The theme of the 2015 symposium is the added benefits of animal recording. Dr Pierre van Rooyen, CEO of SA Stud Book, said Garrick has been involved in the development and implementation of animal evaluation programmes, performance-recording databases and breeding schemes.
He has also worked on the design of experiments to detect major genes and to exploit them in breeding programmes.
“His recent work has focused on theoretical and applied aspects of using genomic information to predict performance,” said Van Rooyen.
Other topics that will be addressed at the symposium include the practical value of genomics for the larger livestock industry by Prof Esté van Marle-Köster from the University of Pretoria, while vet Dr Danie Odendaal will address the application of recorded data to promote optimal management practices such as animal health.
