Annual meeting ASGGN 2016

The annual meeting of the Animal Selection, Genetics, Genomics Network of 2016 was held in Melbourne, Australia on February 14^th, prior to the Greenhouse Gas Animal Agriculture Conference. We had a full day programme (9 am till 4 pm), and during the day we had 45 participants from 13 countries attending the meeting. 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.

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. Good luck with this nice challenge, Jan!