2009 Conference

Venue: The Sebel Cairns, Australia
(formerly Cairns International Hotel)

Date: 22nd to 25th November 2009

Scientific Program

Click here for a copy of the preliminary conference program.


*   The Dunkin Lecture

Pig Production in 2025 – New Directions and Solutions



*   Review: PCV2, PMWS, vaccines and the immune system… what’s going on?

Presenter: Professor Joaquim Segales


The immune system of the pig plays a key point to control the infection by porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), keeping it as subclinical in most cases. However, a variable proportion of pigs in a farm may develop postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), a multifactorial acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Regrettably, the knowledge on the precise immunological mechanisms by which a pig gets a subclinical infection or develops PMWS is still poorly known. Curiously, PCV2 vaccines seem to be extremely efficacious in controlling the disease. The objective of this presentation will be to summarise the current knowledge on PCV2 immunology and the immunological basis of PCV2 vaccination.



*   Review: Nutrigenomics in animal production

Presenter: Dr Greg Harper


The future will be shaped by a number of factors including climate change, environmental concerns and the desire of people in the developing world to move along the food chain and nutrigenomics will play a critical role in achieving these outcomes. Nutrigenomics encompasses aspects of nutrigenetics (the effects of an individual’s genotype on the response to nutrition), nutritional epigenetics (the effects of phenomena that change genome function without changing nucleotide sequence, in relation to response to nutrition, and visa versa) and nutritional transcriptomics (the effects of nutrients on the expression of genes and regulatory elements, and visa versa). For many, nutritigenomics is closely associated with ‘personalised nutrition’, an emerging concept in which the diet of an individual is customized to their genome, to optimise health and prevent the onset of disease. Alternatively, a broader application is to use high throughput genomics and functional genomic technologies to study nutritional and metabolic diseases and apply this knowledge to animal and food production with involvement of the full value chain from farm to consumer to health professional. Nutrigenomics for production animals is likely to deliver fundamental and novel information about the response of animals with particular genotypes to the nutrients in their diet. While the demand for population and personalised nutrigenomics nutrition is unlikely to match that being seen in the human health and functional food arena, dietary formulations that are specific for elite classes of animals, and optimised for critical developmental phases in these animals, are very likely outcomes of current research. As was the case for structural and functional genomics, nutrigenomics for production animals will capitalise on the large global investments being made in human and animal model nutrigenomics.



*   Review: Extrinsic factors affecting consumer purchasing decisions for meat

Presenter: Dr Jon Ratcliff


There is increasing interest among both consumers and policy makers towards food safety, food quality, food related health issues and food production methods and their associated affects on the environment. Key drivers for this increasing interest are consumers’ income growth, urbanisation, intensification of food production methods and on-going highly publicised food scares, including BSE, dioxin and melamine. These drivers are also responsible for the growth in extrinsic cues aimed at the consumers decision making process for meat and which include branding, label information, origin, quality marks and other information about the products value to the consumer. This review will assess the various extrinsic cues and their increasing role in the quality perception of meat in comparison to the more traditional intrinsic quality cues.



*   Symposium: 'Exploiting Genetic Gains in Litter Size'


Presenters: Dr Flemming Thorup, Dr Kim Bunter, Dr Bruce Mullan

Over the last decade significant genetic gains have been achieved in the number of pigs born alive in Australia and around the world. One example of this phenomenon has been the Danish pig industry. Dr Fleming Thorup will present examples of how Denmark has altered its management practices to maximize both piglet survival and piglet quality with increased litter sizes. The genetic changes in litter size have also resulted in changes in other traits. Dr Kim Bunter will examine these changes and also discuss potential genetic solutions to improve preweaning survival and piglet quality. Finally Dr Bruce Mullan will investigate changes in sow and piglet nutrition during gestation and lactation designed to cope with larger numbers born alive in both gilts and sows.



*   Symposium: Strategies for successful commercialisation of pig research

Presenters: Dr Dean Boyd, Dr David Hennessy, Dr Rob Wilson


Commercialisation of research involves the transfer or translation of knowledge from the research sector to the market place. Pure research provides scientists with many insights into a problem but for that research to have a beneficial and economic return to all stakeholders and to drive future research in the same or related fields, the research has to be commercialised. This symposium pulls together the internationally recognised expertise of Dr. Dean Boyd, Dr. David Hennessy and Dr. Rob Wilson as they describe and discuss what should and should not happen to achieve successful commercialisation of pig research. Using specific case studies of products and commercial pig operations in Australia, North America and other markets the presenters will detail the differing strategies that are needed to bring a product to market and how external forces can shape these strategies. The symposium will provide essential insights for all researchers, product suppliers and pork producers.