Ch. 6— Maintaining Animal Diversity Offsite • 161 



Such a project would require major new fund- 

 ing, including support for development of nec- 

 essary foreign facilities. 



Facilitatien off International Movement 

 off Oermplasm 



Effective use of global germplasm requires 

 that mechanisms exist to facilitate the move- 

 ment of such resources. This is especially im- 

 portant for specialized breeds in developing 

 countries, such as prolific Chinese pigs (52), 

 which may have utility in crossbreeding pro- 

 grams in industrial countries. The international 

 movement of germplasm is often difficult be- 

 cause of different countries' health-related 

 import-export requirements. This area involves 

 both technologies for actual movement of germ- 

 plasm (embryo transfer, semen and embryo col- 

 lection, etc.) and technologies for prevention 

 of disease transmission. 



The United States currently maintains facil- 

 ities for quarantine and disease-testing at Plum 

 Island, NY, and Flemming Key, FL. These sta- 

 tions provide U.S. breeders access to foreign 

 breeds. The approach taken has usually been 

 to provide use of these facilities to importers 

 in the private sector and to require that the cost 

 of importation be borne completely by the im- 

 porter. Importation of some breeds of sheep and 

 swine has been supported by public (USDA) 

 funds, but these cases are the exceptions. 

 Assessing private sector importers for impor- 

 tation costs does allow the expense to be borne 

 by those likely to receive economic benefit from 

 the sale of imported animals, but it ignores the 

 public benefits likely to accrue from access to 

 foreign germplasm. When the decision to im- 

 port a breed lies solely within the private sec- 

 tor, preference will be given to more traditional 

 breeds judged to have the most speculative po- 

 tential while unique breeds of undocumented 

 value will usually be ignored. 



USDA and the Animal and Plant Health In- 

 spection Service (APHIS) could be directed to 

 pursue an aggressive program of screening, im- 

 portation, and evaluation of promising foreign 

 breeds. Such a program would involve both a 

 redirection of existing funds and appropriation 



of modest new funds. Such a program would 

 recognize the existence of promising foreign 

 breeds and likewise acknowledge that the 

 procurement of these breeds is a matter of pub- 

 lic interest. A considerable improvement in 

 U.S. access to foreign germplasm could be ac- 

 complished through such a program with ex- 

 isting technology. 



New funding for research and development 

 on the diagnosis and neutralization of foreign 

 diseases could be provided to APHIS and other 

 research laboratories through a system of com- 

 petitive grants. This new funding could be ac- 

 companied by a mandate to aggressively pur- 

 sue importation of promising foreign 

 germplasm into the United States. Objectives 

 of the program would be, first, to validate and 

 apply recently developed technologies for dis- 

 ease diagnosis (ELISA, DNA probes, etc.) and, 

 second, to improve on and extend these tech- 

 nologies. Such a program should be able to 

 accelerate access to foreign germplasm. 



The training of foreign professionals in areas 

 that support germplasm transfer could be sup- 

 ported. These areas would include veterinary 

 pathology, reproductive biology, with empha- 

 sis on techniques for gamete and embryo col- 

 lection and transfer, and cryobiology. In many 

 cases, germplasm transfer is limited by insuffi- 

 cient expertise and facilities in the country of 

 origin. An expanded training program for for- 

 eign students and professionals would increase 

 the chances that the needed expertise existed 

 onsite. Considerable opportunities for foreign 

 professionals to receive this kind of training 

 already exist, however. A major problem is that 

 students receive sophisticated training in highly 

 technical areas but have insufficient facilities 

 and equipment to put their training to use when 

 they return home. 



The development and improvement of for- 

 eign centers for transfer of germplasm could 

 be supported. This improvement would require 

 new funding to allow development of centers 

 in major geographical areas of the world. These 

 centers could serve as focuses for a full range 

 of considerations relating to maintenance of 

 biological diversity. In particular, equipment 



