At the closing session of the Livestock Development Seminar in the College of Agriculture at the University of Damascus, participants laid out a set of proposals and recommendations. They presented papers and scientific research provided by thirty scholars from Syrian universities, the Arab Center for Scientific Agricultural Research (ACSAD), and the Damascus Directorate for Agriculture and Animal Health.
The participants recommended the need to work to provide a reliable database with respect to enumeration of livestock productivity and feed production, as well as the importance of establishing early warning centers for outbreaks of diseases.
They also stressed the need to provide adequate opportunities for training of agricultural engineers, veterinarians, graduates of veterinary and agricultural institutes. They pushed for studying the effects of drugs and vaccines in meats, dairy, and other animal products as well as stringent investigation of the contents of feed manufactured from heavy minerals and to create a site for electronic documentation of agricultural research between the Ministry of Agriculture and relevant organizations in order to support projects aimed at improving the nutritional value of agricultural and industrial waste used in feeding livestock. They also suggested a need study the movement of cattle and sheep in the desert and centralized intervention in managing cattle herds.
The researchers stressed the need to develop a system of governing the production and handling of milk in regards to its quality and marketing and working to modify systems of sheep production by gradually moving from a tradition system to a semi-intensive system. They emphasized the use of modern technologies such as artificial impregnation and improved breeding and rearing of sheep.
