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NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS


WEBSITE NEWS

In May 2004, the website will be revised again with information about Vetwork activities in the UK.
This includes linkages between animal welfare and environmental education.

Meanwhile visit the website of an environmental education project Vetwork did in one part of Edinburgh:
Visit the Craigmillar Wildlife Information Site


NOTICEBOARD - COMMENTS, REVIEWS, ARTICLES, BOOKS etc


2002: UK - Report

Genetically Modified and Cloned Animals. All in a Good Cause?
Genewatch, April 2002.

Animals are being genetically modified and cloned for: use in biological and medical research; safety testing; drug production (so-called ‘pharming’); use in intensive agriculture. This report is concerned with the genetic modification of mammals and birds. It gives a short description of the main genetic techniques, an overview of the actual modifications that have been carried out in species other than mice and looks at the major applications of the technology. It then discusses the ethical and welfare implications of the genetic modification of animals and examines how this is being regulated in the UK.

Report Summary and Recommendations
View Report (1.04Mb) NB: This is is in PDF format so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.



2001: Uganda / International - web-site

New Indiginous Knowledge Resource on the Web

Since April 2001, Nuffic/CIRAN and the Uganda Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) co-operate in partnership on the development and maintenance of the Indigenous Knowledge site on the Global Development Gateway, and act as multiple Topic Guides in this field. The purpose of this site is to further stimulate the recognition, utilization and exchange of indigenous knowledge in the development process. The site aims to function as a platform for local communities, NGO's, development practitioners, policy makers, and academia interested in IK.
Over the past few weeks 73 resources have been added to the page, which are now on-line: http://www.developmentgateway.org/topic/?page_id=3677

For other IK information on the Internet see also the Nuffic/CIRAN IK Pages: http://www.nuffic.nl/ik-pages/
We kindly invite you to contribute to the promotion of indigenous knowledge in the development and scientific enterprise, and to provide us with information on links to sites with case studies, tools, guidelines and manuals on the use of IK, Best Practices, programmes and projects, directories, databases, conferences, and mailing lists. We hope also that you would make visiting the two websites part of your routine activities.



2001: Book announcement

A Field Manual of Camel Diseases - Traditional and Modern Health Care for the Dromedary
by Ilse Koehler-Rollefson, Paul Mundy and Evelyn Mathias.

ITDG Publishing in collaboration with the League for Pastoral Peoples.
This is the first practical guide to camel diseases designed for use in low technology environments and that combines traditional and modern treatments.
The manual details about 80 major camel diseases and conditions, ranging from abortions to wry neck syndrome.
For each disease descriptions of the disease signs, its causes, simple prevention, traditonal and scientific treatment methods are given.
The book is available at a cost of 12,99 Pounds Sterling from:
ITDG Publishing, 103-105 Southhampton Row, London Wc1 B4hL UK
Fax: +44 - (0)207 436 2013
Email: orders@itpubs.org.uk
ISBN 1 85339 503 X
(see also http://www.itdgpublishing.org.uk)



2000: Book announcement

Responding to bioprospecting: from Biodiversity in the South to Medicines in the North.
Svarstad, H. and S. S. Dhillion (eds.). Oslo: Spartacus.

For more information and how to order, please visit the following website:
http://www.sum.uio.no/bioprospecting.htm



2000: Book announcement

Herbs, humans and animals - Ethnobotany & traditional ethnoveterinary practices.
Proceedings of the International Seminar held in Coreglia, Italy, May 1999.

I am pleased to inform you that this book has been now published (Engl./It.).
A. Pieroni (Editor): Herbs, humans and animals/Erbe, uomini e bestie (Engl./Ital.), experiences Verlag Köln, Germany; ISBN: 3-933932-04-1
Pages: 195; Price: 84,90 DEM
mailto:experiences@netcologne.de
Contents:
  • A. Abu-Rabia: Veterinary and medicinal plants among Bedouin tribes
  • A. Agelet & J. Vallčs: Vascular plants used in ethnoveterinary in Pallars (Pyrenees, Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula)
  • D. De Meneghi & G. L. Sanga: Indigenous knowledge and ethnoveterinary in the south-western Highlands of Tanzania - Plants used for traditional veterinary medicine: a preliminary survey
  • F. Ertug: Plant, animal and human relationships in the folk medicine of Turkey
  • M. E. Giusti: Erbe, uomini e bestie nell'immaginario popolare
  • M. R. Gonzáles-Tejero, J. M. Mesa, A. M. Cobo, A. Gúzman & F. El-Ouardani: Medicinal plants used in the traditional veterinary practices in Andalusia
  • M. J. Minja: The Maasai's role in the conservation of ecosystems through widespread practice of ethnoveterinary medicine
  • G. Picchi: Erbe ed animali nelle societŕ agricole tradizionali
  • A. Pieroni: Botanica etnoveterinaria in Italia: lo stato attuale delle conoscenze
  • A. Pieroni & A. Grazzini: Alimenti-medicina di origine animale
  • R. E. Uncini-Manganelli & P. E. Tomei: Piante medicinali nella veterinaria popolare in Toscana: alcuni esempi in Garfagnana
  • M. Verdone: Omeopatia e medicina veterinaria
  • K. Zitterl-Eglseer & Ch. Franz: Medicinal herbs of central Europe used in the therapy of different animal species
    Due to the enormous budget problems we had, I'm sorry to inform you that it will be NOT possible to send free copies.
    Yours sincerely , Dr. Andrea Pieroni, PhD (Bonn) MSc (Pisa)
    Venloer Str. 233a, D-50823 Köln, Germany
    Fax: +49-221-9525484
    mailto:mailto:uzs51a@uni-bonn.de



    1999: Book announcement

    FORAGE HUSBANDRY.
    by Wolfgang Bayer and Ann Waters-Bayer.

    The Tropical Agriculturalist series is intended to provide up-to-date information for students, extension agents and farmers, written in an easy-to-understand manner. All the books are prepared by specialists who have worked in several tropical countries or regions. This volume is written by Wolfgang Bayer in collaboration with Ann Waters-Bayer, both of whom have considerable experience in forage husbandry and farming systems research and development in a number of countries in the tropics and subtropics.
    There are many books written on pasture and forage production in temperate and tropical climates, but few have attempted to deal with the subject when applied to smallholder or non-commercial systems. The authors show not only how forage is grown, used and stored, but also how it is integrated into the overall farming systems. They refer to systems in which small-scale farmers cultivate land and keep some livestock, as well as to those in which pastoralists husband the available resources to sustain their livestock through the varying seasons of the year.
    The book covers situations that exist in regions ranging from deserts to humid grasslands and from low to high altitudes, and deals with livestock systems ranging from nomadic pastoralism to intensive stall-feeding of animals. Particularly valuable are the case studies used to illustrate systems of forage husbandry ranging from management of natural grassland to the production of high-quality forage crops. This book should help the reader to understand various aspects of forage husbandry under numerous different situations in the tropics. It also indicates how forage husbandry systems are and can be developed in a sustainable way through a process of participatory research and innovation.
    Anthony J Smith, Edinburgh

    Year of publication: 1998; 198 pp, 216 x 138 mm, paperback, 32 B/W photographs, ISBN 0 333 66856 1, GBP7.

    Contents:
    1. Introduction
    2. Livestock keepers and their farming systems
    3. Livestock and forage: some basic biology
    4. Management of livestock and forage resources
    5. Manging natural forage
    6. Forage as auxiliary product from cultivated land
    7. Cultivated forages
    8. Forage conservation and supplementation
    9. Research and development in forage husbandry

    The book is a co-publication of Macmillan, CTA and GTZ.
    Orders:
    MacMillan Education Ltd
    Houndmills Rd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hants RG21 2XS, UK
    Fax +44-1256-814642
    Email: v.izat@macmillan.co.uk or p.oflannagan@macmillan.co.uk or i.johnstone@macmillan.co.uk (bulk orders)
    or, for people in APC countries:
    CTA (Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation)
    Postbus 380, NL-6700 AJ Wageningen, The Netherlands
    Fax: +31-317-460067
    Email: cta@cta.nl



    1999: Nigeria - news

    from a correspondent in Nigeria - posted June 1999

    There was a workshop on 8th March 1999 titled "WOMEN IN POULTRY FARMING".

    About 20 women attended. The venue was the Faculty of Vet Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan. It was sponsored by the British-Leventis Foundation in Commemoration of the International Women's Day.

    An association called CEPAN (Commercial Egg Producers Association of Nigeria) in their April/May 1999 14th edition of their Bulletin named "Egg Update" is the Source of the Information.

    The poultry industry witnessed an increase of total number of birds in 1998 from an estimated 4.2 million to about 5 million laying birds. This is still a far cry from the 40 million we had in 1986.

    Maize is $294 per tonne in Nigeria market compared to the $105 per tonne in the International market. An appeal has thus gone to the Federal government to remove the ban placed on Maize, Sorghum and Millet.

    (web-site editors note: Vetwork UK welcomes correspondence, particularly detailing field experience. This site has been established particularly to stimulate discussion of small holder or community initiatives from which there are useful lessons in balancing livestock keeping, human benefit, animal welfare, and considerations of environmental impact.
    Vetwork: stephen@vetwork.org.uk)



    1999: Sudan - news

    from a correspondent in Sudan - posted May 1999

    A lesson in the dangers of keeping animals in captivity for whatever reason; and of smoking:

    HUNDREDS OF ANIMALS PERISH IN BURNED FARM

    News Article from Khartoum, Sudan by PANA on April 19, 1999 at 16:39:23: Hundreds of animals and birds were recently killed when a privately-owned wildlife farm was burned down in Khor Omar Area, 20 km north of Khartoum.
    According to a police source, the animals killed in the fire were 158 spurred (wild) tortoises, six antelopes, 350 desert (wild) lizards, 33 cranes, nine rock hyrax birds, 19 san foxes (wild) and seven sand grouse birds.
    The farm is owned by a group of retired wildlife officers. A Wildlife Conservation Department official has put the value of the animals and birds burned in the fire at 15,000 US dollars. The owners put their losses at 222,000 dollars.
    Meanwhile, the deputy director of the Wildlife Conservation Department, Brig. Haju Mohammed el Hassan, said the police is holding farm guards for interrogation. He, however, ruled out any malice in the incident. "The farm is positioned near a residential area and possibly a passer-by might have dropped a cigarette near the grass hedge of the farm and started the fire," he told PANA.



    1998: UK - report

    UNCERTAIN WORLD: Genetically Modified Organisms, Food and Public Attitudes in Britain

    by R. Grove-White, P. MacNaughten, S. Mayer, B. Wynne.
    (A report by the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change in association with Unilever, and with help from the Green Alliance and other NGOs).

    A recent study of public attitudes to genetically modified organisms in food found feelings of fatalism, concern and unease not only at the technology, which was considered to be opaque and in the interests primarily of industry and profit, but also at official regulatory mechanisms, which were thought to be untrustworthy and acting on the side of industry, not for any greater good. The report shed light on the apparent ambivalence in attitudes between 'the individual as consumer' and 'the individual as citizen'. Animal welfare was one of the factors taken into consideration during the discussions. In addition to this, the findings shed light on similar ambivalence in public attitudes to other, wider issues of animal welfare.

    If you would like further information, or full copies of the report, please contact Sue Mayer at sue.mayer@genewatch.org.





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    Vetwork: stephen@vetwork.org.uk