The Global Contributions of Working Equids to Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihoods in Agenda 2030.

Small farmers produce most food in low- and middle-income countries and most small farmers rely on directly or indirectly working equids (WE). The lack of methods and metrics for assessing the role of WE hampers realisation of WE contributions. Based on literature review and a survey of WE welfare experts, we propose a framework for optimising WE potential based on two axes of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and value chains. WE contribute especially to earning and sparing income (largely in food production) (SDG 1), but also have roles in accessing health and hygiene services and products (SDG 3 and 5), providing edible products (SDG 2), and benefiting women (SDG 6), with lesser contributions to other SDGs, notably climate action (SDG 13). Experts identified barriers to appropriate appreciation of WE contributions, in order to target actions to overcome them. They found WE are neglected because they belong to farmers who are themselves neglected; because information on WE is inadequate; and, because the unique nature and roles of WE means systems, policies, investors, markets and service providers struggle to cater for them. Harnessing WE to optimally contribute to sustainable development will require generating better evidence on their contributions to SDGs, ensuring better integration into ongoing efforts to attain SDGs, and building the WE capacity among development actors.

The importance of animal welfare and Veterinary Services in a changing world.

Animal welfare is an essential component of the future of sustainable agriculture and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. There is growing global recognition of the importance of animal welfare, which must always be considered as part of the decision-making around food and nutrition security. Veterinary Services, encompassing public and private veterinarians and para-veterinarians, are custodians of animal welfare and key players in future actions to improve it. The welfare of animals is everyone's responsibility, from the individual farmer and practitioner to policymakers at the national and intergovernmental level. In this paper, after providing background information about current animal welfare issues and identifying animal welfare risks, the authors make a number of recommendations for action at the institutional and individual level. They do so because while the former is essential to generate change at scale and effective resourcing, the latter can create immediate action at a local level and drive change from the ground up. Without coordinated action from Veterinary Services, opportunities to improve animal welfare, alongside human and environmental health and well-being, may very well be lost, and animal welfare may fail to improve or even be at risk of decline.

L'accélération de la perturbation numérique depuis quelques années est spectaculaire, transformant tous les secteurs de l'économie, y compris la production animale, la santé animale et le bien-être des animaux. Les auteurs s'intéressent à certaines technologies numériques de pointe qui pourraient influencer le devenir des Services vétérinaires. Toutes ces technologies sont orientées données et trouvent leur illustration dans trois exemples qui se répartissent dans les catégories suivantes : a) les technologies sans fil et mobiles appliquées au suivi de la santé animale, à la surveillance des maladies, aux notifications des foyers et à l'échange d'informations ; b) les technologies avancées de traitement des données, dont les mégadonnées et l'analytique de données qui servent à mettre en évidence des structures sous-jacentes, à extraire des schémas prédictifs, à relever des corrélations et à générer d'autres informations ; c) des technologies prometteuses comme les applications « blockchain ¼ (chaînes de blocs) utilisées pour une gestion efficace et efficiente de diverses chaînes d'approvisionnement en intrants. Les auteurs résument brièvement les défis actuels associés au recours accru à ces technologies dans le secteur de la santé animale et en font ressortir certaines répercussions sur les Services vétérinaires. Les technologies numériques vont profondément affecter les modalités de la prestation des services de santé animale ainsi que la gestion des systèmes de santé animale. Par conséquent, il est crucial que les Services vétérinaires anticipent cette évolution et s'adaptent à la transformation numérique en cours. L'investissement dans les nouvelles technologies et les efforts visant à doter les professionnels vétérinaires actuels et futurs des compétences et des connaissances numériques nécessaires pour rester informés et au centre de l'innovation numérique dans le domaine de la santé animale doivent être les priorités des prochaines années.

El bienestar animal es un componente esencial de la agricultura sostenible del futuro y de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible fijados por las Naciones Unidas. Su importancia está cada vez más clara en todo el mundo. El bienestar de los animales debe ser siempre tenido en cuenta en los procesos decisorios que tocan a la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional. Los Servicios Veterinarios, que comprenden tanto a los veterinarios públicos y privados como al personal paraveterinario, son custodios del bienestar animal y agentes clave de toda acción futura encaminada a mejorarlo. Para lograr que el bienestar animal mejore desde ahora mismo, allí donde haga falta, y asegurar que siga un rumbo de constante progreso en el futuro, es preciso que todos los interlocutores, desde los productores y cuidadores hasta los planificadores de políticas de ámbito nacional e intergubernamental, hagan suya esta responsabilidad. Tras presentar información básica sobre los actuales problemas de bienestar animal y señalar los riesgos existentes en la materia, los autores formulan una serie de recomendaciones para actuar tanto desde las instituciones como a título individual, sabedores de que el primer nivel es fundamental para inducir cambios a gran escala y movilizar recursos eficazmente, mientras que el segundo puede generar inmediatamente acciones a escala local e impulsar desde ahí cambios en sentido ascendente. A falta de una labor coordinada de los Servicios Veterinarios, es muy posible que se pierdan oportunidades para mejorar el bienestar animal, junto con la salud y el bienestar de personas y ecosistemas, y que los niveles de bienestar animal no mejoren o, incluso, corran peligro de deterioro.

Integration specificity of the hobo element of Drosophila melanogaster is dependent on sequences flanking the integration site.

We analyzed the integration specificity of the hobo transposable element of Drosophila melanogaster. Our results indicate that hobo is similar to other transposable elements in that it can integrate into a large number of sites, but that some sites are preferred over others, with a few sites acting as integration hot spots. A comparison of DNA sequences from 112 hobo integration sites identified a consensus sequence of NTNNNNAC, but this consensus was insufficient to account for the observed integration specificity. To begin to define the parameters affecting hobo integration preferences, we analyzed sequences flanking a donor hobo element, as well as sequences flanking a hobo integration hot spot for their relative influence on hobo integration specificity. We demonstrate experimentally that sequences flanking a hobo donor element do not influence subsequent integration site preference, whereas, sequences contained within 31 base pairs flanking an integration hot spot have a significant effect on the frequency of integration into that site. However, sequence analysis of the DNA flanking several hot spots failed to identify any common sequence motif shared by these sites. This lack of primary sequence information suggests that higher order DNA structural characteristics of the DNA and/or chromatin may influence integration site selection by the hobo element.

Hermes, a functional non-Drosophilid insect gene vector from Musca domestica.

Hermes is a short inverted repeat-type transposable element from the house fly, Musca domestica. Using an extra-chromosomal transpositional recombination assay, we show that Hermes elements can accurately transpose in M. domestica embryos. To test the ability of Hermes to function in species distantly related to M. domestica we used a nonautonomous Hermes element containing the Drosophila melanogaster while (w+) gene and created D. melanogaster germline transformants. Transgenic G1 insects were recovered from 34.6% of the fertile G0 adults developing from microinjected w- embryos. This transformation rate is comparable with that observed using P or hobo vectors in D. melanogaster, however, many instances of multiple-element insertions and large clusters were observed. Genetic mapping, Southern blotting, polytene chromosome in situ hybridization and DNA sequence analyses confirmed that Hermes elements were chromosomally integrated in transgenic insects. Our data demonstrate that Hermes elements transpose at high rates in D. melanogaster and may be an effective gene vector and gene-tagging agent in this species and distantly related species of medical and agricultural importance.

Interplasmid transposition of Drosophila hobo elements in non-drosophilid insects.

A modified hobo element from Drosophila melanogaster was introduced into embryos of the housefly, Musca domestica (family Muscidae) and the Queensland fruitfly, Bactrocera tryoni (family Tephritidae) to assess its ability to transpose. Hobo was capable of transposition in these species and transposition products had all of the hallmarks of hobo transposition products recovered from D. melanogaster, including the movement only of sequences precisely delimited by the inverted terminal repeats of hobo, the creation of an 8 bp duplication of the insertion site and an absolute requirement for hobo-encoded transposase. Transposition of hobo into the target gene resulted in a non-random distribution of insertion sites, with 10 of 38 independent insertions into the same nucleotide position. The results indicate that hobo can transpose in heterologous species, further demonstrating the similarity of hobo to Ac (Activator) of Zea mays and Tam3 of Antirrhinum majus. Hobo has excellent potential to act as a gene vector or gene tagging agent in nondrosophilid insects.

Identification of an essential gene, l(3)73Ai, with a dominant temperature-sensitive lethal allele, encoding a Drosophila proteasome subunit.

Proteasomes are multicatalytic proteinase complexes that function as a major nonlysosomal proteolytic system in all eukaryotes. These particles are made up of 13-15 nonidentical subunits, and they exhibit multiple endopeptidase activities that promote the intracellular turnover of abnormal polypeptides and short-lived regulatory proteins. Although the biochemical characterization of proteasomes has been quite extensive, and although a number of the genes encoding proteasome subunits have been cloned from various organisms, there is still much to be learned about their function in vivo and what role(s) they might play during development. Here, we report the identification of the l(3)73Ai1 allele of Drosophila melanogaster as a dominant temperature-sensitive lethal mutation in a gene encoding a component of the proteasome, thus opening the way for future genetic and developmental studies on this important proteolytic system in a higher eukaryote.