agriculture

Beef industry goes biotech

Mida has invited 45 veterinarians and zoologists to learn about artificial insemination

Experts say that the country´s bovine gene pool hasn´t been modified in over 20 years

LA PRENSA

cash cows: Improving the quality of livestock with biotechnology would be a boon for the industry.1013954

These days Yamil Tello has to endure his friend´s jokes about his favorite Herrera baseball team not making it to the playoffs. Nobody, however, can laugh at Tello´s goal for the Azuero region: to improve the quality of livestock through artificial insemination.

"I´m not thinking right now about what I´m going to get out of it," said Tello. "I´m only thinking about how I´m going to help improve the quality of our farms."

Tello, along with 44 other veterinarians and zoologists across the country, is participating in a bovine biotechnology course in David, Chiriquí which was developed by professors at the Universidad Tecnológica Oteima (Uoteima). The Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario (Mida), awarded educational grants to the 45 participating professionals. University officials said the project would cost an estimated $250,000.

The Fertica Group, owner of the Batipa agro-ecological reserve in eastern Chiriquí, is providing space for an experimental farm and laboratories, where the students will conduct their studies in bovine husbandry.

Lionel Ivan Issac, the vice chancellor of research at Uoteima, explained that the students are receiving technical training in fertilizing embryos with high quality sperm in the laboratory and then depositing them into a cow´s uterus.

The course also includes business training. "They will leave fully trained in how to run a small company, and the state will assign them territories where they will offer their expertise to farmers throughout the country," said Uoteima´s director Nixa de Ríos.

The national statistics on the current use of biotechnology in agriculture are not very impressive. Veterinarian Efraín Quintero, in charge of the biotechnology part of the course, said that the country´s half a million head of cattle hasn´t changed in 20 years ago, with only 10 percent being improved with biotechnology strategies.

"With insemination we can make exemplary cattle that reach slaughtering stage at 18 months instead of the usual 36, because we will be bringing together the best qualities of different breeds in a new generation of cattle," says Quintero.

That would mean big bucks for the country´s livestock industry. "If we succeed in inseminating 250,000 of the 800,000 cows we have in this country, that would make a very significant difference," Quintero added.

Countries like Brazil, which inseminates 18 percent of their cattle population, and Uruguay, at 25 percent, are in the forefront of Latin American countries applying biotechnology techniques to livestock.

The cost of each insemination process ranges between $25 and $35 and developing embryos in the laboratory can cost up to $300.

Jose Castillero, a zoologist in Los Santos, and Ricardo Parada, a veterinarian in Penonomé, are preparing to leave their respective practices to devote themselves to improving cattle in their regions through genetic engineering.

According Parada, only one per cent of the farmers in Penenomé use biotechnology. "But that's what we are going to change."