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Development of integrated livestock breeding and management strategies to improve animal health, product quality and performance in European organic and 'low input' milk, meat and egg production

Original titleDevelopment of integrated livestock breeding and management strategies to improve animal health, product quality and performance in European organic and 'low input' milk, meat and egg production
Abstract

The LowInputBreeds project unites 21 partners from Europe and further afield and will develop integrated breeding and management strategies to tackle the issue of improved animal health and food quality.  It will run until 2014 and is co-funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.

The project has four main objectives:

  • To develop and evaluate innovative breeding concepts to deliver genotypes with ‘robustness’ and quality traits required under ‘low input’ conditions.
  • To integrate the use of improved genotypes with innovative management approaches. These will focus on issues where breeding or management innovations alone are unlikely to provide satisfactory solutions e.g. mastitis or parasite control.
  • To identify the potential economic, environmental and ethical impacts of the project’s results. The project needs to ensure that the results are in line with society’s different needs, priorities and consumer expectations.
  • To establish an efficient training and dissemination programme aimed at rapid application of project results in organic and ‘low input’ livestock farming.

LowInputBreeds focuses on six major livestock production systems: dairy and beef cattle, dairy and meat sheep, pigs and laying hens.

The project consortium includes 15 academic centres of excellence and six industrial partners in 15 countries in Europe as well as in Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and Tunisia. It is coordinated by Newcastle University in the UK (overall coordination) in collaboration with the Swiss Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL (scientific coordination).

Project websitehttp://www.lowinputbreeds.org
Project resultshttp://orgprints.org/view/projects/eu-lowinputbreeds.html
Financing/ Donor

 

 

(Research) Program
  • European Union: 7th Research Framework Programme
Project partners
  • Newcastle University, UK, Coordinator
  • Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Switzerland, Scientific Coordinator
  • Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France
  • Wageningen University and Research Centre, Livestock Research, The Netherlands
  • Georg-August-University Göttingen, Animal Breeding and Genetics Group, Germany
  • University of Catania, Department of Animal Sciences, Italy
  • National Agricultural Research Foundation, Greece
  • Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries vTI, Institute of Organic Farming, Germany
  • Danish Centre for Bioethics and Risk Assessment, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • University of Ljubljana, Animal Science Department, Slovenia
  • University of Louvain, Centre for Philosophy of Law, Belgium
  • Swissgenetics, Switzerland
  • Swiss Brown Cattle Breeders’ Federation, Switzerland
  • Applied Genetics Network, Switzerland
  • IPG, Institute for Pig Genetics BV, The Netherlands
  • TOPIGS Iberica / Pigture Ibérica, Spain
  • Institut de Sélection Animale BV, The Netherlands
  • Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique de Tunisie, Tunisia
  • Lincoln University, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, New Zealand
  • University of Guelph, Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Canada
  • Federal University of Viçosa, Animal Science Department, Brazil
FiBL project leader/ contact
FiBL project staff
Role of FiBL

Project leader

Further information
Group/ Work area/ Location
Themes
FiBL project number 45009
Date modified 02.09.2020
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