Developing further the Kent – Russian connections, Drs Michael Romanov and Denis Larkin, of the Royal Veterinary College, visited in April the All-Russian Research Institute for Farm Animal Genetics and Breeding in Pushkin and the St Petersburg State University. They were invited speakers at a seminar and delivered talks about livestock and avian genetics and genomics. Highlights of the seminar were genomic selection in cattle, genome-wide diversity in sheep, and evolutionary genomics in birds. The Russian colleagues reported studies on high throughput genome-wide genotyping of a dairy breeding stock and examination of gene variation at candidate loci for poultry productive and reproductive traits. The parties set up plans for continuing partnership and collaborative research.

Photos: Reproduction “motifs” in the Animal Genetics Institute interior design:

Drs Larkin and Romanov in the Institute’s Hall of Fame: