Summary of ASGGN & LRG Satellite Meetings GGAA 2016
On the 14th and 16th of February the annual meeting of ASGGN and the Joint Network, respectively held meetings in conjunction with the GGAA conference in Melbourne, Australia
ASGGN annual meeting
On February 14th, we have had our annual meeting of ASGGN attached to the GGAA conference in Melbourne, Australia. Attached are the minutes of that meeting. It was a good day, and 45 people participated. We had a good mixture of presentations, discussions and looking forward to what is needed. In short, the first presentations were related to direct and indirect measurements of methane, and the discussion showed that the ultimate test for proxies is to select the extreme 5 to 10% animals on both ends based on the predicted methane production, and put them through the respiration chamber to record their real methane emission. The second session was on the microbial population, and there the discussion showed that there is a big need for better understanding of the underlying mechanisms to variations between animals. A working group is established to dive into that a bit further. The final session before the management meeting was on adaptation. Interesting results were shown from a study in Australia where the decline in production was used as a proxy for heat tolerance. The working group on adaptation will finalize their white paper showing the role of genetics in adaptation.
Management meeting ASGGN
During the management meeting it was decided that the economic value of methane emissions should get more attention in 2016. This work should then lead into a dedicated ASGGN meeting at WCGALP in 2018 in Auckland, New Zealand. At the end of the management meeting Jan Lassen from Denmark was elected as the next chair of the Animal Selection, Genetics, Genomics Network. So from now on, you will receive ASGGN-related emails from Jan, and no longer from me. I’ve enjoyed my function as a chair very much, but I would like to wish Jan a lot of fun with it as well.
JOINT NETWORK MEETING
On February 16th, the second joint network meeting was held, also during the GGAA. 50 people participated in the meeting. We started with scientific presentations related to all networks, and then we had discussions in smaller groups about what does someone need from networks to be actively involved? And where are possible synergies and collaborations? Attached are the minutes of that meeting. One action point is standing out, and that is the paper on the knowledge gaps. The Livestock Research Group will take the lead in this, but soon you will be contacted by the network coordinator to address the gaps that you see that should be filled. Please think about this already.
Meeting animal health network
The registration deadline for the annual workshop of the Animal Health Network is fast approaching.
The workshop will be held on Tuesday 15 March 2016 in the margins of the Annual Meeting for the Society of Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine – SVEPM 2016 at Elsinore, Denmark
Further details of SVEPM and the venue can be found at: http://svepm2016.org/
Places at the annual Network meeting are free, but pre-registration is required.