Written by H.R. Bahmani, N. Papi, F. Mirzaei Animal Science Research Institute of Iran, Karaj, Iran History of goat breeding in the province The archaeological excavations show that Aryans were the first to domesticate goats for the first time. They were domesticated more than 9000 BC in Asia and the Middle East, especially in the lands now called Kurdistan. Given the many similarities in terms of coverage and characteristics of the produced fiber between Markhoz goats and Angora goats, they have been known as Iranian Angora goats and their fiber as mohair in some references. Some researchers assume the center of Anatolia and many have speculated Asia Minor as the origin place of Angora goats, especially where Kurds live in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. The variation in the goats in Kurdish areas supports the latter speculation. Markhoz goat population may have been part of the core Angora goats isolated from its population in Iraq and Turkey for long years. Geographic distribution areas Markhoz goats have dispersed for years away in the provinces of Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, and Kermanshah. At present, there are only few of them in a small part of Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan provinces. More than 90 percent of the population of Markhoz goats are scattered in its natural habitat, in the county of Armarda in the vicinity of the city of Baneh
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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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Recognition of IGA’s Most Active CRs and RDs As part of a new initiative, the International Goat Association wishes to officially recognize the most active Country Representatives (CR) and Regional Directors (RD). RDs and CRs are a very important part of IGA, and we greatly appreciate all that they do: promoting IGA and our International Conference on Goats, organizing in-country and regional conferences, soliciting new members, preparing country reports for IGA’s Newsletter, etc. The Regional Director & Country Representative Committee recently selected the individuals who have done an outstanding job representing IGA in their region or country during the past year, and we wish to congratulate them for their involvement and successes. The 2018 IGA Achievement Award recipients are Emilia Bagnicka (RD for Eastern Europe) and Clara Viviana Rúa Bustamante (CR for Colombia). Additionally, we would like to thank the other Country Representatives, Regional Directors, and members who helped make 2018 such a wonderful success. Editor for Special Issues George C. Fthenakis, DVM (Thessaloniki), MSc (London), Ph.D. (London), Dip.ECAR, Dip.ECSRHM, is Professor and the Dean at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Thessaly, Greece. He was the Foundation President of the European College of Small Ruminant Health Management (2008-11) and serves a fourth term as President of the Farm Animal Hellenic Veterinary Medical Society (2009-21). He has supervised eight Ph.D. theses and one European Veterinary College specialization program. Currently, he supervises four Ph.D. students and two European Veterinary College residents. He has managed 29 research grants, funded by the public or the private sector, among them the large ‘Goshomics’ project (budget: 1,788,500 €, 10 partners). He has published 182 refereed papers (cumulative impact factor: 243.5), which have received >2000 citations. He has authored or edited four books. He has published >480 abstracts in conference proceedings and has made 73 invited/keynote presentations. He was the organizer of the 6th International Sheep Veterinary Congress (2005), the 1st European Conference in Small Ruminant Health Management (2011) and the 11th (2009) and 13th (2015) Greek National Veterinary Congresses. He has participated in many national or international committees, including the European Board for Veterinary Specialisation, the General Assembly of the Federation of Veterinarians in Europe and the committee for ‘Welfare of sheep’ of the European Food Safety Authority. He has received an Honorary scroll from the Hellenic Veterinary Medical Society (2005), the ‘Allan Baldry’ award from the British Sheep Veterinary Society (2006), a Meritorious award from the Karditsa Society for Animal Welfare (2008) and the ‘Konstantinos Tarlatzis’ prize of the Hellenic Veterinary Medical Society (2009). He was elected a Fellow of the Greek Agricultural Academy in 2010. He has received three Awards of Academic Scientific Excellence in ‘Veterinary Medicine and Science’ by the Greek Ministry of Education (2012, 2013, 2014), a Prize for excellent academic and scientific achievements by the Hellenic Veterinary Association (2013). George also received an Award of Clinical Excellence by the European College of Small Ruminant Health Management (2014), a Prize for the excellent and sustained support of the veterinary profession in Greece by the Hellenic Veterinary Association (2015) and a meritorious award by the organizing committee of the 9th International Sheep Veterinary Congress for the significant contributions at the conference (2017). George is a former IGA member and former Country Representative for Greece. Country Representative for India Mamta is a veterinarian with over 20 years of varied experience ranging from international organizations like GALVmed, South Asia Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Programme (FAO and National Dairy Development Board of India joint programme), Animal Husbandry Department of Rajasthan, and various animal welfare organizations. Hello, goat lovers throughout the world!
I was appointed Country Representative (CR) of the International Goat Association for Japan in May 2018. Goat raising has become fashionable in recent years in my country, although the population of goats is only around 20,000. Goat keepers raise goats not only for dairy and meat purposes but also for weeding, education, companion animals, etc. Nonetheless, goat raising in Japan is facing some issues. One of these issues is to establish a feeding standard for goats raised in Japan. As Japanese standards for nutrient requirements of goats do not exist at present, goat keepers have been using the nutrient requirement tables published by the National Research Council (NRC) for feeding goats. The NRC requirements, however, sometimes do not seem to fit Japanese goat conditions. The Japan Goat Network, the only national organization for goat lovers in Japan, has initiated collecting references and is in the process of creating a temporary feeding standard. Complete feeding standards will be established for goats in Japan in the near future. |
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The International Goat Association promotes goat research and development for the benefit of humankind, to alleviate poverty, to promote prosperity and to improve the quality of life. Archives
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