Subject: COOPERATION (fwd)

From: [email-masked] (Francisco Jose Lima Aragao)
Date: 30 Aug 1995 04:09:12 -0700

I am forwarding a mensage from a Brazilian colleague, please reply direct 
to him.
Francisco Aragao.
---------------------------------------------------------
                                                                            
           Corumba August 24, 1995
Dear Sir,

We would like to obtain the cooperation in  salivarian trypanosomes
(Trypanosoma 
evansi and T.vivax) of some experienced european scientists  for a research
project 
in the Pantanal, Brazil t to be submited to European Community in March/96.The 
Pantanal (the word means swamp) is an area of 140,000 km2 located in the center 
of South America.Its fauna is very rich and diverse.There are 230 species of 
fishes, 658 species of birds, 80 species of mammals,and 50 species of 
reptiles.Extensive beef cattle farms of 10,000 to200,000 hectares occupy the 
majority of this floodplain.Its populated by 6,000,000 bovines,400,000
equines and 
5,000 buffaloes.The Pantanal is considered the most important beef cattle 
production center in Brazil.The trypanosomosis due to Trypanosoma evansi and 
and T. vivax is the principal protozoal disease of horses, cattle and
wildlife in the 
Pantanal. T.evansi causes several hundred deaths of horses and non-estimated 
fauna mortality per year.Recently several outbreaks caused high mortality of 
horses,for example in a farm 51%( herd with 98 horses)of horses died  and other 
farm 30 horses in a herd with 40 equines died both due to T.evansi 
infection.T.evansi has been found in capybaras(prevalence of 27%),coatis(Nasua 
nasua),and vampire bats.We have found a high prevalence(* 30%) in coatis during 
the raining season.We have isolated and maintened the parasite by rat and mice 
inoculation and cryopreservation. In this year T. vivax caused a high
mortality and 
abortion of bovines.
I am a scientist working in the EMBRAPA.The EMBRAPA ( Brazilian Corporation for 
Agricultural Research) is a public company,attached to the Ministry of 
agriculture,acting through 40 research centers in different fields of 
agriculture.Present in every state of the federation,under diversified
ecological 
conditions,is mission is to generate and promote scientific and technological 
production in order to make possible sustained develop of agriculture and agro-
industry for well-being of the Brazilian society,through the rational use of
natural 
resources and environmental protection.The EMBRAPA is responsible for 
coordinating the Cooperative Agricultural Research System(SCPA), made up of 
various institutions which carry out research in specific knowledge.It has
9,942 
employees, 2,117 of which are research scientists (80% have doctorate or master 
degrees) and administer a budget of approximately 200 million dollars per 
year.Recently, EMBRAPA was assigned the responsability to coordinate the 
Brazilian System of Rural Technical Assistance and Extension under a new 
organization aimed at sustained development.
EMBRAPA has a wide scope of action in the area of international
cooperation,first in 
terms of receiving knowledge from other parts of the world in order to use
it in 
generating appropriate technology and later in transfering it to other 
countries,especially those of Central and South America and Africa.
Since its foundation in 1973, EMBRAPA has generated more than 8,000 new 
technologies for Brazilian agriculture and agroindustry.
Management of the  Pantanal today reflects the dilemma between environmental 
protection and economic development in Brazil.With the goal of rational
utilization of 
the region,the EMBRAPA created the Center for Agricultural Research in the 
Pantanal (CPA-Pantanal), based in Corumba.
Founded in 1984,CPA-Pantanal presently has 157 employees,including 47 
scientists.Research by CPA-Pantanal emphasizes the sustainable development of 
currently existing production systems(cattle raising and fisheries), as well
as the 
search for alternative production systems for natural resources(crocodile and 
capybara breeding ).
The research is interdisciplinary,involving fields such as Animal Production
and 
Health,Wildlife and Plant Resourses,Geosciences,Limnology,and Economic 
aspects of resource exploitation.Field research is perfomed at two research
station 
with an area of 6,400 hecteres.
                                                                 Sincerely
yours,

                                                                Roberto
A.M.S.Silva
                                                            EMBRAPA/CPA-Pantanal
                                                         E-mail:
[email-masked]