On the 26th of October 2012, the international conference entitled "Evolution, opportunities and research projects for selection and assisted reproduction in dairy cow and buffalo breeding" was held in Cremona in occasion of the 67th International Dairy Cattle Show. The conference was organized by Avantea, in collaboration with the AIA LGS, the Parco Tecnologico Padano and with the support of the Lombardy Region.
The aim of the conference was to illustrate the development and prospects of the genetic improvement methods based on genomics and assisted reproduction for cow and buffalo farming.
During the conference, new selection methods and assisted reproduction techniques were illustrated. The first talk of the day was given by Prof. Paolo Ajmone Marsan, who reported on the new technologies of genomics and on how these technological innovations have evolved, their accessibility and related costs. His talk was then followed by the intervention of Dr André Eggen (Illumina, Paris) who explained how is changing the method of evaluation of breeding stock, moving from the progeny test to selection based on genomics. Immediately after, Dr. Suzanne Harding (Holdstein-UK) illustrated how the collection of data and access to information obtained by the technologies of genomics is carried out in UK. Followed the presentation by Dr. Giovanna Lazzari (Avantea, Cremona), who explained the reproductive biotecnology techniques used for the selection, such as in vitro fertilization, the Ovum Pick up and sexing of semen. The experiences in the field of breeding programs and assisted reproduction in other European countries were subsequently presented. The experience in the Netherlands was illustrated by Dr Sybrand Merton of the CRV and the experience of France was reported by Dr. Claire Ponsart from UNCEIA.
Ongoing research programs funded with the contribution of Lombardy region were also presented. The research activity carried out with the project on genotyping of bovine embryos was illustrated by Dr. Riccardo Negrini (AIA), whilst the results obatained from the InnovaB project were presented by Professor Cesare Galli (Avantea, Cremona) and by Dr John Williams (Parco Tecnologico Padano), the first talk provided an overview on the state of reproductive biotechnologies in buffalo and the second talk focused on the sequencing of the genome in the buffalo. Furthermore, the research project ProZoo (also funded with the contribution of Lombardy Region) was illustrated by Dr. Alessandra Stella (Parco Tecnologico Padano) and Dr Andrea Galli (Istituto Sperimentale Italiano Lazzaro Spallanzani). Dr. Stella gave a talk focusing on the evolution in our understanding of functional traits in dairy cattle, and Dr Galli illustrated the use of frozen bovine semen for artificial insemination as a new approach for the evaluation of quality. The conference then ended with two presentations on European projects, the first given by Dr. Ezequiel Luis Nicolazzi from the Parco Tecnologico Padano on the new European system for the selection and management of cattle, and the second by Dr. Daniela Iamartino (Parco Tecnologico Padano), which focused on reproductive efficiency in dairy cows and its optimization through the identification of new parameters and the improvement of reproductive biotechnologies.
<media 420 _self - "TEXT, Avantea Crfiere 26-10, Avantea_Crfiere_26-10.pdf, 450 KB">Download the conference's program </media>
