IGA Blog

Prácticas tradicionales de las comunidades indígenas Wayúu en ganadería ovinocaprina

6/19/2019

La Guajira es el departamento con mayor población ovinocaprina de Colombia, los animales han permanecido desde la época de la conquista en poder de las comunidades indígenas Wayúu, asentadas en la media y alta Guajira.

Los sistemas de producción, la crianza y manejo de estos animales se adecúan a el ecosistema en el que viven y a la cultura de la etnia Wayúu, siendo para los occidentales una alternativa que ayuda a preservar de manera eficiente los recursos naturales. El Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural de Colombia y Agrosavia, investigan sobre la medicina tradicional y la proyección de estos sistemas a mercados internacionales.

Report – International Conference, Kouty, Czech Republic, November 2018

4/5/2019

Zuzana Sztankoova, the IGA Country Representative of the Czech Republic from the Institute of Animal Science, Department of Genetics and Breeding of Farm Animals in Prague, participated in the international goat conference that took place in Kouty from November 9th to 10th, 2018. The conference included visitors from Poland and the Slovak Republic.

Book Announcement – The World of Sheep and Goats

8/9/2018

A global view of small ruminant production gives a fascinating and truly global insight into the daily lives of vets, livestock keepers and the sheep and goats in their care. Featuring over 400 images and accompanying texts from over 50 countries, this collection was first displayed at the 9th International Sheep Veterinary Congress in Harrogate in 2017.

AIGR Newsletter, Spring 2018

3/15/2018

The Newsletter of the E (Kika) de la Garza American Institute for Goat Research Cooperative Extension Program, Langston University

Written by Dr. Tilahun Sahlu
IGA Board member and Director of E (Kika) de la Garza American Institute for Goat Research

As usual, this time of year is very busy as we prepare for our annual Goat Field Day and conduct research projects.

This year, the theme for our Goat and Hair Sheep Field Day is Preventing Production Losses and you can read more about it on page 3 of this newsletter. This year our featured speakers will be Mr. Matthew Branan, Dr. David Pugh, and Dr. Jim Keen. Mr. Branan is from the USDA/APHIS National Animal Health Monitoring System in Fort Collins, CO; Dr. Pugh is from the Alabama Veterinary Diagnostic Lab System in Auburn, AL; and Dr. Keen is from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Download a copy of their Newsletter here.

Production loss has many facets. According to the USDA/APHIS NAHMS report entitled "Goat and Kid Predator and Nonpredator Death Loss in the United States, 2015", by the way Mr. Branan is associated with this USDA program, about 500,000 adult and kid goats were lost to all causes (nonpredator and predator) in 2015, which represented 10% of U.S. adult goat inventory and 20% of kids born in 2015. The total value of goat and kid losses was $70 million. Texas had the largest inventory of goats and also had the highest percentage of losses: 36% of U.S. adult goat deaths and 38 % of kid deaths. Nonpredator causes accounted for about three-fourths of all adult goat and kid death losses in the U.S. in 2015. Of known losses due to nonpredator causes, internal parasites were the primary cause, resulting in almost 87,000 goat and kid deaths in 2015. For 2015 death losses due to predators, coyotes and dogs accounted for the highest percentages of goat and kid death losses in 2015. Overall, coyotes and dogs accounted for almost 80,000 goat and kid deaths, or about 65% of all losses due to predators.

Scouring and Dehairing Australian Cashmere

3/14/2018

Download the PDF

Bruce McGregor, IGA member and former IGA Board member

Australia’s rural industries make a fundamental contribution to the Australian economy and way of life

Australia’s rural industries make a fundamental contribution to the Australian economy and way of life. In addition to the major industries, numerous new and emerging rural industries bring opportunity, diversity and resilience to rural Australia. The long-term sustainability of the rare natural animal fibre industries is of considerable importance both to the production industries and for economic and social benefits generated by value-adding processing of rare animal fibres in Australia. As these are new industries in Australia, there is substantial scope to improve production efficiency, fibre quality and value adding of these fibres.

To assist the development of these new industries this project focussed on two main issues:

To assist the local rare animal fibre industries in the key area of efficient cost-effective fibre processing; and
To improve knowledge outputs and the knowledge base of industries.

About the Author
As a Research Scientist, Dr. Bruce McGregor B.Agr.Sc. (Hons), Ph.D., Advanced Cert. Textile Technology, has focussed on improving the production, fibre quality, processing and comfort properties of rare natural animal fibres including superfine wool, cashmere, mohair and alpaca. This led to Ph.D. studies on the quality of cashmere and its influence on textile materials produced from cashmere and blends with different qualities of superfine wool. Recently he was Program Leader of the Wool Comfort research conducted by the CRC for Sheep Industry Innovation. He has published over 150 scientific research papers plus numerous technical bulletins and advisory publications. Bruce has travelled widely to countries that produce rare natural animal fibres so he could understand the environmental, social and technological conditions in these regions. He has published a number of other reports that are available on the AgriFutures website

READ MORE...

National Foundation for Biotechnology Development (NADBIO) and the Venezuelan Department of Agriculture Initiate Program for Caprine Integral Development (PIDEL)

7/17/2017

Written by Luis Dickson, IGA Regional Director for South America
Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrícolas - Venezuela

The traditional breeding of goats began in Venezuela a few decades after the colonization by the Spaniards and has survived without many changes since then. The animal used is the Criollo, a very resistant animal that evolved from a mixture of Spanish, African and Canarian breeds introduced more than 200 years ago and that is adapted to the rough semiarid conditions of Venezuela. Breeders also use a very prolific mixture of crosses of Criollo and more recent introduced breeds like French Alpine, Anglo Nubian, Saanen and Majorera.

Simposio Nacional e Internacional Ovino y Caprino

7/7/2017

El “Simposio Nacional e Internacional Ovino y Caprino” (20 y 21 de Julio) tendra lugar en el marco de la Feria Agropecuaria más importante de Colombia, “AGROEXPO”, en las instalaciones del recinto ferial más grande del país, Corferias en la ciudad de Bogotá.

La Feria “AGROEXPO” iniciará el 13 de julio y culminará el 23 de Julio. http://caprovica.blogspot.com/

National & International Sheep & Goat Symposium

7/7/2017

The National and International Sheep and Goat Symposium (July 20-21) will take place during “AGROEXPO”, the most important livestock fair of Colombia, in the largest fairgrounds of the country, Corferias, in the city of Bogotá, Colombia.

The AGROEXPO fair will start on 13 July until 23 July. Additional information can be found on the following blog: http://caprovica.blogspot.com/

Small Ruminant Research, June 2017, Vol. 151, Issue Highlights

5/31/2017

Production Systems and Sustainability
Reduced survival of lambs from maiden ewes exposed to mature ewes pre-lambing
S.M. Robertson, M.B. Allworth, M.A. Friend
Vol. 151, p11–15

The suboptimal survival of new-born lambs is a major source of reproductive inefficiency, is often lower in maiden (first-lambing) compared with multiparous ewes, and this may be associated with poor maternal behaviour due to inexperience. This study examined whether the survival of lambs from maiden ewes could be increased by exposing maiden ewes to multiparous lambing ewes in the month before lambing. Pregnant maiden Merino ewes (n = 446) which had been mated at 18 months of age were allocated to three replicates of two treatments.

2017 Chinese National Sheep and Goat Conference

5/30/2017

The 2017 Chinese National Sheep and Goat Conference will be held in Shijiazhuang, China on August 18-21, 2017. Shijiazhuang is the capitol city of Hebei Province, a one-and-a-half-hour bullet train ride from Beijing.

The sponsor of the conference
Chinese Sheep and Goat Association

Supporter of conference
International Goat Association.

Rural farm families’ probable acceptability of small ruminant’s milk for consumption in Ogun State, Nigeria

12/18/2016

The nutritional intake of the rural households, which is largely characterised by carbohydrates at the expense of protein intake, has the potentials of being improved through the consumption of sheep and goats’ milk. With the widespread of small ruminant keeping by rural households in most developing countries, the study embarked on investigation of possible acceptability of sheep and goats’ milk for consumption by farm families in selected rural communities of Ogun State.

Dairy Sheep & Goat Conference 2017

12/6/2016

Feeding & Breeding, February 21-22, 2017

The second annual conference aiming to inform and lead the development of small ruminant dairying in the UK.
Aimed at producers, processors, vets and all industry suppliers.
Exciting line up of national and international speakers.
A forum for the exchange of information and ideas for all those involved in the growing field of sheep and goat milk production.

Ninth International Sheep Veterinary Congress, May 22-26, 2017, Harrogate, England

11/21/2016

"Sustainable global food security through efficient sheep and goat production"

How must small ruminant production efficiency be improved to sustainably meet the needs of the world’s growing human population for food?

Global ruminant livestock production is inherently inefficient, and small ruminant farming is frequently uneconomic, or fails to alleviate poverty in a welfare-friendly manner. Our Ninth International Sheep Veterinary Congress will identify opportunities for improvement in the efficiency of small ruminant production to sustainably meet the needs of the world’s growing population for food.

Dr. Christopher Lu visits Sichuan, China, May 11 to 23

8/21/2014

Professor Xu Gangyi, IGA Director of the Board and Professor Zhang Yingjie, IGA Regional Director in Asia hosted a visit by Dr. Christopher D. Lu, Professor of University of Hawaii at Hilo who was in China during in May, 2014 to promote goat research and cooperation and International Goat Association. Dr. Lu is a former president of the International Goat Association (IGA) and Argosy University in Seattle.

Want to read this in Chinese?

XXXIX National Conference and XV International of the Spanish Society of Sheep and Goat, Ourense, Spain, 17-19 September 2014

8/4/2014

The Spanish society of sheep and goat (SEOC) returns to celebrate its annual Congress, this time in the historic city of Ourense. In this Edition, the “Auditorio Municipal of Ourense” will host the XXXIX National Conference and XV international.

Following the guideline of previous conferences, but improving year after year, speakers of high professional reputation in the field of small ruminants have been invited, which will give us information on the latest advances in knowledge regarding these species. As a novelty, this year we have introduced a monographic Conference on Mastitis by express request of the sector. Furthermore, a very practical topic is going to be treated in the satellite symposium: “Performing a necropsy”.

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.

call +1-501-454-1641

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Photo used under Creative Commons from Breville USA