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Félicie Lahalle-Faucon [on secondment from the Institut de l'Élevage (French Breeding Institute) and CNIEL (French National Interprofessional Center for Dairy Productions) to the GABI Bovine Genetics and Genomics G2B team], has coordinated the publication of a reference book in partnership with INRA, AgroCampus Ouest (Higher education and research public institute of the French Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries), AgroParisTech (Paris Institute of Technology for Life and Environmental Sciences) and the UNCEIA (French National Union of Cooperatives for Animal Insemination). She was assisted by Dominique Montagu-Ledoux. This book makes an up-to-date overview of our knowledge in animal genomics, describing its applications in animal selection and indicating perspectives for the development of the use of genomics by French breeders.

In June 2009, France figured amongst the first countries in the world to publish their first official genomic indexes for dairy cattle. This was the result of a very fructuous partnership between the industry and public research.

The genomic revolution is underway ! We now know how to decode and locate all the tens of thousands of genes of an animal and to use some of this information to enhance our knowledge but also in selection and as a diagnostic tool. What is the contribution of genomic selection? Both a gain in time and quality. Indeed, genomic selection leads to new pathways for the exploration of traits that are either difficult or impossible to select for by traditional means: reproduction, fertility, longevity, disease resistance but also methane emissions, adaptation, behavior, product quality. These are all answers to society’s questions. This new step in the history of biology is based on numerous technological developments and is changing not only our knowledge of the living world but also our capacity to domesticate. Genomics will become for men whatever they want.

>>> To order the book, link to www.inst-elevage.asso.fr, « Librairie », then « Amélioration génétique »