精东传媒app

Animal breeding underpins the production of meat, milk and fibre. Ensuring a high reproductive rate is critical for the productivity and sustainability of animal production systems. Consequently, it is important for animal agriculture professionals to have a detailed understanding of animal reproduction so they critically evaluate and assess animal breeding programs to identify efficiencies and opportunities for improvement. This course will provide students with the underpinning knowledge and skills to implement and analyse animal breeding programs and identify reasons for poor reproductive performance within animal production systems. Throughout lectures and practicals held during a residential school, students will build on the foundational knowledge gained in BIO2103 Biology 2 to develop a detailed understanding of animal breeding as it pertains to production animals in both extensive and intensive production systems.

This course examines animal breeding; covering topics such as reproductive anatomy and physiology, reproductive disorders, artificial insemination/breeding, embryo transfers and breeding program development as they pertain to animal agriculture. Emerging technologies in animal breeding are also examined.

This course contains a highly recommended residential school for both external and on-campus students (non-attendance will mean the student misses an element of assessment preparation). To participate in the residential school students will need to have immunity to or have been vaccinated against Q fever (A zoonotic disease).

On completion of this course students should be able to:

1. Explain the reproductive anatomy and physiology of production animals;
2. Design and analyse animal breeding programs;
3. Identify the potential causes of poor breeding performance in livestock production systems;
4. Critically evaluate the role that artificial breeding technologies have in breeding programs;
5. Discuss and examine future technological developments that will impact animal breeding.