Discussing the Topic of Genomics in a Guest Lecture, Fapet Invites Biostatistics and Molecular Bioscience Experts from the University of South Australia

The Faculty of Animal Science Universitas Brawijaya (Fapet UB) is holding a 3 in 1 program, namely a teaching and learning process with three presenters in one subject. The instructors consist of lecturers from foreign universities, practitioners, and UB’s internal lecturers. Aims to increase the number of foreign lecturers and the involvement of practitioners in fulfilling course learning outcomes.

The topic “Genomics: Applications in Medicine and Animal Science” was delivered by an expert in Biostatistics and Molecular Bioscience, Prof. Beben Benyamin (University of South Australia), Tuesday (15/11/2022). The participants of the activity were students of the UB Faculty of Animal Husbandry undergraduate, masters and doctoral programs.

Beben said statistics have been widely used to analyze phenotypic and genomic data on a large scale. Genomics has also been used for a long time to optimize livestock production. 

“An example of the application of genomics in livestock is heritability estimation and genomic prediction of livestock.” explained Beben

 The enthusiasm of the guest lecture participants was very good, seen from the discussion and the number of questions addressed to the presenters. One of the fasttrack master program student participants, Rischa asked about the technique of implementing livestock genetic selection at the scale of smallholder dairy farmers in order to obtain optimal milk production in accordance with their genetic potential. 

According to Beben, this question is important and it is very good to see that most of the dairy farmers in Indonesia are smallholder breeders. Most of the genetic selection is carried out on large herds because they have many livestock which facilitates selection for quality improvement of genes which also depends on their heritability. 

“It is difficult to apply for livestock selection on a small scale of ownership. Artificial insemination is the most suitable method to be applied by smallholder breeders as the implementation of genetic selection using semen from superior males.” (asr/dta)