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Animal Production Science Animal Production Science Society
Food, fibre and pharmaceuticals from animals

Virtual Issues

Animal Production Science in the 21st Century

Animal Production Science celebrates 60 years of publication in 2021 and to celebrate, we are marking this milestone with this selection of key review papers published in the journal over the last decade, highlighting research breakthroughs, social and economic issues that have influenced primary producers, and the practice of animal production.

The journal was first published in 1961 under the banner Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, becoming simply Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture in 1985. In those early years the journal published papers that covered all aspects of agricultural science, both plant and animal. In 2009 it was renamed Animal Production Science to reflect its international growth and a scope which had evolved to focus on livestock and food production.

Review articles featured in this virtual issue include topics such as genetics and genomics, physiology, endocrinology and reproduction, nutrition and metabolism, production systems, behaviour and wellbeing, technology, education and the changing face of animal production science. We believe the work represented in this selection has and will continue to act as a catalyst for future research, and be influential in the field of animal production.

Wayne Bryden
Editor-in-Chief

Animal Breeding and Genomics

New genomic technologies have revolutionised our approach to animal breeding and increased the rate of genetic change. This virtual issue brings together a selection of research articles that review research progress and updates our knowledge of the delivery of livestock genomics research applications, specifically for the beef and dairy cattle and sheep industries globally.

The application of genomic technologies has been difficult in the extensive industries (e.g. beef, dairy and sheep) because of the need to accurately predict performance of animals across multiple breeds. This requires access to denser single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panels and many more animals than those required for single/major breeds such as those in the intensive industries (e.g. pig and poultry). High density SNP panels only became available to scientists in the beef industry in late 2010, meaning that prediction equations based on those panels are just now being developed.

Regardless of the pace of change and the very different ways that the technologies are being used by the different industries, each industry has experienced tumultuous changes and has had to adapt to many new challenges thrown up by those changing technologies. Through shared learning, DNA-based technologies will continue to revolutionise the way that livestock businesses breed and manage their animals to improve the productivity and profitability of their enterprises.