Why Is It Important To Connect With And Educates Consumers About Agriculture Essay Example

  I am Ali Ghajar. We are a group of 3 fourth year students from Calgary University taking a course in animal science. It has come to our knowledge that animal welfare in addition to how these animals are raised has become a great concern among the stakeholders especially the consumers in the livestock industry. This concerns touch on the health of the animal, housing, and maintenance of the normal biological functioning including production of these animals. Moreover, the animal welfare is threatened by variety of diseases such as mastitis which reduce production yield or cause of death to these animals. However, the animal welfare can be improved by use of genetics to make these animal resistant to diseases and increase their productivity.
We have done extensive research on the animal welfare based on Five Freedoms of animals. The first step to improve animal welfare is detecting and prevention of the diseases at early stage before they become chronic. Currently and in the past, animals’ diseases have been prevented through the use vaccines and management strategies. However, there have been much concerns on the use of chemicals in fighting diseases since they have side effects on the welfare of the animals and they are a threat to consumers health. Thus, the best alternative is through the use of genetics. The genetics has been instrumental in developing disease resistance in livestock. However, this area has not been fully exploited and exhausted by experts in livestock industry. Genetics has a greater potential in improving the general welfare of the animals. Hence, this calls for more research on this area of genetics.
The great potential for genetic has been witness in the management mastitis in dairy cattle. Although mastitis can be treated by use of antibiotics, the treatment and management of this disease is costly to farmers. The cost incurred range from the labor and veterinary services, reduction of milk production, early culling and discarded milk. However, genetics is providing cheaper and efficient method of managing mastitis. It is possible to select and breed animals for disease resistance on mastitis. Semex is an example of a program which is using the genetics to reduce the instance of mastitis on offspring.
Therefore, this scholarship is a great opportunity for us to advance our research on the use genetics to improve animal welfare. The interaction with experts in this field of genetics and animal welfare in general will provide us with valuable information to improve our understanding, experience and expertise on this subject. The conference is an excellent platform to learn from the best and get the current information on genetics. We believe and convinced that attending the conference will be of great benefit in reducing our uncertainty and enhancing our knowledge on the animal welfare and genetics. We would be proud and grateful to be part this conference and get the grants to fulfill our dream project on the genetics and animal welfare.