UP Animal Science Stuns at National Congress

Posted on November 19, 2024

The Department of Animal Science recently participated in the South African Society for Animal Science’s (SASAS) annual congress held in East London. From postgraduate students winning a national debate competition to seasoned professors receiving prestigious awards, the Department and its alumni stunned the congress!

SASAS runs an annual quiz and debate competition for final-year and postgraduate students. This year, UP’s Department of Animal Science entered two teams for both categories, with the first team being Elri Botha, Mpho Digashoa and Frans Malan. The Department’s second team comprised Jennifer-Lee O’donovan, Stefan Corbett, and Rudolf Beneke. The students are studying MSc Production Physiology and Product Quality, MSc Livestock Production, MSc Animal Nutrition or MSc Animal Breeding and Genetics. The teams were coached for the debate by Rimbilana Shingange, a lecturer in the Department.

 

Both teams won their rounds in the preliminary rounds of the debate tournament, which were held online. The first team successfully defended using genetically engineered production animals over naturally selected production animals, and the second team proved that climate-smart agriculture is not promoted enough in South Africa. Due to the odd number of teams selected for the first preliminary rounds, UP’s first team was unfortunately not able to proceed to the semi-finals; however, the second team did and thus spoke in the final debate round in person at the congress, where they proved that there are more impactful disadvantages to exporting live animals by sea for slaughter at remote destinations against the other finalists of the competition, the University of Stellenbosch. The Stellenbosch team advocated that the economic benefits of shipping live animals for slaughter are paramount to the livestock producer and the country that is shipping the animals and that the cases wherein livestock have been found in unethical conditions on the way to or aboard livestock carrier ships are few and far between and should not affect the entire industry. The UP teams countered these arguments by proving that even in the instance that receiving countries are willing to pay a premium for these livestock, the livestock should not be subjected to the conditions on these transport carriers, such as fluctuating temperatures, build-up of toxic gases and limited physical space, mainly when these conditions result in chronic stress for these animals and ultimately reduces the quality of their meat products. Both UP teams showed commendable dedication and progress, practising weeks in advance and going from fear of speaking for 30 seconds to speaking beyond three minutes.

Team one, from left to right: Mpho Digashoa, Elri Botha and Frans Malan

Team two from left to right: Rudolf Beneke, Stefan Corbett and Jennifer-Lee O’donovan

Danielle Alberts, a PhD Animal Science candidate in the Department, was awarded a Bronze Medal by SASAS. This award recognises meritorious research, and in her case, her dissertation, which is relevant to animal science. She thanked her supervisor, Prof Este van Marle-Köster, for always believing in her and motivating her. She is excited to see what the future holds and what else she can contribute to the field while studying at the University of Pretoria.

From left: Prof. Este van Marle-Koster and Danielle Alberts

Prof Abubeker Hassen, a professor in animal nutrition in the Department, was also awarded a Silver Medal by SASAS in the Research Category. SASAS awards this prestigious medal for research achievements in a particular year that pertain to exceptionally deserving and original research efforts or meritorious contributions published in recognised and refereed scientific journals. He is grateful for this recognition from his peers.

Tony Ferreira, an alumnus of the Department, also received the first runner-up award of the African Feed Manufacturer’s Association (AFMA)’s Student Nutrition Award for his work on commercial phytase enzymes in broilers. Another alumna, Dr Ida Linde, also received the David Uys trophy. This prize is awarded to the best paper published in the South African Journal of Animal Science (SAJAS) by a paid-up SASAS member in 2023. The paper titled “Differential gene expression in the Longissimus dorsi of Nguni and Bonsmara bulls finished on low and high energy diets” reported parts of her PhD project, which was completed under the supervision of Prof Este van Marle-Köster and was co-authored by M.M. Scholtz, M.G. Gonda, J.L.
Gonzalez-Hernandez and M. D. MacNeil. Postgraduate students and staff also presented six different research abstracts at the congress.

From left: Prof Este van Marle-Köster, Danielle Alberts, Tony Ferreira and Prof Carina Visser

The Department is proud of everyone who contributed to the congress, acknowledges and thanks all organisations and companies who sponsored the congress and hopes to provide more opportunities for students to interact with academia and industry.

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