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Webinar series
Innovations in cryoconservation of animal genetic resources

Gene banking is becoming an increasingly important tool for management of animal genetic resources. Therefore, in 2021 FAO developed guidelines on Innovations in conservation of animal genetic resources, of which the current version is available here.

The guidelines were prepared by an international team of scientists and gene bank managers, many of whom were partners in the EU Horizon 2020 project IMAGE (Innovative Management of Animal Genetic Resources).

The draft guidelines were presented to the 11th session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the 18th session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The Commission requested FAO to organize workshops to raise awareness and support regional and subregional networks in capacity building for implementation of the guidelines.

To this end, FAO will be holding a series of webinars on cryoconservation of animal genetic resources. The webinar schedule, with links to live or recorded webinars, are available below.

The webinar series is being organized with the cooperation of the Nordic Genetic Resources Center, who is hosting the webinars on their Microsoft Teams platform.

Links to the live webinars (future dates) and recordings (past dates) are included in the table.

• Building a gene bank strategy, 18 May
• Construire une stratégie de banque de gènes, 1 juin
• Implementation and organization

• Choice of biological material to be preserved, 24 May 
• Economics of gene banking, 31 May 
• Developing and using gene bank collections, 28 June @ 16:00
• Collection and cryo-preservation of germ plasm and tissues

• Sanitary issues and recommendations
• Cuestiones y recomendaciones sanitarias

• Databases and documentation, 15 June @ 10:00
• Legal issues: acquisition, storage and transfer of gene bank material

• Capacity building and training

> Webinars | Animal genetics | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (fao.org)