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      Mapping the Global Distribution of Livestock

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          Abstract

          Livestock contributes directly to the livelihoods and food security of almost a billion people and affects the diet and health of many more. With estimated standing populations of 1.43 billion cattle, 1.87 billion sheep and goats, 0.98 billion pigs, and 19.60 billion chickens, reliable and accessible information on the distribution and abundance of livestock is needed for a many reasons. These include analyses of the social and economic aspects of the livestock sector; the environmental impacts of livestock such as the production and management of waste, greenhouse gas emissions and livestock-related land-use change; and large-scale public health and epidemiological investigations. The Gridded Livestock of the World (GLW) database, produced in 2007, provided modelled livestock densities of the world, adjusted to match official (FAOSTAT) national estimates for the reference year 2005, at a spatial resolution of 3 minutes of arc (about 5×5 km at the equator). Recent methodological improvements have significantly enhanced these distributions: more up-to date and detailed sub-national livestock statistics have been collected; a new, higher resolution set of predictor variables is used; and the analytical procedure has been revised and extended to include a more systematic assessment of model accuracy and the representation of uncertainties associated with the predictions. This paper describes the current approach in detail and presents new global distribution maps at 1 km resolution for cattle, pigs and chickens, and a partial distribution map for ducks. These digital layers are made publically available via the Livestock Geo-Wiki ( http://www.livestock.geo-wiki.org), as will be the maps of other livestock types as they are produced.

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          Most cited references16

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          Molecular basis for the generation in pigs of influenza A viruses with pandemic potential.

          Genetic and biologic observations suggest that pigs may serve as "mixing vessels" for the generation of human-avian influenza A virus reassortants, similar to those responsible for the 1957 and 1968 pandemics. Here we demonstrate a structural basis for this hypothesis. Cell surface receptors for both human and avian influenza viruses were identified in the pig trachea, providing a milieu conducive to viral replication and genetic reassortment. Surprisingly, with continued replication, some avian-like swine viruses acquired the ability to recognize human virus receptors, raising the possibility of their direct transmission to human populations. These findings help to explain the emergence of pandemic influenza viruses and support the need for continued surveillance of swine for viruses carrying avian virus genes.
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            Population Distribution, Settlement Patterns and Accessibility across Africa in 2010

            The spatial distribution of populations and settlements across a country and their interconnectivity and accessibility from urban areas are important for delivering healthcare, distributing resources and economic development. However, existing spatially explicit population data across Africa are generally based on outdated, low resolution input demographic data, and provide insufficient detail to quantify rural settlement patterns and, thus, accurately measure population concentration and accessibility. Here we outline approaches to developing a new high resolution population distribution dataset for Africa and analyse rural accessibility to population centers. Contemporary population count data were combined with detailed satellite-derived settlement extents to map population distributions across Africa at a finer spatial resolution than ever before. Substantial heterogeneity in settlement patterns, population concentration and spatial accessibility to major population centres is exhibited across the continent. In Africa, 90% of the population is concentrated in less than 21% of the land surface and the average per-person travel time to settlements of more than 50,000 inhabitants is around 3.5 hours, with Central and East Africa displaying the longest average travel times. The analyses highlight large inequities in access, the isolation of many rural populations and the challenges that exist between countries and regions in providing access to services. The datasets presented are freely available as part of the AfriPop project, providing an evidence base for guiding strategic decisions.
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              Smart investments in sustainable food production: revisiting mixed crop-livestock systems.

              Farmers in mixed crop-livestock systems produce about half of the world's food. In small holdings around the world, livestock are reared mostly on grass, browse, and nonfood biomass from maize, millet, rice, and sorghum crops and in their turn supply manure and traction for future crops. Animals act as insurance against hard times and supply farmers with a source of regular income from sales of milk, eggs, and other products. Thus, faced with population growth and climate change, small-holder farmers should be the first target for policies to intensify production by carefully managed inputs of fertilizer, water, and feed to minimize waste and environmental impact, supported by improved access to markets, new varieties, and technologies.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                1932-6203
                2014
                29 May 2014
                : 9
                : 5
                : e96084
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Livestock Systems and Environment Research Theme (LSE), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, Kenya
                [2 ]Animal Production and Health Division (AGA), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy
                [3 ]Environmental Research Group Oxford (ERGO) - Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
                [4 ]Biological Control and Spatial Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
                [5 ]Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, Brussels, Belgium
                [6 ]Department of Ecology and Evolutionary - Biology Department, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
                [7 ]Princeton Environmental Institute, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
                [8 ]Spatial Ecology and Epidemiology Group - Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
                [9 ]Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
                University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Conceived and designed the experiments: TR MG WW TPVB. Performed the experiments: TPR MG GRWW VE EP G. Conchedda G. Cinardi SIH. Analyzed the data: TPR MG GRWW TPVB VE EP G. Conchedda LDA G. Cinardi SIH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TPR MG GRWW SIH. Wrote the paper: TPR MG GRWW TPVB G. Conchedda.

                Article
                PONE-D-13-47320
                10.1371/journal.pone.0096084
                4038494
                24875496
                29407069-89ab-4417-af85-8d6cefb3e099
                Copyright @ 2014

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 11 November 2013
                : 2 April 2014
                Page count
                Pages: 13
                Funding
                TPR is funded by the following Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Research Programmes: Humidtropics; Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS); and Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). MG & TPVB are funded by the ‘Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique’ (FNRS). SIH is funded by a Senior Research Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust (#095066) and receives support from the Li Ka Shing Foundation. SIH also acknowledges funding support from the Research and Policy for Infectious Disease Dynamics (RAPIDD) program of the Science & Technology Directorate, Department of Homeland Security, and the Fogarty International Center (FIC), National Institutes of Health (NIH). The bulk of this work was funded through various programmes and projects within the Animal Production and Health Division (AGA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations: in particular the UK Department for International Development (DFID)-funded Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Initiative and the USAID-funded Emerging Pandemic Threats Plus (EPT+) programme. Other contributors include the United States NIH FIC grants: 3R01TW007869-03 and 1R56TW009502-01 and the FNRS Projet de Recherche (PDR) T.0073.13. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Agriculture
                Agricultural Methods
                Sustainable Agriculture
                Animal Management
                Animal Production
                Agricultural Production
                Biogeography
                Computational Biology
                Population Modeling
                Veterinary Science
                Veterinary Diseases
                Veterinary Epidemiology
                Earth Sciences
                Atmospheric Science
                Climatology
                Climate Change
                Ecology and Environmental Sciences

                Uncategorized
                Uncategorized

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