Doctoral Dissertation Research: Farmer Understanding of Inheritability of Traits and Livestock Management in The Gambia

佐治亚大学的博士生Tad Brown将在Ted Gragson博士的指导下，研究冈比亚农民如何理解基因选择，以及这种理解如何影响他们对小型牲畜(绵羊和山羊)的经济决策。区域一级的遗传分析表明，在整个西非的地方性反刍动物种群中存在着显著的杂交。地方品种的遗传优势很重要，因为它们赋予采采蝇对压力的耐受性，采采蝇传播导致锥虫病(“昏睡病”)的寄生原虫，每年影响非洲约50万人。畜牧业也是冈比亚收入和储蓄的主要来源，旨在实现减贫的发展努力正在努力改善当地畜牧业的表现。以前大多数关于特定家畜性状偏好的研究都引出了等级分布，以确定生产环境中的限制因素，从而为在研究站指导品种改良制定议程。相反，这项研究将侧重于农民对性状遗传性的理解以及他们日常的牛群管理实践。第一阶段的研究将收集关于牲畜品种、饲养规则、牲畜生产的目标和限制、家庭财富以及当前牛群的家谱的当地知识，作为对有关放牧决定的陈述的交叉核对。这项研究的第二阶段将涉及结构化技术，以获得关于特定性状的定向选择和追溯祖先的当地知识，以及对品种抗病能力的当地解释。最后阶段将采用村级人种学来观察小规模饲养的实际做法，而在畜牧场和屠宰场的观察将提供与扑杀事件有关的数据。这项社会生态研究将有助于将家庭决策与西非更大范围的环境现象联系起来，并将有助于动物驯化理论。这项研究的发现还将为畜牧业发展努力和动物遗传资源保护提供信息。为这项研究提供资金支持研究生的教育。

University of Georgia doctoral student Tad Brown, under the guidance of Dr. Ted Gragson, will undertake research on how Gambian farmers understand genetic selection and how this understanding affects their economic decision-making for small livestock (sheep and goats). Regional-level genetic analyses have revealed that significant crossbreeding is present in endemic ruminant livestock populations across West Africa. The genetic merits of endemic breeds are important because they confer tolerance to the pressures of tsetse fly, which transmits the parasitic protozoa that causes trypanosomosis ("sleeping sickness"), affecting some half-million people in Africa each year. Livestock also represents a major source of income and savings in The Gambia, and development efforts to achieve poverty alleviation are working to improve endemic livestock performance. Most previous research on preferences for particular livestock traits has elicited rank profiles to identify constraints in the production environment and thereby to set the agenda for directing breed improvement at research stations. In contrast, this research will focus on farmer understandings of the heritability of traits and their day-to-day herd management practices. The first phase of research will capture local knowledge about livestock breeds, rules about breeding, goals of and constraints on livestock production, household wealth, and a genealogy of the current herd as a cross-check on statements about herding decisions. The second phase of the study will involve structured techniques for eliciting local knowledge about directional selection in specific traits and about tracing ancestry, and local interpretations of disease tolerance in breeds. The final phase will employ village-level ethnography to observe actual practices of small-stock keeping, while observation at stock-yards and abattoirs will provide data related to culling events. This socio-ecological research will help link household decision-making to larger scale environmental phenomena in West Africa, and will contribute to theories of animal domestication. Findings from this research will also inform livestock development efforts and animal genetic resource conservation. Funding this research supports the education of a graduate student.