News
Marieke Poppe and Lisanne Verschuren win presentation prizes at EAAP
During the 71st Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), Marieke Poppe and Lisanne Verschuren of the Animal Breeding and Genomics (ABG) group from Wageningen University & Research won prizes for their presentations. Poppe won the prize for best oral presentation by a young scientist of the Genetics commission and Verschuren won the Wageningen Academic Publishers Early Career Award.
The EAAP conference took place online from 1-4 December 2020.
Genetic background of resilience in cattle
Poppe won a prize for her presentation about the genetic background of resilience indicators based on different lactations and lactation stages in cattle. Resilience is the ability of cows to cope with environmental challenges, such as diseases or extreme weather circumstances. The presented results indicate that resilience is determined largely by the same genes in different periods of the lactation and in different lactations, but small differences exist. Therefore, it is recommended that data from the first three lactations is combined to breed for improved resilience throughout life.
Microbiability of feed efficiency in pigs
Verschuren won the Wageningen Academic Publishers Early Career Award for her presentation about the microbiability of feed efficiency related traits in pigs. Microbiability is the variation in a phenotype that is explained by variation in microbiota composition. The presented results indicate that genetics and faecal microbiome operate quite independent and together they capture more than 60% of the variation in the most important trait in pig production: feed efficiency.