In Kenya, the International Livestock Research Institute is helping create climate and disease resistant livestock to help farmers in Africa adapt to diseases like east coast fever which kills many livestock in Africa, and an increasingly changing climate. For example, they are looking at “how heat tolerant traits are conferred genetically, identify these genes and concentrate them within populations,” Dr. Jimmy Smith, ILRI’s Director General told Devex.
“In the past, livestock research has not had the benefit of the crop world where generation intervals are short,” Smith told Devex. “In cattle, the generation intervals are long, so to breed can take years and years. Using genomics now, we can find genes that improve livestock and move them around quickly. This allows us to make genetic improvements at a much faster rate than we could have with traditional breeding. We can get productivity traits up, disease resistance up and enhance adaptive traits to climate change. That’s the new science.”