4.Integrating stakeholder support to advance animal genomics in
animal health
- There is a lack of understanding of the opportunities for new
approaches and in particular what is required for progress. There is a
critical dearth of funding for animal health research and bias against
non-hypothesis led approaches.
- Too many groups are involved in ’protecting’ Intellectual property
before any is developed, inhibiting cooperation or blocking progress.
Adversarial approaches to protection predominate. Possible competition
between genetic and ’pharma’ approaches may reduce investment.(Cloete
et al., 2014).
- There is little dialogue between veterinarians and animal scientists
particularly in relation to the genetics of animal health. The focus
tends to be on disease challenge or in vitro approaches with limited
numbers of animals or genetic variation
- There is a lack of a unified vision on the opportunity of genomics for
animal health, a lack of understanding of actions required to
investigate the genetics of animal health, and poor definition of new
tools required to undertake the required research.
- The lack of active community involvement has often led to the failure
of livestock breeding projects in developing countries like those in
the SADC region (Kosgey et al., 2006). In contrast, successful
projects were generally characterized by stakeholder involvement (Kahi
et al., 2010).
- The regulatory environment for ’gene-based’ technologies, e g genetic
modification, cloning, RNA interference, and transgenics, is unclear
and inhibits research (as well as commercialization).