Races d'hier pour l'élevage de demain
Annick Audiot. 1995. INRA Editions, Coll. Espaces ruraux, 229 p.
L'ouvrage analyse, avec une attention particulière à la France, les dynamiques de conservation qui se sont instaurées en défense des différentes espèces de bétail, et leur support scientifique. Chaque exemple bénéficie d'une présentation détaillée du contexte local et du rôle joué par les différents partenaires de l'action, ce qui souligne la spécificité de chaque cas et la diversité des approches, à juger des différents degrés du succès obtenu. Cette présentation relève aussi les profondes convergences intellectuelles qui rapprochent toutes ces initiatives. L'iconographie abondante, la cartographie, l'usage judicieux des hors-textes rapportent au lecteur une image précise et cohérente de ce mouvement et de son évolution en France.
L'auteur retrace d'abord l'histoire des populations animales, de leur différenciation en races, de leur amélioration, pais l'émergence plus récente du concept de conservation. Cette idée résulte à la fois d'un mouvement d'opinion et d'un courant de recherche. Dans ce cadre, l'auteur a activement participé aux initiatives locales qui se sont développées à travers tout le territoire national pour la conservation des races locales traditionnelles menacées, ce qui lui a permis de redécouvrir et d'évaluer à juste titre une diversité culturelle elle-même menacée.
Cette étude présente trois principaux types de modèles de conservation associant l'homme, éleveur ou technicien, l'animal, pris comme individu ou intégré dans un troupeau, la technique et ses outils. Dans chaque modèle, la question de l'organisation humaine sous-jacente à la conservation biologique est fondamentale:
· dans le cas des bovins et des porcs, la maîtrise technique de la congélation de la semence, l'affranchissement vis-à-vis de l'inscription régionale, la médiation du technicien qui relaie l'éleveur confèrent un rôle dominant à l'infrastructure;· dans le cas des petits ruminants, ovins et caprins, c'est surtout l'organisation collective des éleveurs et son inscription dans des systèmes agraires locaux qui prédomine;
· dans le cas des chevaux, l'évolution rapide de leur utilisation et l'existence d'une administration d'Etat (le Service des haras) a conduit à privilégier des actions techniques de reconversion de l'usage du cheptel, qui ont abouti indirectement à sa conservation.
L'objectif plus subtil de cette analyse est de découvrir les valeurs que les protagonistes de la conservation s'efforcent de préserver derrière l'identité sociale du bétail et ses expressions héréditaires. Il peut s'agir également du polymorphisme dû à des gènes dont l'effet est visible ou s'exprime par des variations de nature biochimique; il peut s'agir de polygènes dont les effets quantitatifs sur les productions de lait ou de viande sont statistiquement estimés dans les populations contrôlées et introduits dans l'expression savante des index génétiques; il peut s'agir enfin de caractères dépendant largement d'interactions entre le génotype des animaux et le milieu, comme les caractères d'adaption de telle race à un tel milieu d'élevage, défini à la fois par les caractéristiques de l'environnement physique et les pratiques des éleveurs gestionnaires des troupeaux. Mais les ressources qu'ils attribuent aux différentes races et les objectifs de production respectifs (niveau des performances escomptées, période de mise-bas, de vente, etc.) sont de nature si diversifiée qu'ils échappent à l'expérimentation scientifique et sont du seul ressort de l'observation.
Les acquis de la biologie ne suffisent pas pour justifier l'attachement à une race animale traditionnelle, car la race est à la fois un fait de nature, un fait de société et un fait de culture: il faut «comprendre comment la connaissance des processus biologiques et socio-économiques peuvent concourir à l'élaboration de programmes de conservation et de gestion des races locales». L'auteur utilise à cette fin les représentations systémiques développées par les chercheurs français du département des Systèmes agraires et développement (SAD) de l'INRA, ce qui lui permet d'intégrer les points de vue des différents acteurs concernés et la diversité des stratégies de conservation qu'ils mettent en œuvre. Il superpose ainsi le point de vue biologique (quand race rime avec ressource), le point de vue administratif (quand race rime avec reconnaissance), le point de vue économique (quand race rime avec revenu), le point de vue des pratiques (quand race rime avec système agraire), le point de vue culturel (quand race rime avec identité), pour déboucher sur une conception élargie de la race, vue comme le produit d'un système social.
Cet ouvrage né de la passion et de l'action, s'adresse avant tout aux acteurs de la conservation. Mais l'actualité de la question, la généralité de la controverse socio-scientifique qu'il soulève, l'image exemplaire qu'il donne de l'engagement du chercheur dans l'action retiendront à coup sûr l'attention d'un public beaucoup plus vaste, qui partage la passion de l'auteur pour les animaux domestiques et les races anciennes de la France.
La clarté et la présentation attrayante de cet ouvrage le rendent accessible à un très large éventail de lecteurs: professionnels, enseignants, étudiants de l'enseignement supérieur, élèves de l'enseignement technique agricole ou de l'enseignement général. Mais aussi grâce à l'explication ponctuelle des définitions de tous les femmes spécialisés, le texte se prête à être vulgarisé auprès du grand public.
J.B.
The badger
T.J. Hayden, ed. 1994. Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin, Ireland. ISBN 1874045-14-3. 211 pp. Price: £15 (softback).
This extremely important work comprises the articles presented at a seminar on badgers held in Ireland, covering all aspects of badger distribution, behaviourial ecology, territoriality/sociality, legal protection and the bovine tuberculosis (TB) issue. Some 65 000 TB cattle are discovered in southern Ireland each year, while England only has 1 000 cases. The rationale behind badger culls in Ireland, excluding Northern Ireland, and in southwestern England is explored, as is that behind the possum culls in New Zealand, but not those in their native Australia.
The author offers some astonishingly unbiased conclusions in this work that offer a fresh perspective in the long-running politicized debates. It is still not known how, or even if, badgers might realistically give cattle a respiratory lung infection under field conditions. TB transfer pathways are lacking, and the badger contribution to cattle TB could be zero. Indeed, the possibility of a spillover from bovine to badger still occurring is discussed here.
TB transmission is examined in several papers, but, as ordained in Mosaic Law, it is either by inhalation of infected sputum aerosols -"The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever" (Deuteronomy 28:22) - or ingestion of tuberculous meat afflicted with the "wen or scurvy" (Leviticus 22:22) or milk-borne, as known since 1846, long before the German bacteriologist Robert Koch found TB bacilli in human sputum in 1882. Child TB - with its swollen throat lymph nodes, hence "scrofula" formerly resulted from unpasteurized milk. Pigs are very prone to pick up bovine TB from pastures contaminated with cattle faeces and/or slurry, and show the original scrofulous swellings. They may also acquire avian TB from poultry manure on pasture or human TB from sewage contamination.
Cattle TB is clearly a respiratory consumption, but, unlike in humans, lung lesions or tubercles (as can be seen on chest X-rays) do not seal. Also, a continuous progressive bronchopneumonia means that all TB cattle shed bacteria in sputum and, hence, to faeces Badger TB, as noted in one of the papers, is initially dietary in the submandibular lymph nodes (see also Veterinary Microbiology, 40: 179). A spillover from cattle to pig or badger via feeding on affected pasture seems inevitable, and TB dies out in the secondary host unless it is recontaminated by cattle... something that is easy to prove, but often overlooked in current models.
M.H.
Improving animal traction technology
P. Starkey, E. Mwenya and J. Stares, eds. 490 pp.
This presentation of the proceedings of the first workshop of the Animal Traction Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (ATNESA), held from 18 to 23 January 1992, in Zambia, is very professional, with good illustrations. Topics covered in this publication include the numerous aspects of technologies related to the use of work animals; the manufacture and supply of harnesses and equipment required for their efficient use; and the institutional and organizational aspects of direct interest to users and promoters of animal energy.
The specific aim of the workshop was to discuss alternatives for the improvement of these technologies, and 107 participants (13 women and 94 men), with very wide-ranging technical backgrounds and work positions, contributed to the analysis of 84 papers. In order to analyse workshop activities, participants were organized in small groups to discuss the following subjects, which are priority issues in eastern and southern Africa: animal management; profitability; tillage and weeding; implement supply and distribution; gender issues; transfer of technology; and transport.
The contents of the proceedings include: Preface; Workshop reports; Overview papers (two articles); Profitability of animal traction (six articles); Management of draught animals (11 articles); Animal-powered tillage and weeding technology (11 articles); Supply and distribution of implements for animal traction (six articles); Women and animal traction technology (nine articles); Transfer of animal traction technology (19 articles); Animal-powered transport (eight articles); Diversifying operations using animal power (five articles); and Country experiences and constraints (seven articles).
The proceedings contain valuable technical information, and, among the workshop reports, there are also presented very interesting summary sections that give an overview of the workshop and a final workshop analysis with highlights on progress, needs and priorities, as well as an evaluation of the workshop itself. Detailed addresses of workshop participants are also included.
This publication was made possible with the assistance of the Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS), the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). It can be obtained from IT Publications, 103-105 Southampton Row, London WC1B 4HH, UK, Tel. 44 171 4369761, Fax 44 171 4362013; ATNESA, c/o AGROTEC (UNDP-OPS), PO Box BW 540, Borrowdale, Harare, Zimbabwe, Tel. and Fax 263 4 860009; or CTA, Postbus 380, 6700 AJ Wageningen, the Netherlands, Tel. 31 8380 60400, Fax 31 8380 31052, Telex 44 30169 CTA NL.
J.-C.C.
Dictionary for the meat industry
The Danish Meat Trade College, Maglegardsvej 8, PO Box 209,4000
Roskilde, Denmark. Price: DKr 430.00 (excluding VAT and postage and packing)
The Danish Meat Trade College has recently issued an updated Dictionary for the meat industry, this time including three additional languages, making seven in total: Danish, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
The special terms used in the meat industry and related research are seldom found in general dictionaries. The Dictionary for the meat industry was originally prepared to fill this gap. This most recent edition consists of seven sections, containing 1600 terms/words in each of the seven languages.
This publication will no doubt be of valuable assistance to anyone working in the meat industry, such as sales representatives, technicians, trainers and engineers, but it will also be useful for quality control and research personnel.
G.H.
Modelling growth in the pig
P.J. Moughan, M.W.A. Verstegen and M.I. Visser-Reyneveld, eds. European Association for Animal Production (EAAP) Publication No. 78. Wageningen Pers, PO Box 42,6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands. 246 pp. Price: f. 135.00 (hardbound).
This book is a compilation of lecture materials developed for an international postgraduate course on modelling growth in the pig, and delivered at the International Training Centre (PHLO) at Wageningen Agricultural University, the Netherlands. Its aim is to provide background information on the development and use of pig growth models. Growth models that incorporate knowledge on how pigs grow and describe underlying growth processes are becoming increasingly important, both in research and commercial application. Growth models are becoming more sophisticated, and refined concepts on how animals grow are increasingly being developed and incorporated into integrative models.
The text covers approaches to modelling and model evaluation, principles of nutrient partitioning, feed intake and its control, the effect of climatic conditions, stochasticity and the metabolic approach to modelling. A comprehensive introduction to the practical use of models is given.
The book is intended for workers in the field of animal production who have completed university or higher vocational education in animal science. It is also useful for those interested in acquiring a background in pig growth modelling and will be equally relevant to researchers, teachers and those wishing to apply models practically in feed companies and on-farm.
G.H.F.
Structure and development of meat animals and poultry
H.J. Swatland. 1994. TECHNOMIC Publishing Co. Inc., Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. 606 pp. ISBN 1-56676-120-4. Price: US$125.00.
Animal growth and the growth of muscle and other body tissue is dealt with in many publications from biochemical and endocrinological viewpoints. This book describes the structural and anatomical changes that take place in both types of meat animals mammals and poultry. Based on this concept, the author first provides a concise description of the connective tissues of the carcass, such as bones, fibrous connective tissues and adipose tissues, that not only support and hold the body together, but that also influence meat tenderness through the content of collagen as well as the quality of carcasses and meat cuts through the fat content. Reference is then made to the commercial structure of the carcass, which is based on the content of muscle meat. The major muscles of the carcasses of different meat animals are described and a key for their identification is provided. Carcass grading systems and meat cutting schemes are also outlined.
In a chapter on structure and properties of meat, a comprehensive review of muscle histology is given, and the following chapter describes the cellular basis of pre- and postnatal muscle growth. The last chapter, entitled "The conversion of muscles to meat", describes the scientific background of a number of important issues in carcass handling and meat processing, such as myoglobin and muscle colour; rigor mortis; glycolysis and pH; influence of age and sex of animals on meat quality; stress in animals and related meat quality deficiencies such as dark, firm and dry (DFD) or pale, soft and exudative (PSE) meat; fluid losses in meat; and the effects of stunning, cooling, electrical stimulation, conditioning, etc., on muscle meat. Valuable information that may be necessary to clarify the impact of the above-mentioned subjects on meat production and meat handling is included in an introductory chapter that summarizes abattoir technology, meat inspection and by-product handling.
The particular value of this book is that it presents a wide range of issues regarding meat procurement and meat quality in a concise and easily understandable way. It can therefore provide much useful information to a broad readership, including animal breeders and producers, meat scientists, food technologists, veterinarians and food control personnel, as well as meat trade specialists and interested consumers.
The book can be obtained from TECHNOMIC Publishing Co. Inc., 851 New Holland Avenue, Box 3535, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17604, USA, Tel. 800 233 9936/717 291 5609, Fax 717 295 4538.
G.H.
