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SRUC conferred Professor Roel Veerkamp as Visiting Professor
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SRUC, Scotland’s Rural College, conferred Professor Roel Veerkamp, Wageningen UR Livestock Research, as Visiting Professor in Numerical Genetics during SRUC’s graduation ceremony in Bute Hall, University of Glasgow on Friday 5 July.
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CAT-AgroFood invests in a High Performance Computing cluster
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The developments in the field of genomics - such as Next Generation Sequencing – are rapid. This has resulted in a huge increase in generated data. The processing of this data requires a large computing and storage capacity. Therefore, CAT-AgroFood, the shared facilities part of Wageningen UR, is investing in a High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster. The system has just been ordered and will, depending on scheduling, be in use by the end of this year.
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Feed4Foodure: Another Public Private Partnership
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Feed4Foodure is a public-private partnership between the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and a consortium of various organisations within the animal feed industries and the animal production chain. The research programme aims to contribute to sustainable and healthy livestock farming in the Netherlands, simultaneously strengthening our competitive position in the global market.
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Focus on robust dairy production through breeding
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A special issue of the journal Advances in Animal Bioscience came out in July 2013 to summarise the outcomes of the RobustMilk project. The outcomes show that there are good opportunities for improving selection practices for both milk quality traits (milk and milk products as part of a healthy diet) and a variety of traits that contribute to ‘robustness’.
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Reducing methane emission from ruminants at European level
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In order to reduce methane emission from livestock, more than 50 scientists from 17 European countries have joined forces. "In all these countries reliable methods to measure methane emission from cows are already being worked on. This knowledge is now being collated", said Yvette de Haas from Wageningen UR Livestock Research. The European Commission has provided € 600,000 for this knowledge-sharing project.
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The response of horses to training can be monitored with biomarkers
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Various gene expression patterns and biological mechanisms can be used as biomarkers for monitoring the physical response of horses to normal training, intensive training/overtraining and de-training. This is the conclusion of a study in which researchers from Wageningen UR Livestock Research and Utrecht University measured the RNA concentration of genes in muscle tissue of young untrained horses before training, after exercise at varying intensities, and after de-training.
The identification of suitable biomarkers is the first step in the development of a test which trainers can use to monitor the response of horses to training.
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Dietary proteins and their effect on gut health
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A new project has started investigating the effect of existing and novel protein sources on immune competence and health in the gut. The response to protein sources will be observed in intestinal epithelial cells, gut microbiota, and “the gut as a system”. The project is part of the IPOP research programme “Customised nutrition” and will run until January 2017.
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Cannibalism in laying hens
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A new STW project, "Genomic solutions for socially-affected traits: Genetic architecture and improvement of survival in cannibalistic laying hens", started on 1 August. This project is collaborative research carried out by Hendrix Genetics, Institut de Sélection Animale (ISA), and ABGC. The outcome of the project is expected to pave the way for utilising new breeding methods to minimise the mortality that results from cannibalism in laying hens.
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Inventory of endangered Dutch rare breeds
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Over the last few months, three articles have been published (see downloading instructions below) about the size of breeding populations in rare Dutch breeds of farm animal in the Netherlands. The Centre for Genetic Resources in the Netherlands (CGN) at Wageningen UR is responsible for monitoring the status of animal genetic resources and associated trends.
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Semen collection in geese
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Recently the Centre for Genetic Resources in the Netherlands (CGN) devised a semen collection method for geese, enabling the collection of semen from a rare goose breed, the Twente Landrace Goose. Also for the first time, semen was collected from two rare Dutch duck breeds, the White Bibbed Duck and the Call Duck, using protocols that had been developed previously.
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EAAP - award for the Best Oral Presentation
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EAAP conference held in Nantes, France, Esinam N. Y Amuzu won the award for the Best Oral Presentation in the Genetics Session. Her presentation was entitled: "Genomic prediction of heterosis for egg production traits in white Leghorn crosses. Esinam is a 2nd year PhD student in the ABG group, and is taking part in the EGS-ABG PhD programme. Her supervisors are Dr. Piter Bijma and Dr. Henk Bovenhuis.
Info: Esinam...@wur.nl
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