, and animal welfare required to realize the benefits of the improved genetics and health must be given priority in developing countries.
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This section focuses mainly on the food loss and waste of animal products. Food losses and waste have been evaluated by commodity groups, including meat, fish, and dairy; world areas; and at different phases of FIGURE 4-2 Areas of food losses and wastage.
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Developed countries had the most severe food loss and waste at the end of the food chain with large wastage (11 percent) by retailers and consumers, especially in Europe and the United States (Figure 4-3)
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discarded, lost, and wasted in different world regions and at different stages in the food chain. SOURCE: Gustavsson et al.
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. A reduction in edible animal product waste can have a significant positive impact of meeting the food security needs and improving the environment.
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4-7 Infrastructure Related to Food Security Concerns 4-7.1 Health and Diseases The World Bank (2012) analyzed and assessed the benefits and cost of controlling zoonotic diseases.
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. During the last two decades, the largest hurdle facing animal health has been the lack of resources available to combat several emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.
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(2013) considered two drivers that exert the greatest influence on food animal disease dynamics: increase in population size and prosperity and demand-driven increase in the consumption of animal products.
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GLOBAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR ANIMAL AGRICULTURE RESEARCH 261 poor management practices and the lack of sufficient understanding of the pathogen and the pathogen-host relationship.
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262 TABLE 4-3 Animal Health and Service Response by Trajectory Trajectory Animal Health Status and Animal Health Risks Animal Health Service Key Drivers Drivers Summary Response Needs Intensified and Well-controlled endemic Increased drug Better surveillance, Concerns over worried well of disease resistance including for new diseases quality, safety, the Western and animal world welfare Changing and often Expanded distribution Appropriate and acceptable Climate change stretched private health of vector-borne and disease control measures service to livestock other pathogens enterprises Heightened public Multisector economic Incentives to develop new awareness impacts of disease animal health products incursions or scares Real/perceived threat from the rest of world Intensifying and Increasing intensification Endemic disease Greater private-sector Livestock increasingly and widening of trading outbreaks response capacity through revolution market-oriented partnerships in an vertical integration and (demand-driven sectors of the environment of endemic other models intensification) developing disease risk world hot spots Presence of several major Inability to prevent Greater interface with Changing patterns infectious diseases and contain disease in public-sector health of global trade the broader county and authorities CRITICAL ROLE OF ANIMAL SCIENCE RESEARCH regional environment
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Trajectory Animal Health Status and Animal Health Risks Animal Health Service Key Drivers Drivers Summary Response Needs Absence of effective Unachievable Greater interface with Urbanization veterinary infrastructure standards imposed by public-sector health international authorities authorities or trading partners Limited voice in national Emergence of new animal health programs disease Erosion of genetic resources associated with disease resistance Smallholder Severity constrained Multiple endemic Specific services targeted Population growth systems economically diseases at smallholder and dependent on marginal producers traditional Limited Limited or no Well-coordinated national Climate livestock-derived livestock/feed/health movement controls systems bringing in NGO, variability livelihoods (cold resources private, and donor spots) supported services GLOBAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR ANIMAL AGRICULTURE RESEARCH Multiple endemic diseases Provides source of Particular attention to infection to market- preparedness and response oriented trajectory to shocks Often in harsh environments Highest vulnerability Inadequate or total absence to zoonotic disease of animal health services 263 SOURCE: Perry et al.
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There must be a new direction in meeting the challenges of aquatic animal disease because the practices of control and response that are currently being used by producers in developing countries are not based on the biology of the disease organisms but rather on what antibiotics might be conveniently available. Effective technology transfer cannot be realized when critical knowledge is lacking.
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There is a critical need for the capacity to support and enhance the national animal health programs in developing countries through research on infectious diseases in agricultural animals, especially in using this research as models to gain knowledge about emerging diseases in animals (Lantier, 2014) and for infectious diseases in humans (Roberts et al., 2009; Lanzas et al., 2010)
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Factors such as the safety of food animal feed supply, the impact on public health, and the effort as well as the expense required to protect the human and pet food supply and the environment from the infectious agent require vast amounts of information from areas not usually dealt with by the veterinary community. The veterinary role in public health maintained for the last three centuries "from stable to table" has expanded to "from conception to consumption." Although scrapie in sheep had not received much emphasis in veterinary research, during the last couple of decades, it has come to be recognized that the prion associated with scrapie is thought to be similar to the agent causing BSE.
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Diseases were prioritized based on the burden of human disease, impacts on food animal production and productivity, amenability to intervention, and concern about the severity of emergence. They identified 24 zoonoses that hold importance in reference to poor people and focused on 13 of them.
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(2013) reviewed the literature on the effect of agricultural intensification and related environmental changes on the risk of zoonoses and found several examples in which agricultural intensification and/or environmental change were associated with an increased risk of zoonotic disease emergence; however, the evidence was not sufficient to judge whether or not the net effect of intensified agricultural production would have enhanced disease emergence or amplification.
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The cost of the six major outbreaks that have occurred between 1997 and 2009 was $80 billion. During the last two decades, the greatest challenge facing animal health has been the lack of resources available to combat several emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.
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The lack of veterinarians specifically trained in aquatic diseases should be temporarily alleviated through a certification program in aquatic animal health disease for individuals who are PhDs in animal/veterinary science. 4-7.2 Land-Constraint Considerations In the United States, where only small amounts of land remain available for large-scale conversion to crop production, future improvement in meat, milk, and egg production must be achieved through enhanced efficiencies and intensification and more effective use of marginal lands for feed and forage production.
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The more constraints that are imposed on the food animal sector, the faster new technological innovations to enhance food animal production will be needed. It is important to have a variety of agricultural systems to provide products for niche markets.
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If developing countries turn to imports of animal protein to meet their food security needs, the United States and other developed countries will become the primary global sources of animal protein and will need to achieve an even greater increase in production efficiency to meet future global animal protein needs. Traditional extensification could result in increased animal protein production through better health, genetics, and feedstuffs.
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One research priority in this area includes: • Improve estimations and projections of land-use constraints regarding global animal protein needs and establish optimal mixes of animal and plant agriculture to meet food security needs. 4-8 Global Environmental Change Animal agriculture will remain critical for the food and economic security of billions of people around the world over the next 40 years.
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. The need to increase productivity while simultaneously ensuring negative environmental impacts that do not threaten the food security and well-being of future generations has led many to call for sustainable intensification of animal production systems.
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A focus on knowledge and technology transfer will be crucial to avoid or mitigate negative environmental consequences of intensifying animal production. Research Priorities The infrastructure to address the environmental consequences of animal agriculture is inadequate in many developing countries.
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perspective in Chapter 3, climate change and variability will present challenges to maintaining or improving the productivity of animal agriculture. Additionally, climate change will affect food security through its impacts on plant agriculture.
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a stronger evidence-base via the increased collection of empirical data in order to inform both scenario planning and future predictions regarding animal health and climate change; and (4) the need for new and improved methods to both elucidate uncertainty and explicate the direct and indirect causal relationships between climate change and animal infections.
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. Further information on the effects of climate change on animal agriculture is available in the reviews of Hopkins and del Prado (2007)
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(2013) developed a global, biologically consistent, spatially disaggregated dataset on biomass use, productivity, GHG emissions, and key resource-use efficiencies for the food animal sector,
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estimated that the maximum mitigation potential for reducing methane and carbon dioxide emissions from several food animal and pasture management options in the mixed and rangeland-based production systems in the tropics was 7 percent of the global agricultural mitigation potential to 2030. Based on historical adoption rates, however, a 4 percent reduction is more plausible (Thornton and Herrero, 2010)
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to animal production and food security. Current knowledge is lacking for developing adaptive strategies to improve animal agriculture's resiliency to confront the challenges of climate change and variability.
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(2012) used LCA to assess water use by food animals.
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have potentially negative effects on animal production. Animal agriculture's greatest impact on water use is through the production of feedstuffs; however, reported estimates of the water footprint of animal agriculture and its subsectors (e.g., beef)
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• More research needs to be devoted to investigations of the feasibility of sustainable marine based aquaculture systems. 4-10 Global Partnerships and Opportunities for Leveraging Resources and Research in Animal Agriculture Public–private partnerships (PPPs)
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The FAO also incorporated PPPs into its work on animal agriculture issues. For example, the LEAP Partnership was founded in 2012 and involves stakeholders across the food animal sectors with a shared interest in improving the environmental performance of food animal supply chains.
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Research institutes from Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and Uruguay were involved with a focus not only on understanding consumer attitudes toward animal welfare in Latin America but also on improving welfare during transport and slaughter to help producers in those countries meet EU animal welfare standards for export. A broad array of stakeholders, including animal producers and breeders, retailers, policy makers, and consumer and other nongovernmental groups were involved in project discussions and research activities.
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In contrast, public research funding can focus on long-term issues and issues that provide a greater good that may not be product oriented, such as the development of net energy systems, animal genome sequencing, creation of databases, complex sustainability issues, microbial collections, and gene banks to maintain animal genetic diversity. Despite these challenges, successful partnerships in agriculture can be a productive means of maximizing synergies between sectors.
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. The International Food Policy Research Institute conducted a study of agricultural PPPs for innovation in Latin America (Hartwich et al., 2007)
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Presentation at the Second Meeting on Considerations for the Future of Animal Science Research, May 12. Badgley, C., J
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2013. Assessing and improving farm animal welfare: The way forward.
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2013. Impact of increased demand for animal protein products in Asian countries: Implications on global food security.
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2012. The Impact of Industrial Grain Fed Livestock Production on Food Security: An Extended Literature Review.
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FASS (Federation of Animal Science Societies)
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Journal of Animal Science 80(Suppl.
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2011. Global Food Losses and Food Waste – Extent, Causes and Prevention.
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2013. Role of reproductive biotechnologies in enhancing food security and sustainability.
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2013. Livestock Research for Food Security and Poverty Reduction: ILRI Strategy 2013–2022.
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2013. One Health, food security, and veterinary medicine.
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2008. Centennial paper: Proteomics in animal science.
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Journal of Animal Science 92(2)
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Journal of Animal Science 89(12)
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Available at http://www.seafish.org/media/583639/seafish_lca_review_report_final.pdf. Accessed August 11, 2014.
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Journal of Animal Science 85(11)
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Journal of Animal Science 87(1)
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2009. The role of veterinary epidemiology in combating infectious animal diseases on a global scale: The impact of training and outreach programs.
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print. Accessed August 22, 2014.
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2014. Does aquaculture add resilience to the global food system?
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2014. Science and Society Improving Animal Welfare.
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2013. Swine convert co-products from food and biofuel industries into animal protein for food.
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