ANIMAL GENETICS REPORT
NOT FOR CITATION

Introduction
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• The livestock activities contribute 7.4% to the country’s GDP. The livestock
sector growth in terms of GDP decreased over the period from 3.1% in 2011
to 2.2% in 2015 (URT, 2015). This level of growth is much lower than the
projected 9% growth in the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of
Poverty (URT, 2010).
• Among other factors the low performance is contributed by:
a) high mortality rates
b) low growth rate
c) low reproductive rates, and
d) poor product quality.
Modest improvement of these production coefficients coupled
with value addition through processing is needed
Poor
production
performances

The Objective of this work
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• Describe the management and use of animal genetic
resources in Tanzania.
 Inventory of the country’s AnGR (FAO’s DAD-IS
and the ILRI’s DAGRIS).
 Characteristics of these resources
 Use of AnGR in the different production Zones (Cn,
C&L and Hl)
• Identify the local policies for genetic resource
management
 For Conserving and selecting local breeds, on one
hand, and for importing and using improved genes,
on the other hand

The rationale for the need to
characterize AnGR
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• More than 20% of domesticated animal breeds are
at risk of extinction (Lokhit and Ilse, 2005)
• Globally, the rate of losing an animal genetic
resources is an average of one breed per month
(FAO, 2006).
• The loss is further aggravated due to disasters
such as:
– prolonged drought,
– Emerging epidemics and sporadic diseases,
which are associated with climate change
(FAO, 2007 cited by FAO, 2015).

LSIPT: Tool to characterize AnGR
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 Through Inventory and characterisation
of the AnGR
 Reviewing of the intervention
 Identifying the local policies
The methods include:
• Data collection to fill in the genetics
tools
(m4_sm2_a5_TOOL_genetic.xlsm)
• Literature review

Outputs from the application
of the AnGR tool of LSIPT
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 Inventory, Characteristics and Parameters of
AnGR (Table 1)
 Conservation Programmes (Table 2)
 Local policies and intervention methods identified
and documented
 Agriculture and Livestock Policy of 1997
 The1997 policy contributed to the establishment NLP 2006
 NLP does not give the required emphasis to animal breeding issues
(Section 3.9)
 Animal Breeding Policy Vs Animal Breeding Act

Table 1: Summary of inventory and parameters based on Species and Breeds
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Table 2: Ex-situ in-vivo conservation, breeding and selection programmes
Species S/No Breed-type/Breed Conservation area Estimated population
Cattle 1 Mpwapwa TALIRI-Mpwapwa 450
2 Fipa TALIRI-Mpwapwa and Uyole 300
3 Ankole TALIRI-Mabuki 380
Goats 1 Pare white TALIRI-West Kilimanjaro 250
2 Sonjo TALIRI-West Kilimanjaro 200
3 Malya (Blended goats) TALIRI-Kongwa 400
4 Boers Ngerengre farm 250
Sheep 1 Red Maasai TALIRI-West Kilimanjaro 300
Chicken 1 Kuchi TALIRI-Mpwapwa 140
2 Horas TALIRI-Mpwapwa 180
3 Kishingo TALIRI-Mpwapwa 120
4 Kinyavu TALIRI-Mpwapwa 100
5 Kawaida TALIRI-Mpwapwa 100

Future prospects
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 Genetic improvement programs can result in
cumulative increase
 With adequate breeding strategies selection
achieved in nucleus herd of breeding males or
flocks are passed on to commercial herds
 All these will be manageable, if the Animal
Breeding Act is put in place.

Challenges
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 Meeting demands of communities for
improved breeds
 Effective selection and breeding
programmes
 Effective Coordination of Animal
Genetic Resources (AnGR) in
Tanzania

Strategies in the next five years
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 The LMP - benchmarks for further
AnGR improvement in the country
 The TALIRI, COSTECH and others
will take LMP as a tool to have
tangible research impact on AnGR
improvement

Recommendations and way
forward
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Initiatives and interventions for improving animal
genetics should focus on:
 Enhancing establishment of animal breeding
Act
 Strengthening of programmes for animal
breeding, selection and conservations rather
than existing uncoordinated programmes
 Strengthening delivery and use of Animal
Breeding technologies such as AI, MOET

Recommendations and way
forward Cont’s
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Capacity building for experts and farmers on
animal breeding, selection and conservation
issues including recording schemes
Promoting establishment of breeding societies
and associations including private sector
Enhancing local, regional and international
networking for experience and technology
sharing

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ASANTENI SANAASANTENI SANA