I
Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Tonga and other countries have developed facilities for exchanging in vitro cultured germplasm of ornamentals, root and tuber crops, banana and a few other fruit and perennial crop species. However, plant quarantine guidelines and infrastructures in most developing countries are not yet comprehensive enough to fully exploit tissue culture technique for germplasm exchange and need to be strengthened.
III.
31.
BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION
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Recent developments in biotechnology are rapid and fascinating. Three developed countries in the Region Australia, Japan and New Zealand, have already made remarkable progress in this field mainly through their commercial organizations. A beginning has been made in several developing countries. Following are some of the areas where biotechnology is being and may further be used in the near future to increase animal production:
32.
(i) Embryo transfer and embryo manipulation to accelerate genetic
improvement;
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
Manipulation of rumen micro-flora to increase digestibility of roughages;
Chemical (and possibly microbiological) treatment of certain roughages (agro-industrial by-products) to increase digestibility;
Production of growth promoters (growth hormones, etc.) by gene- manipulated bacteria which accelerate growth and improve productivity of animals;
Production of vaccine antigens by recombinant DNA prove which are more specific and safer than the conventional antigens isolated from pathogenic micro-organisms (FMD virus, etc.);
Development of biological diagnostic reagents which are more specific, accurate and safer than the traditional reagents (monoclonal antibodies, etc.);
(vii) Mapping of genomes, marker-assisted breeding and eventually the
production of transgenic animals.
Progeny testing for identification of elite males and females in cattle has not been quite effective. The multiple ovulation embryo transfer (MOET) technique should be linked to a new selection programme based on a nucleus herd breeding system and the evaluation of bulls using the productivity of their siblings. This new approach for genetic selection is a promising method for the future of animal breeding in developing countries.
33.
Under embryo transfer (ET) programmes, although several embryo sexing techniques are being intensively researched, to date none of them is currently suitable for field application. When a practical method becomes available, it will certainly ensure a more widespread use for embryo