Nations can learn from others on lifting lockdowns

02/10/2020 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 02.10.2020 (SciDev.Net): As the second wave of COVID-19 infections sweep many countries, governments are facing the challenge of when and how to ease restrictions and lockdowns while balancing health with socio-economic consequences.

A health policy paper published in The Lancet medical journal on 24 September recommends that governments consider five key factors — knowledge of infection levels, community engagement, public health capacity, health system capacity, and border control measures — while lifting restrictions.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that a premature lifting of lockdowns could spark a resurgence of infections and cause worse damage to the economy than caused by lockdowns.

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Improving Asian buffalo breeds with genomics

24/09/2020 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 24.09.2020 (SciDev.Net): Selective breeding of water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) and cattle with the help of genomics could help increase livestock productivity, thereby improving food security, nutrition and incomes for millions of smallholder farmers in Asia, says a new study.

The study is one of the first to examine multiple water buffalo genomes. A genome is an animal or organism’s complete set of DNA. The study was published in Nature Communications on 21 September by The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, UK, with collaborators from Asia and Africa.

The researchers found that improvement via domestication in a species’ key traits, including milk production, coat colour, body size and disease resistance, leaves detectable signals in their genomes. This paves the way for improved farm animal health and production for smallholders through selective breeding.

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Innovation vital to kick start economies: GII 2020

07/09/2020 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 07.09.2020 (SciDev.Net): The innovation landscape is moving towards Asia from the high-income economies of North America and Europe while funding for innovation is drying up globally, according to the Global Innovation Index 2020 (GII).

While the annual rankings, co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialised agency of the UN, continue to be dominated by developed countries led by Switzerland and followed by Sweden, the US, UK and the Netherlands, innovation is becoming more prominent and important in Asia.

There are 131 economies included in the 2020 GII with nine Asian countries in the top 50, up from seven last year. Included this year are Singapore (8^th), the Republic of Korea (10^th), China (14^th), Japan (16^th), Malaysia (33^rd), Vietnam (42^nd), Thailand (44^th), India (48^th) and the Philippines (50^th).

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