ceo update
Dr. MATTHEW McDONAGH
FIRST QUARTER 2020 HIGHLIGHTS Dear Members, The AWA Board met on the 10th and 11th of February in Sydney for their first quarter Board meeting. Key items resolved by the Board at this meeting include:
NEW BREED DEVELOPMENT KEY PROJECTS UNDERWAY As announced in our April 2019 Wagyu Update (Issue 71), the AWA has been working closely with the Animal Genetics Breeding Unit (AGBU) to co-fund an AWA Research and Development Officer to undertake Wagyu-specific R&D on genetic diversity and population structure in our
with a view of developing strategies for improving the management of our critical genetic resources for the future. The AWA has also finalised purchase of services to undertake review of Japanese pedigrees where available to correct gaps or mis-identified animals within the foundation Japanese Black pedigrees. This work will include prefectural analysis of all founding animals for the purposes of providing prefectural composition details for all Fullblood Japanese Black registered within the AWA Herdbook.
dominant Wagyu breed, the Japanese
REVIEW OF CARCASE EBVS
Black. Preliminary results from this work
It has been five years since implementation of carcase EBVs within Wagyu BREEDPLAN. AWA has accumulated
have been reviewed by the AWA Genetic Improvement Committee and AWA Board
FIGURE ONE
NUMBER OF CARCASE RECORDS IN THE AWA DATABASE
1800 1600 1400
CARCASES RECORDED
With consistent and significant increases in carcase data submitted by AWA members each year, the AWA is working with its research partner AGBU to review the generation of carcase EBVs from carcase data as the substantial increases in Fullblood data allow. We look forward to providing updates on these new key projects through communications and online media over the coming months as results become available. 19 new full and associate members were accepted into the AWA As per the Constitution of the AWA, the Board reviews and approves new membership applications for the AWA. 19 new members were accepted at the February 2020 Board meeting, bringing the net increase in number of new members for the financial year to date to 47. New MiP to SNP promotional pricing across Neogen, Xytovet and Zoetis labs
1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
YEAR OF SLAUGHTER 6
records on 10,463 carcases within the AWA database from 2010, averaging more than 1,000 Fullblood carcases per slaughter year for the period to 2019 (see Figure 1).
THE AUSTRALIAN WAGYU UPDATE - ISSUE 74
AWA has been advised that Neogen Australasia will cease the provision of MiP testing services and MiP-based parent verification to all Australian Breed Associations and will no longer offer the service to AWA members from the 31st of May 2021. Fortunately, the majority of AWA members have already transitioned their herd to SNP for parent verification.
