Animal production and health

The activities of the Animal Producton and Health Section of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division are aimed at improving animal productivity in developing Member States. In brief, the Section promotes applied research into ways of improving the nutrition, reproductive capacity and disease status of indigenous and imported breeds of livestock. In many instances the first stage in this process involves the collection of baseline data on different types of animals kept in both the same and differing environments, in order to identify constraints on productivity. Having identified these constraint(s), research can then be undertaken with a view to reducing their impact by introducing changes in the animal management system at minimal or no cost. As will be explained in the discussion which follows, the use of nuclear techniques helps animal scientists not only to identify constraints on livestock productivity, but to minimize their impact