A five-day international confab on native animals will be held from July 19 to 23 at the Philippine Carabao Center located on the campus of Central Luzon State University in the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.

Native animals to be taken up include chicken, cattle, buffalo and pigs. The international conference is in recognition of the socio-economic importance of native animals which are also considered part of the country’s national heritage and treasure, according to Dr. Edwin C. Villar, director, livestock research division of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

The meeting is jointly sponsored by the Food and Fertilizer Technology Center for the Asian and Pacific Regions (FFTC-ASPAC), PCARRD and the Philippine Carabao Center. Resource speakers will come from Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Dr. Villar said that the global concern on climate change has brought to the fore the potentials of domesticated native animals as an alternative livelihood for small and rural farmers, and a source of specialty products for niche markets. Having been subjected to a long process of natural selection, native animals, he said, are also recognized for their tolerance to higher environmental temperature.

He adds that native animals in general are often discriminated against because of their small body size, slow growth rate and unpredictable production performance.

However, these negative attributes are easily outweighed by their ability to survive and reproduce under natural environments with minimal management requirement. Native animals grow and reproduce well with locally available feed otherwise considered as agricultural wastes. These make native animals a lot cheaper to produce compared to commercial hybrids. In addition, because of their unique taste and flavor and other preferred attributes, products of native animals are paid a premium price by consumers.