AGENDA

End of project meeting to present the results of the ARDI project

The survival of indigenous breeds of Pyrenees dairy cattle is threatened by the presence of other breeds with more intensive production systems. The strategic goal of the ARDI project is to move towards a common management of genetic improvement programmes for enhancing the competitiveness of indigenous breeds of Pyrenees dairy cattle and strengthening their settlement and exploitation.

The initiative led by NEIKER is also being worked on by the French INRA (National Institute for Agricultural Research), IDELE (Livestock Institute) and the CDEO (Departmental Sheep Livestock Centre), Navarre ASLANA association (Navarre Latxa Cattle Breed Farmer’s Association) and ARDIEKIN (Latxa and Carranzana Breeds Artificial Insemination Selection Centre).

 

 

 

PROGRAMME

09:30 Welcome and presentation of the event by the Vice Minister of Agriculture, Fishing and Food Policy for the Basque Government, as well as other political representatives

10:00 Signing of the establishment of the European “ARDI” group
Signing ceremony of the new European economic interest group created within the framework of this project

10:15 General presentation of the project and contextualization. Eva Ugarte (NEIKER)
Aspects worth mentioning: common problems with the breeds, together we are more (1+1=3), innovation in the agricultural sector: new methodologies and molecular information; sharing experiences and learning from each other

11:00 Strengthening of connections and sharing experiences. Lourdes Mintegi (ARDIEKIN)
Exchanged genetic material, joint livestock farmers meetings, genomic selection at Latxa.

11:30 Coffee break

12:00 Genomic selection at Manech. Fracis Fidele (CDO)

12:30 Round table

Introduction:  Brief description of the group.
Working together; why and what for? Benefits and disadvantages: Are we interested?

14:00 Lunch

15:15 Cross-border assessment. Andrés Legarra (INRA)
How to better compare the Latxa and Manech breeds. How do we carry out the best possible assessment of the data collection effort? Are the production data comparable? Are the genetic values comparable? Consanguinity data analysis based on the existing molecular information. Are they the same breed?

15:45 New characters. Jean Michele Astru (IDELE)
Parasitism, SCC, functional longevity, response to climate change: relationship with robustness. Standardisation of mammary morphology features and morphological evaluation

16:15 Farewell and closing