Webinar series
Innovations in cryoconservation of animal genetic resources
Innovations in cryoconservation of animal genetic resources
Gene banking is becoming an increasingly important tool for management of animal genetic resources. Therefore, in 2021 FAO developed a practical guide on Innovations in conservation of animal genetic resources.
The guidelines were prepared by an international team of scientists and gene bank managers, many of whom were partners in the EU Horizon 2020 project IMAGE (Innovative Management of Animal Genetic Resources).
The draft guidelines were presented to the 11th session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the 18th session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The Commission requested FAO to organize workshops to raise awareness and support regional and subregional networks in capacity building for implementation of the guidelines.
To this end, FAO has been holding a series of webinars on cryoconservation of animal genetic resources. The webinar schedule, with links to live or recorded webinars, are available below.
The webinar series is being organized with the cooperation of the Nordic Genetic Resources Center, who is hosting the webinars on their Microsoft Teams platform.
Links to the live webinars (future dates) and recordings (past dates) are included in the table.
Webinar title | Date and time (GMT+1) | Presentation files |
|---|---|---|
Building a gene bank strategy | 18 May @ 17:00 [Recording] | |
Implementation and organization | 28 June @ 16:45 | |
Choice of biological material to be preserved | 24 May @ 17:00 [Recording] | |
Economics of gene banking | 31 May @ 16:00 [Recording] | |
Developing and using gene bank collections | 28 June @ 16:00 [Recording] | |
Collection and cryo-preservation of germ plasm and tissues
| 12 December @ 17:00 [Recording] | |
Sanitary issues and recommendations | ||
Databases and documentation | 15 June @ 10:00 [Recording] | |
Legal issues: acquisition, storage and transfer of gene bank material | 1 December @ 17:00 [Recording] | |
Capacity building and training | 28 February @ 14:30 |
Genomic characterization of animal genetic resources
Genomic characterization of animal genetic resources
The “genomic revolution” has been consequential for all of the life sciences, including management of animal genetic resources. Genomics has greatly increased the amount of information available about the biology of livestock, improving the knowledge base for breeding and conservation programmes. Therefore, in 2021 FAO developed guidelines on Genomic characterization of animal genetic resources, which is available here.
The guidelines were prepared by an international team of scientists and members of the International Society for Animal Genetics.
The draft guidelines were presented to the 11th session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the 18th session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The Commission requested FAO to organize workshops to raise awareness and support regional and subregional networks in capacity building for implementation of the guidelines.
To this end, FAO held a webinar on Genomic characterization of animal genetic resources, which took place on 14 December 2022. Links to the webinar recording and presentation files are available below.
Presentation files
Presenter | Title |
Christian Looft, FAO and University of Applied Sciences, Neubrandenburg, Germany | The conservation of animal genetic resources in an international context |
Paul Boettcher, FAO | |
Paolo Ajmone-Marsan, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy | |
Catarina Ginja, BIOPOLIS/CIBIO/InBIO, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal Juha Kantanen, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Jokioinen, Finland |
|
Johannes A Lenstra, Utrechet University, Netherlands |
Advances in animal phenotyping and genome editing
Advances in animal phenotyping and genome editing
Advances in animal phenotyping and genome editing are technologies that may have substantial impacts on the management of animal genetic resources in the future. The 12th session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture suggested that FAO addresses these topics in the preparation of the Third Report on the State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
As a first step to address this suggestion, FAO collaborated with the Iowa State University, through the university’s Dean's Global Agriculture and Food Leadership Program. Under the guidance FAO staff, students in the programme undertook literature reviews and expert interviews and prepared reports on each of these two topics.
The main results of the students’ work was presented 8 June 2023 during a hybrid seminar at FAO Headquarters. A video recording of the seminar can be viewed here