Farm animals and research: the issues explored

Thursday, 30 November 2000

The use of farm animals in scientific research will be the focus of a major international conference which begins at Adelaide University today.

The Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART) annual conference features 20 speakers from New Zealand and Canada, as well as Australian universities, CSIRO, and State Departments of Agriculture.

ANZCCART director Dr Robert Baker says the conference will examine the role farm animals play in research, as well as the subsequent demands this role makes.

"We will be asking whether the use of farm animals in research can meet the demands of ethics, welfare, research and teaching," he says.

"ANZCCART's motto is 'humane science', and with such a diverse range of speakers and topics at this conference I am confident we will make more progress towards this goal."

Key topics to be discussed at the conference include:

• "Cloning and transgenic animal production" by Dr Simon Walker (SARDI);
• "Human-animal interactions and their effects on research results" by Professor Paul Hemsworth (Victorian Institute of Animal Science);
• "The future of the wool industry in the 21st century" by Professor Phil Hynd (Adelaide University);
• "The use of agricultural animals to study animal diseases" by Dr Deborah Middleton (CSIRO Geelong).

Other papers will cover aquaculture, cattle feedlot research, xenotransplantation and crocodile farming.

The two-day conference will be in the Hawker Centre of Adelaide University's Waite Campus today (Thursday), before moving to Adelaide's Roseworthy Campus tomorrow (Friday).

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