Dominica is in the process of introducing artificial insemination and embryo transfer to its livestock sub-sector.
A recently- launched project is seeking to introduce the two components in sheep, goat, cattle, pig and possibly rabbit rearing.
Artificial insemination is the process of breeding animals without mating.
Dr. Gabrielle Young is a consultant in Assisted Breeding Technology.
She explains what this means for Dominica.
“Dominica is an island –it is isolated which means that a lot of the genetic resources may not be present or animal imports may not be as available as it may be in North America or Europe. The population size of the animals is not as large as it would be on continents. So you would end up in a situation where [each animal] may be related after some time so artificial insemination is a good way of introducing new genetics or new breeds to your island without the high costs of bringing in live animals,” Dr. Young said.
This first mission which began last week is a fact-finding mission; a second mission in June will begin the training of officers.
The Livestock Development Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture will be the first to receive training.
“We are training people first who are more au fait or who have used this technology before and then those persons will be well-trained enough to disseminate the technology to the farmers,” Dr. Young explained.
According to her the first mission is to “…see what’s available in Dominica, the possibilities, the infrastructure, the equipment, the human resource.”
The project is being funded under the Genetic Improvement Component of the Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM Programme), with €400,000 being made available.
This will include improvements to the Central Livestock Farm, assistance to farmers with training and for the purchase of equipment.
Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr. Reginald Thomas, says this is good for livestock production.
“We import large quantities of meats and meat products and expanding the industry has [posed] many challenges and limitations. One is the quality of genetic material so under this project we’re seeking to enhance both the quality and numbers of genetic material. Artificial insemination gives us the opportunity to expand at a quicker rate,” he said.
Overall, this will improve the animal quality on the farms as well as provide animals for farms around the island.
“We decided upon the two technologies: artificial insemination and embryo transfer…It makes work easier for the officers because the ability provide the service to farmers is our main objective and we can speed it up. I think that’s the main benefit of the programme,” Tony Cyrille, Agriculture Officer at the Livestock Development Unit believes.
Soil fertility mapping project gets ‘on’ the ground. This topic was on earlier. It seems fertilization everywhere .Artificial insemination AKA IVF was in pre-parliamentarian b4 that individual underwent IVF in the USA.
This is purely against the natural order of things. These bigger countries always want to impose their unnaturalness on other smaller countries. The way that animals are reared in the so-called developed countries are quite different from the way that we are used to. Their animals are injected with hormones, which is unnatural, so they can grow faster, especially their cattle to produce more milk. I’ve mentioned that to some people and it is just common sense. Whereas our local chickens in Dominica go to sleep, American poultry do not sleep but rather they are kept up all night so that they can lay eggs. Eating these imported meat and chicken is very unhealthy and as a result, some people have gained tremendous weight as a result of eating all that fast food.
We should not be deceived by these countries to allow them to do their experiments on island. If we can’t eat what we plant and rear, we will regret it in the future.
We need to stop following the footsteps of these…
Not a good idea
Well we do have enough cancer in de country. Now we going to eat meat that is created in a lab, boy look trouble. I hope this not a ploy to replace men as fathers.
DNO,
FYI, artificial insemination of livestock was introduced in Dominica during the 1980’s by the Eugenia Charles regime. Could you please research that with the older heads? So your story should read re-introduced.
Soon when the new stock of bananas are available the govt will claim they were the first to introduce bananas in Dominica? In reality what they do is allow a practice to die out of neglect, wait some time , reintroduce it, then claim credit as if they were the pioneer of that concept.
You are so unclear! The gov’t is reintroducing it. Which Gov’t is in Power? Isn’t it DFP rejects. Namely the President, The P.M et AL. This Is Neo _DLP/DFP .Don’t go confusing the issue it is clear.
THIS IS ACTUALLY A BAD IDEA – for a place like Dominica.
We could construct farms and abattoirs and employ alot of people with €400,000. What happened to my plan to open a large animal farm in the heights of pointe michel to provide gainful employment to the people of that area? We we willing to fund our own project just help from government for land allocation,
Expansion at a rapid rate? Is this a joke? Dominicans are being blind sided by nonsense. Our plan made sense without significant technology that affects livestock outcome and would employ alot of ppl and have them own part of the business.
What point are you making?
I thinking it is for humans wee. (LOL, LOL), why they do not do it for humans too?
Me too thinking is for humans. that one hold me. lol
I know a current politician who had it done in the USA about 15 yrs ago. So like you ////// I was of that persuation too. Lol!
Guess anyone?
You are so unclear! The gov’t is reintroducing it. Which Gov’t is in Power? Isn’t it DFP rejects. Namely the President, The P.M et AL. This Is Neo _DLP/DFP .Don’t go confusing the issue it is clear.
iv never given much thought to animals such as rabbits and cattle being related and breeding with each other ….but its something to ponder i mean humans who are related who breed create kids with mental and physical problems so why wouldn’t animals produce poor meat because of such problems
A if we draw the analogy to the hybrid Gov’t we now have ,what does it tell us?
Look at what this hybridization did to two of our non-medical doctors getting stupid about calypso.
C’s,D’s etc can add their 5 cents pieces as LL would say. Care to add urs on the Topic LL?
Two of the major goals of artificial insemination of domesticated animals are to achieve continuous genetic improvement and to prevent or eliminate venereal disease. In comparison with natural service, fewer males are needed to artificially inseminate the same number of females and to produce the same number of offspring. However, there are risks associated with artificial insemination, which has the potential to disseminate genetic defects and also to spread infectious disease nationally and internationally.
PLEASE DON’T DESTROY OUR INDIGENOUS BREEDS