CiBiS: a Platform for healthy regions

Crop protection

Crop Protection covers all practical aspects of pest, disease and weed control, including the following topics: Abiotic damage. Agronomic control methods. Assessment of pest and disease damage. Molecular methods for the detection and assessment of pests and diseases.

i. Pest risk analysis

Pest risk analysis (PRA) is a form of risk analysis conducted by regulatory plant health authorities to identify the appropriate phytosanitary measures required to protect plant resources against new or emerging pests and regulated pests of plants or plant products. Specifically pest risk analysis is a term used within the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) (Article 2.1) and is defined within the glossary of phytosanitary terms. As "the process of evaluating biological or other scientific and economic evidence to determine whether an organism is a pest, whether it should be regulated, and the strength of any phytosanitary measures to be taken against it". In a phytosanitary context, the term plant pest, or simply pest, refers to any species, strain or biotype of plant, animal or pathogenic agent injurious to plants or plant products and includes plant pathogenic bacteria, fungi, fungus-like organisms, viruses and virus like organisms, as well as insects, mites, nematodes and weeds.

ii. Disease surveillance

Disease surveillance is an epidemiological practice by which the spread of disease is monitored in order to establish patterns of progression. The main role of disease surveillance is to predict, observe, and minimize the harm caused by outbreak, epidemic, and pandemic situations, as well as increase knowledge about which factors contribute to such circumstances. A key part of modern disease surveillance is the practice of disease case reporting.

Crop Breeding

Crop breeding is the art and science of improving important agricultural plants for the benefit of humankind. Crop breeding has been practiced by farmers since the dawn of agriculture, as they selected plants for larger seeds, more tasty fruits, and other valuable traits. Humans around th e world have an increasing appetite for diverse and nutritious foods. Improving agricultural crops trough breeding for higher yield, increased nutritional value, better responsive to inputs and resources, resistant to insect pest and diseases, and adaptable to climate change is a key to feed the world. At CiBiS, We guide you to select suitable agricultural crops for different croplands. In addition, we train you in improving different crops through novel breeding approaches considering following factors:

1. Plants that conserve water and soil: These resources are precious, limited and in demand.
2. Plants that conserve genetic diversity: The broader genetic diversity combat crops against the disease or natural disaster.
3. Plants that have better nutritional quality: More nutrition per calorie makes the best use of resources.
4. Plants that produce more on the same or less land:Industrialization, urbanization, and desertification have limited the further expansion of croplands. In addition, forests and other wild areas should be preserved for the future generations.
5. Plants that are adaptable: Climate change, rising temperature and increasingly inconsistent weather are the global threat to crops.

Animal Health

The concept of animal health covers animal diseases, as well as the interplay between animal welfare, human health, environment protection and food safety.

Animal nutrition

Animal nutrition entails the study of the composition and characteristics of the material consumed by the animal, the manner in which this material is metabolised (converted, utilised, and excreted) in the digestive tract and body cells of monogastric animals (pigs, broilers, layers), ruminants (sheep, cattle, goats).