Alpaca news

Alpacas Vic West will meet at the Coonadoo Alpaca Stud on Sunday – 7 Feb 2010.  Apart from some general business which will be squeezed in somewhere, the meeting will have several speakers who will, we know, be of great interest to all alpaca breeders:

Belinda Appleton will discuss Suri fleece research being undertaken at the University of Melbourne:

This original project focused on searching for the gene(s) responsible for the suri fleece trait. Researchers have been successful in locating the region of the genome that contains the gene and now are continuing to narrow down to find the exact gene responsible.
They have further interests in fibre and have begun to investigate possibilities for extending that work.
They have also begun work to investigate genes responsible for undesirable traits such as those responsible for choanal atresia, ear defects, wry face, polydactyly etc. and are accumulating a large collection of samples and a PhD student has begun work in this area.

Bruce McGregor from Deakin University will discuss work in the area of fleece blow-out.

Bill Jacobs and Trudy Kuzmich from K&K Stock Feeds will introduce their new line in alpaca  blend.

Kerry Dwyer, member of the AAA Board, will bring us up to date with Board happenings and requirements and plans within the area of animal emergency diease response.

A BBQ lunch will be available at the meeting