Towards Uniform Gene Bank Documentation In Europe – The Experience From The EFABISnet Project

• Main Authors: Duchev, Zhivko, Gandini, G., Berger, B., Hulsegge, I., Hiemstra, S.J., Mäki-Tanila, A., Gorjanc, G., Dýrmundsson, Ó., Oravcova, M., Marguerat-König, C., Viinalass, H., Groeneveld, Eildert
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Text; Iceland
• Online Access: https://www.openagrar.de/receive/openagrar_mods_00005134; https://www.openagrar.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/Document_derivate_00004660/SD20105134.pdf; http://www.kongressband.de/wcgalp2010/assets/html/0339.htm

With the Interlaken Declaration and Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources in 2007, countries have recognized the need for improvement in monitoring, conserving and documenting animal genetic resources. Several projects have been set-up in Europe to address these issues. In the EFABIS project (Rosati et al. 2006), with the cooperation of the European Union (EU), two major databases on domestic animal data, those of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and of the European Association for Animal Production (EAAP), were merged. A software for the establishment of information systems for animal genetic resources at the national (Groeneveld et al. 2006) and at the regional level was developed, allowing national systems to be also used as data collectors for the world Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS) at FAO. A protocol (Duchev and Groeneveld 2006) for automated data exchange was developed to facilitate data sharing among countries and regions as indicated in the Strategic Priority Area1 (Characterization, Inventory and Monitoring of Trends and Associated Risks) of the Global Plan of Action. In the follow-up EFABISnet project, a collaborative effort of EAAP, FAO and partners from 14 European countries, in cooperation with the European Regional Focal Point for Animal Genetic Resources (ERFP), national information systems for monitoring the animal genetic resources on breed level were established in Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. The network was soon extended beyond the project plans, with the establishment of EFABIS databases in Finland, Greece, and Hungary. The network was then complemented by a set of inventories of national gene bank collections to strengthen the documentation of ex situ conservation programmes. These documentation systems were established by the National Focal Points for management of farm animal genetic resources. Here we present the experience ...