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since 16 April 2002

Current lecture schedule, with lecture notes as pdf files

Background information

Nordic postgraduate courses in Animal Breeding have been arranged since 1969. A systematic course structure, rotating within a period of four years, has been followed since mid 1980's. It was agreed that the themes of the courses would be on economics and design of breeding plans in Denmark, genome analysis in Sweden, statistical methods in Norway and quantitative genetics in Finland. The contents of individual courses have varied slightly over the years, but the general structure of the systematic courses still exists. The Nordic organization group for postgraduate studies in Animal Breeding has met annually during an European or some international congress to discuss and agree on the topics of the coming courses.

The titles of the recent and future courses are:

• Denmark, 2000: Use and Analysis of QTL-effects in Animal Breeding
• Sweden, 2001: Breeding Planning for Sustainable Development and Management of Domestic Animal Genetic Resources
• Norway, 2002: Bayesian Analysis with Applications in Quantitative Genetics
• Finland, 2003: Quantitative Genetics in Animal Breeding
• Denmark, 2004: Specific title to be announced later.

• Course responsible person: Matti Ojala
• Course period: 4 to 15. August 2003
• Location: Helsinki, Finland
• Teachers:
  • Bruce Walsh, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, U.S.A.
  • William Muir, Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, U.S.A.
• Language: English
• The course is intended for:Postgraduate students in Animal Breeding and Genetics
• Max number of participants: 28
• Organizing department and University: Department of Animal Science, University of Helsinki
• Course leader: Matti Ojala
• Postal address to course leader: PO Box 28, 00014 Helsinki University, Finland
• Phone number to course leader:+358-9-19158588
• Fax number to course leader:+358-9-19158379
• E-mail to course leader: matti.ojala@helsinki.fi
• Registration sent to:
  • Riitta Lamminsalo
  • PO Box 28, 00014 Helsinki University, Finland
  • riitta.lamminsalo@helsinki.fi
• Deadline for application: 30 April 2003

Prerequisites

The general prerequisite to attend the course is a M.Sc. degree, unless the candidate has unusual circumstances. Further, knowledge of quantitative genetics at the level of Falconer's and Mackay's textbook Introduction to Quantitative Geneticsis expected and a basic knowledge of statistics. Some familiarity with elementary matrix algebra is helpful.

General statement of scientific content

The course will review selection strategies for animal breeding, starting with an overview of the basic machinery of quantitative genetics and concluding with a special emphasis on recent theoretical and molecular approaches to enhance selection response. The goal is to provide students with the necessary skills and tools to not only apply existing approaches, but to also be in a position to use new techniques and approaches that are likely to be developed in the near future.

Student Evaluation

Students will be assigned homework problems daily, which will be group-problems where teams of students will work together. We anticipate a roughly equal mixture of problems in the basic theory and problems focusing on direct application to animal breeding.

Time schedule and contents

About a half of the time will be devoted for lectures and the other half for group work. A daily schedule will be as follows:

• 8.30 to 12.30 Lectures and/or problem sets
• (around 10.30) Coffee break
• 12.30 to 13.30 Lunch
• (around 15.00) Coffee break
• 13.30 to 17.30 Lectures and/or problem sets