IGA Blog

Honoring IGA’s Founders – Dr. Canagasaby Devendra

8/8/2019

As IGA continues to grow and strengthen, we want to remember some of the people who helped us become the globally respected organization that we are. Today, we highlight Dr. Canagasaby Devendra.

Career
Dr. Devendra earned a Bachelor of Agriculture Science degree while in New Zealand, a Master of Agriculture Science in Malaysia, and his Ph.D. and DSc degrees from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. His specialization is in animal nutrition and animal production systems, central to which is integrated natural resource management and agricultural systems. He is an international tropical animal production specialist with experience spanning over thirty years in research and development initiatives.

NAHMS Goat 2019, USA

8/7/2019

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The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS), a nonregulatory unit of USDA-APHIS-VS, is developing its Goat 2019 study. NAHMS recently conducted a brief on-line survey and greatly appreciates the input from those who completed the survey. NAHMS conducted the survey to:

Find out what you consider to be the most important health issues facing the goat industry,
Help identify the critical information needs regarding health management practices used in the U.S. goat industry, and
Ask your opinion on how we can encourage goat producers to participate in the Goat 2019 study.

NAHMS will use survey results to develop the information objectives that will shape the NAHMS study.

Efficiency and resilience of forage resources and small ruminant production to cope with global challenges in Mediterranean areas

8/6/2019

Meknes, Morocco, 23-25 October 2019

The next Joint Meeting of the FAO-CIHEAM Network for Research and Development in Sheep and Goats (Subnetworks on Nutrition and Production Systems) and the FAO-CIHEAM Subnetwork for the Research and Development of Mediterranean Pasture and Forage Resources will take place in Meknes, Morocco, from 23 to 25 October 2019.

Participation is open to researchers, technicians, post-graduate students and other professionals working to improve the small ruminant sector and forage and pasture resources across Mediterranean countries and beyond.

Click here to see the scientific sessions.

World Cheese Awards, Bergamo, Italy, October, 2019

8/5/2019

The World Cheese Awards will take place on Friday 18 October, 2019 forming part of the FORME festival in Bergamo, in the Lombardy district of Italy, which will run from Thursday 17 to Sunday 20 October. The World Cheese Awards will be open for entry from Monday 22 July until Monday 9 September. More than 3,500 entries are expected in Lombardy this year, making their way from over 40 different countries in 6 continents.

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AJAS Special Edition on Dairy Goats

8/3/2019

The Asian-Austalasian Journal of Animal Science has just published the special issue on the “Global Dairy Goat Industry - Current Status and The Way Forward.” It is available online. You can find the full papers at AJAS home (www.ajas.info). Please click “SPECIAL ISSSE” or “BROWSE ARTICLES” to see those papers.

This special issue will become an excellent reference for all those in the goat industry and research.

Sincerely,
Jong Ha
EiC, AJAS

Conference Report – Annual European College of Small Ruminant Health Management (ECSRHM), Warsaw, Poland, May 2019

8/1/2019

Conference Abstracts

Written by Emilia Bagnicka, IGA Regional Director for Eastern Europe

The Annual European College of Small Ruminant Health Management (ECSRHM) conference took place in Warsaw (Poland) on May 11th 2019 at Warsaw University of Life Science – SGGW, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The conference was organized by ECSRHM, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of WULS-SGGW, Polish Society of Veterinary Sciences – PTNW, International Goat Association – IGA, and Warsaw Chamber of Veterinary Surgeons.

Profile – Jonathan Chirisa

7/28/2019

Country Representative for Zimbabwe

Jonathan (Jon) Chirisa is a passionate Savanna goat breeder in Zimbabwe. Jon is CEO of Tradegrid Systems Inc., a trade and investment consulting company, and a seasoned tradesman in three disciplines with experience in the construction of agricultural, industrial mining and manufacturing plants across the globe. This extensive experience with numerous world-class companies has given him an insight into the world of industry.

Profile – María Eva Muñoz Mejías

7/27/2019

Country Representative for Spain

Eva graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Córdoba, Spain. She has been working with several local goat breeds of the south of Spain for more than ten years. Nowadays Eva is part-time professor of animal production at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, and she has founded a company specialized in the conservation of animal genetic resources and genetic improvement.

Want to learn more about our other Country Representatives? Click here.

Profile – Juan Boo Liang

7/26/2019

Regional Director for Southeast Asia

Juan Boo is a senior research fellow of the Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Food Security (ITAFoS), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). He obtained his B. Agric. Sc. from the University of Malaya, his M.Sc. from James Cook University of Northern Queensland, Australia and his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Announcement: Two New Country Representatives and a New Regional Director

7/25/2019

The IGA Board of Directors is pleased to announce two great new Country Representatives (CR) and a wonderful new Regional Director (RD). They have each demonstrated their commitment to IGA and knowledge of the goat sector.

These recently elected Country Representatives are María Eva Muñoz Mejías (Spain) and Jon Chirisa (Zimbabwe). The new Regional Director is Dr. Juan Boo Liang.

Read more about our CRs

Read more about our RDs

IGA joins the SMARTER Stakeholder Committee

7/22/2019

IGA is pleased to join the SMARTER Stakeholder Committee, to provide insight and feedback from the new “Small Ruminant Breeding for Efficiency and Resilience.” It is a new European and international initiative funded by the EU that will use genomic selection across countries. It will make selection for traits conferring efficiency and resilience both faster and more efficient. SMARTER will also characterize the phenotype and genome of traditional and underutilized breeds. Finally, SMARTER will propose new breeding strategies that utilize these traits and trade-offs and balance economic, social and environmental challenges.

Please visit the SMARTER website, and sign up for the free newsletter: https://www.smarterproject.eu/

Beth A. Miller, DVM
President, International Goat Association

Presidential Inaugural Address, Japan Goat Network, March 2018

7/19/2019

During the Japan Goat Network (JGN) General Assembly held on November 4, 2017, I (Yoshitaka Nakanishi) was appointed as the new President and successor of former President Akio Imai, who has served since 2005. The JGN currently has more than 600 members including individuals and organizations, so it is a comparably sized association to some other academic organizations in Japan, or even larger. Representing such a large and diverse group might seem like a burden; however, I am willing to fulfill my mission during this term.

The JGN was founded in 1999 and the National Goat Summit, one of the main activities, will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. The greatest achievement that the JGN has been engaged in so far is revising the “Ministerial Ordinance on Component Standards of Milk and Dairy Products” (Food Sanitation Act, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare Ordinance). For a long time, the Ministerial Ordinance constrained pasteurized goat milk production in Japan. In 2009, the JGN and the Japan Livestock Technology Association jointly requested a revision of sterilizing goat milk standards (milk fat contents 3.6% or more → 2.5% or more and milk solids nonfat 8.0% or more → 7.5% or more) to the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. After five years, the revision was finally approved through the Pharmaceutical Affairs and Food Sanitation Council Subcommittee on December 26, 2014.

Announcement: Japan Goat Network joins IGA

7/18/2019

We would like to welcome our newest IGA institutional member, the Japan Goat Network.

The Japan Goat Network (JGN) was founded in 1999 by researchers and producers who value goats and their products. The founders started with reviewing the goat utilization and promoting its production in Japan saying, “goats save the world.” Goats were one of the very important proteins and socio-economic resources in Japan during the reconstruction period after WWII. They also played a great role to reduce poverty in the world.

Vision
Promoting goats with love.

Mission
The JGN promotes goats in Japan through sharing and exchanging information on goat management and production, goat milk and meat processing, product marketing, and other goat utilizations such as vegetation control, juvenile emotional education, and as companion animals among researchers, producers, and consumers as well as goat lovers.

Survivability of Escherichia Coli in Commercial Powder Goat Milk during Four Months Storage at Two Different Temperatures

7/17/2019

Abstract
Bacteria in low moisture environments are not favorable for growth, but can survive and cause a possible food safety risk for consumers. A study was conducted to evaluate survivability of Escherichia coli and storage stability of commercial powdered goat milk (PGM) products. Three batches of whole milk PGM samples were purchased at a local outlet, and divided into two halves to assign non-inoculated control and E. coli inoculated groups, then stored at 4 and 22°C for 0, 2, and 4 months. Results showed that significant reduction (P<0.05) in E. coli counts occurred at 22°C treatment group by more than 2 log CFU/g at 2 months storage, then further decreased by an additional 0.37 log CFU/g at 4 months storage. The survival of E. coli was significantly higher at 4°C, suggesting that E. coli could survive better at 4°C by extending a longer latent period than at higher temperature (22°C) under the low water activity condition. E. coli counts had negative correlations with water activity at both temperature treatments for all three storage periods except for 0 and 2 months at 22°C, indicating that the survivability of the E. coli would decrease in powdered whole goat milk for 4 months of storage because of decrease in water activity. It was concluded that Escherichia coli survival and storage stability of the commercial PGM products were significantly (P<0.05) affected by storage temperature and time.

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Sistema extenso de producción de cabra de doble propósito en el municipio de Capitanejo, Santander, Colombia

6/30/2019

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Resumen
El Chicamocha Medio es una ecorregión donde la caprinocultura se considera una actividad económica importante para las familias campesinas, por ello se propuso identificar las prácticas de manejo del ganado caprino para generar información específica que sea útil para las instituciones en diferentes escenarios. Se tomó una muestra no probabilística a 33 unidades productivas caprinas de nueve municipios de esta región. El diagnóstico se realizó mediante una encuesta semiestructurada sobre como: 1. tipificación de predios, 2. acompañamiento técnico, 3. inventario de semovientes, 4. instalaciones para caprinos, 5. fin productivo, 6. manejo del rebaño, 7. Plan sanitario, 8. tipo de sistema productivo y alimentación y 9. Bioseguridad. Se estableció que la caprinocultura se desarrolla en minifundios con un inventario promedio de 59 cabezas, con infraestructura adaptada y baja inclusión tecnológica.

El fin productivo predominante es la carne, su manejo es tradicional en sistema semi confinado y el principal problema sanitario referido es el parasitismo gastrointestinal. Se concluye que el manejo del rebaño es tradicional con baja inclusión tecnológica, los problemas sanitarios son de origen infeccioso y las soluciones ofrecidas a este renglón productivo son muy incipientes.

LEE MAS...

Un agradecimiento especial a Clara Viviana Rúa Bustamante por esta información.

The International Goat Association's mission is to promote goat research and development for the benefit of humankind, to alleviate poverty, to promote prosperity and to improve the quality of life.

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