Application Of New Genetic Technologies To Animal Breeding

The Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics Inc. is a professional organisation based in Australia and New Zealand for livestock scientists, breeders, educators, students and industry service providers.

Genetic markers are now being used to give DNA tests for genes affecting animal performance.

The 16th Biennial Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics (AAABG) gathers together scientists, extension workers, producers and industry personnel to review developments in the application of new technologies to animal breeding. Conference presentations include 30 invited reviews and papers, and 95 contributed papers. All papers are peer-reviewed, and cover session topics that focus on genetic evaluation systems, gene expression profiling, identification and manipulation of quantitative trait loci, progress in applied programs and advanced statistical and computing techniques. Industry applications are discussed for improvement in production, health and reproduction of domestic livestock, aquaculture species and even crocodiles and ostriches. Institutions and industries in Australia, New Zealand, USA, South Africa, South-East Asia and Japan are represented with significant participation of major Cooperative Research Centres. These proceedings contain the full text of all contributed papers and summaries of the invited reviews which are published separately in the Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture.

New Technologies in Animal Breeding looks at new reproductive technologies in breeding domestic animals, such as sex selection, frozen storage of oocytes and embryos, in vitro fertilization and embryo culture, amphibian nuclear transplantation, parthenogenesis, identical twins and cloning in mammals, and gene transfer in mammalian cells. It summarizes the state-of-the art and offers perspectives on future directions for several animal industries of great importance in food production, including artificial insemination, embryo transfer, poultry breeding, and aquaculture. Organized into five sections encompassing 14 chapters, this book begins with an overview of animals in society and perspectives on animal breeding. It then discusses the animal industries that are heavily dependent on reproductive technology, including those engaged in cloning, selfing, aquaculture, artificial insemination, and embryo transfer. It also explains the developing technologies as well as their potential applications and impacts on animal production, along with special economic considerations, such as the benefits of reproductive management, synchronization of estrus, and artificial insemination of beef cattle and sheep. The final chapter considers biomedical and agricultural research, implementation of new technologies in animal breeding, and research in animal reproduction. This book is an essential reference for scientists and researchers interested in animal science and animal reproduction.

The new Animal Genetics and Disease 2017 conference committee organized a Research Topic for the proceedings of this inaugural conference. The meeting brought together specialists working on the interface between genomics, genetic engineering, and infectious disease, with the aims of improving animal and human health and welfare. This conference was funded by Advanced Courses and Scientific Conference at the Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK. The conference will highlight breakthroughs in genomic technologies that are rapidly increasing our understanding of the fundamental role that host and pathogen genetics play in infections and epidemics. This Research Topic focuses on how infections spread and how they further affect the productivity of livestock systems and food supply chains. Thanks to technological advances, we now have the tools for real-time surveillance of zoonoses affecting wildlife, farm animals and animal-to-human disease transmission.

Assists policymakers in evaluating the appropriate scientific methods for detecting unintended changes in food and assessing the potential for adverse health effects from genetically modified products. In this book, the committee recommended that greater scrutiny should be given to foods containing new compounds or unusual amounts of naturally occurring substances, regardless of the method used to create them. The book offers a framework to guide federal agencies in selecting the route of safety assessment. It identifies and recommends several pre- and post-market approaches to guide the assessment of unintended compositional changes that could result from genetically modified foods and research avenues to fill the knowledge gaps.

Upcoming applications of genetic engineering in farm animals include higher yields, leaner meat, or disease resistance. The proceedings cover an analysis of the state of the art of the technology and its applications, an introduction to the specific application zoopharming (a method to produce biopharmaceuticals in transgenic livestock), including an analysis of the market for biopharmaceuticals. In addition an assessment of ethical aspects of livestock biotechnology and considerations regarding animal welfare implications are covered. The study is addressed to science, industry and politics.

This book fills the gap between textbooks of quantitative genetic theory, and software manuals that provide details on analytical methods but little context or perspective on which methods may be most appropriate for a particular application. Accordingly this book is composed of two sections. The first section (Chapters 1 to 8) covers topics of classical phenotypic data analysis for prediction of breeding values in animal and plant breeding programs. In the second section (Chapters 9 to 13) we provide the concept and overall review of available tools for using DNA markers for predictions of genetic merits in breeding populations. With advances in DNA sequencing technologies, genomic data, especially single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, have become available for animal and plant breeding programs in recent years. Analysis of DNA markers for prediction of genetic merit is a relatively new and active research area. The algorithms and software to implement these algorithms are changing rapidly. This section represents state-of-the-art knowledge on the tools and technologies available for genetic analysis of plants and animals. However, readers should be aware that the methods or statistical packages covered here may not be available or they might be out of date in a few years. Ultimately the book is intended for professional breeders interested in utilizing these tools and approaches in their breeding programs. Lastly, we anticipate the usage of this volume for advanced level graduate courses in agricultural and breeding courses.