The Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra hosted a national hub meeting under the umbrella of EU-LI-PHE. The event, titled “Chovatelský seminár / Breeders Workshop”, was organized by Dr. Radovan Kasarda, with support from co-organizer Dr. Nina Moravčíková, our Action members from Slovakia.
The workshop brought together key stakeholders from across Slovakia’s livestock and breeding sectors, including representatives from university faculties, Breeding Services of the Slovak Republic, breeders’ associations, AI service providers, and the Research Institute of Animal Production.
The event focused on emerging genomic tools and their application in animal breeding and biodiversity preservation. Dr. Kasarda opened the session with a lecture on increasing the production potential of livestock while protecting populations of national importance. Dr. Moravčíková followed with a presentation on intrapopulation genomic structures and their impact on diversity. Young Researchers and Innovators (YRI) also contributed: Adrian Halvoník presented on the genomic index of diversity and its relevance for breeding, while Monika Chalupková addressed genetic improvement of health traits in dairy cattle.
The main objective of the event was to strengthen collaboration between higher education institutions and stakeholders, promote lifelong learning, and facilitate knowledge transfer in the field of livestock genomics and phenomics. Additionally, the meeting served to promote the expansion of the EU-LI-PHE network through new institutional and individual memberships and to explore future collaborative research opportunities.
As a follow-up, future discussions will focus on extending animal recording and evaluation systems on a national level to include genomics and phenomics data. Attendees were also invited to participate in the upcoming Animal Science Days 2025, further solidifying national engagement in EU-LI-PHE activities.
