ILRI’s Livestock Genetics Program - LiveGene
Visit to CSIRO, Brisbane, 20 February 2018
Karen Marshall, ILRI

ILRI’s mission
ILRI’s mission is to improve food and
nutritional security and to reduce
poverty in developing countries
through research for efficient, safe
and sustainable use of livestock—
ensuring better lives through
livestock
ILRI is part of the CGIAR consortium
(15 centres)

ILRI: Established 1994, currently 700+ staff
Two main campuses (Kenya, Ethiopia), 16 additional offices

ILRI’s Livestock Genetics program
Delivering improved genetics to the world’s
small-scale livestock keepers
Working with partners

LiveGene Objectives
 Determine the most appropriate genetic improvement
strategies for different livestock production systems.
 Design and support implementation of sound breeding
programs and delivery of the desired genetics
 Discover the genes responsible for better productivity and
resilience and use this information in breeding programs
 Support the development of policies and institutional
arrangements that would enable improved access to, and
sustainable use of, livestock genetic resources.

Main species we work on
Goat - Africa
Sheep – Africa
Pig – Africa, Asia
Poultry - Africa
Dairy cattle –
Africa, Asia
Dual purpose cattle –
Africa, Latin America
Main focal livestock systems
Buffalo – Asia

Project highlight – Centre for Tropical
Livestock Genetics and Health
Partnership between ILRI, SRUC and Roslin Institute
of the UoE, aimed at supporting programs on
tropical livestock (via genomics / genetics)
Five programs:
 Dairy Genomics
 Chicken Genomics
 Health Genomics
 Reproduction
 Bioinformatics
New Initiative - CTLGH

Project highlight “Senegal Dairy Genetics”

Dairy production in Senegal
 Senegal dairy production cannot meet
domestic demand – high volumes are
imported
 The Senegalese government is actively
supporting increased local dairy production
- including through the use of genetically
improved animals
 However no evidence-base on the most
appropriate type of dairy animal / dairy
system
Background
Imports relative to
domestic production, 2004

Indigenous Zebu cattle under
traditional management
Cross-breed (Zebu by Bos Taurus) under
improved management –
supplementary feed and shade
provision
Type of dairy systems

Trade-off analysis considering
aspects of:
Breed preferences
Productivity
Profitability
Environmental sustainability
Food quality
Food safety
Equality
Partnered with 220 dairy
keeping households, with
3000+ cattle, over an almost 2
year period to obtain data
Dairy systems (n=7) defined by
breed kept & management level
Methodology
Breed composition determined
using a genomic approach

Collecting data

Collecting data

0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
Indigenous
Zebu
Indigenous
Zebu
Indigenous
Zebu by
Guzerat
Indigenous
Zebu by
Guzerat
Indigenous
Zebu by Bos
Taurus
Indigenous
Zebu by Bos
Taurus
High Bos
Taurus
* ** * ** ** *** ****
Household profit (CFA per cow per annum) Milk yield (liters per annum)
Breed
Management
level
8.0 x household profit
7.5 x milk production
2.4 x household profit
3.2 x milk production
Milk yield and profitability

0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
+ ++ + ++ ++ +++ ++++
IZ IZ IZ x GZ IZ x GZ IZ x BT IZ x BT BT
Proteinproduction(kgprotein/herd/year)
GHGemissionsintenisity(kgCO2eq/kgprotein)
Breed group and level of management
Manure CH4
Manure N2O
Feed CO2
Feed N2O
Enteric CH4
Protein yield kg/herd/year
Environmental sustainability:
GHG emissions intensity of protein

0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Aflatoxinlevel(ppb)
Purchased
concentrate
Groundnut
hay
Wheat
bran
Millet
bran
Rice
bran
Groundnut
cake
WHO limit is 5 ppb
Improved management associated with increased use of supplementary
feeds (e.g. up to 10 fold higher use for purchased concentrates) 
associated with milk safety risk (as aflatoxins are passed into milk)
Food safety - aflatoxins

Level of
market
orientation
Control of income from the
sale of milk
%
Women
%
Men
%
Joint
Low 72% 27% 1%
Medium 45% 50% 5%
Control of income from the sale of milk can shift from women to men
as the level of market orientation increases
Equality – gendered impacts

Breed
Management level (*)
Zebu
*
Zebu
**
Zebu x
Guzerat
*
Zebu x
Guzerat
**
Zebu x
Bos
Taurus
**
Zebu x
Bos
Taurus
***
High
Bos
Taurus
****
Breed preference –
male / female famers
+/+ +/+ +/+ +/+ +++/+++ +++/+++ ++/+
Production -
liters milk / annum
175 568 223 640 508 1,315 1,422
Profitability -
CFA / annum/cow
60,235 142,041 65,384 186,670 236,028 479,525 407,441
Environmental sustainability
-GHG EI, kg CO2eq/kg protein
338 190 307 165 188 110 108
Food quality -
milk protein/fat
For milk protein – no difference between breed-types
For milk fat – variation between breed-types, but changing trend on parity
Food safety -
aflatoxin levels in feed
Low Medium Low Medium Medium High
Very
high
Equality -
gendered impacts
Women control income from milk sale in a
majority of households
Women control income from
milk sale in fewer households
Still building on additional aspects of this as resources become available
Trade-off summary

Adoption issues:
Investment cost
Access to cross-bred
semen
Farmer capacity
This system is:
Productive
Profitable
Need to address:
Animal feed supply –
sufficient, safe
Potential negative
impacts on women &
children
Dairy cattle systems comprising cross-bred
animals (Indigenous Zebu by Bos Taurus)
kept under good management
Evidence base currently being shared with stakeholders for more informed
decision making …. Planned phase 2 project on intervention implementation
Recommendations

This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
better lives through livestock
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ILRI thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to
the CGIAR system