The project QUALIANI - Implementation and Monitoring of Quality Systems in the collections of animal genetic resources aims to evaluate the current condition of collections of breeds of domestic animals of zootechnical interest maintained by Embrapa in order to adpat them to International quality standards.

Since 1980, the Company has been investing in a program for the conservation of breeds of domestic animals of agricultural interest that are part of the history of Brazil, since many have been here since the time of colonization. The project, also known as Noah's Ark, has the main purpose of guaranteeing the preservation of cattle, goats, sheep, swine, horses, buffaloes and asininos, which have in common, centuries of permanence in the country, which guarantees them characteristics of rusticity And adaptation to the environment, which can be very valuable for breeding programs, from the crossing with more productive breeds.

These secular breeds, increasingly deprecated by breeders seeking more productive animals, are threatened with extinction. Their disappearance would represent the loss of a true genetic treasure at the disposal of science, as they retain genes for adaptation to the environment, in which the responses to disease resistance and tolerance to climatic and environmental stresses may be present.

Project works with pilot collections

The QUALIANI project aims to guarantee quality of this Noah's Ark, in accordance with international norms and standards. For this, the activities will be developed in stages.

Embrapa has today, in partnership with universities and breeders' associations, 26 breeding sites throughout the National Territory. Faced with the impossibility of diagnosing everyone, they were selected as pilots:

- Five breeding centers for goats and sheep kept by Embrapa Goats and Sheep in Sobral, CE. There are specimens of two races of Canindé goats (58 animals) and Moxotó (68); And three of sheep: Morada Nova (72); Santa Inês (85) and Somális (81).

- Brazilian Bank of Animal Germplasm (BBGA) maintained at the Sucupira Farm Experimental Field, in Brasília, DF, which functions as a kind of showcase of the conservation program developed by Embrapa throughout the country. There, more than 200 animals, including cattle, goats, pigs, sheep, horses and assholes represent some of the races that make up the program.

- DNA and tissue banks of Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology and Embrapa Goats and Sheep.

Implantation of the Quality System in animal collections

Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology has extensive experience in quality management in its laboratories and facilities, especially in relation to collections of microorganisms. This experience resulted in two unprecedented achievements for the Company and for Brazil: accreditation of the first biological testing laboratory in 2014 and in 2016 accreditation of Brazil's first Biological Resource Center (CRB).

In these two cases, accreditation was granted by CGCRE - General Coordination of Accreditation / Inmetro - National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology, which is the Brazilian body responsible for strengthening national companies through the adoption of mechanisms to improve the quality of products and services.

But in the case of animal collections, there are no pre-defined standards in the Institute. Therefore, it will be necessary to select requirements based on international standards (ABNT ISO / IEC 17025, ABNT ISO GUIA 34 and Brazilian Version of the OECD Guidelines for Good Biological Resource Centers) to define a unique and international standard of quality. Be adopted.

Suitability to corporate quality requirements

The ultimate goal of the QUALIANI Project is that the quality system implementation is ready by 2020. This process encompasses the adaptation of all corporate quality requirements to international standards, including: documents, records, personnel, experimental fields and environmental conditions of creation , Animals and inputs and equipment and traceability of measurement.

Final goal: standardize quality management in animal collections

The actions of the QUALIANI Project aim at standardizing the quality management in all the goat and sheep cores of Embrapa. Today, seven units of the Company - Goats and Sheep, Mid-North, Coastal Trays, Roraima, Pantanal, Genetic Resources and Biotechnology and Livestock South - work with these animals and the information generated is very heterogeneous, not only with regard to nuclei As well as to the DNA and tissue banks managed by these Units