Augustín Blasco

Professor of Animal Breeding and Genetics
Curriculum vitae
  • Ingeniero Agrónomo in 1979 at the Univ. Politécnica de Valencia.
  • Doctor Ing. Agr. in 1982 at the Univ. Politécnica de Valencia.
  • Lecturer in Animal Breeding and Genetics in 1984.
  • Professor of Animal Breeding and Genetics from 1993.
  • Head of the Department of Animal Science 1990-1994.
  • Visiting researcher of the Animal Breeding Research Organisation (AFRC, Edinburgh, Scotland), September 1985- October 1986.
  • Visiting researcher of the Station de Génétique Quantitative et Apliquée (INRA, Jouy-en- Josas, France), June 1994 - July 1995.
  • Visiting scientist of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation, UNO, Rome, Italy), September 1997 - February 1998.
  • President of the World Rabbit Science Association 2000-2004
  • Editor-in-chief of World Rabbit Science 2002-2004.
  • Invited speaker at the 6th World Rabbit Congress (Toulouse, France,1996).
  • Invited speaker at the European Association of Animal Production in 1992, 1997 and 2003. Chairman of the Genetics section in 1997.
  • Invited speaker at the World Congress on Genetics Applied to the Livestock Production in 1982, 2002, and 2006 (Opening session). Chairman of sessions in 1982 and 2002. Member of the Scientific Committee 2006-2014.
  • Invited Speaker at the SCIRO Livestock Horizons Conference (Brisbane, Australia, October 2006).
  • Chapman Lecturer 2008. University of Wisconsin (Madison, USA).
  • Invited speaker at the joint meeting American Association of Animal Science and Asociación Argentina de Producción Animal (Mar de Plata, Argentina, 2011).
  • Invited speaker at the Congress on Controversies in Bovine Health, Industry and Economics (Berlin, 2015).
  • Supervisor  of 15 PhD students (Director of 15 PhD thesis).
  • Course "An introduction to Bayesian inference and MCMC in Quantitative Genetics” taught at the universities of Valencia (Spain), Sao Paulo and Lavras (Brasil), Padova, Udine and Piacenza (Italy), Nacional (Uruguay), Wisconsin (USA), Edinburgh (Scotland, UK), and at the INRA (Toulouse, France).
  • Director of the Master of Animal Breeding and Reproduction Biotechnology (2007-2019).
  • Head of the Institute of Animal Science and Technology (2012-2020).
Teaching activity
  • An Introduction to Bayesian inference and MCMC
  • ​An introduction to Population Genetics
  • Animal Ethics
  • ​Data analysis in Animal Production
Research areas
  • Application of Bayesian methods to animal breeding. 
  • Genetics of litter size components in pigs and rabbits. 
  • Genetics of growth rate, carcass and meat quality in pigs and rabbits.
  • Genomics, metabolomics and metagenomics of divergent lines selected for single traits: for residual variance of litter size, for uterine capacity and for intramuscular fat.
Publications
Books

  • BLASCO, A.; SANTACREU, M.A. 1992 Mejora Genética Animal. Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.
  • BASELGA, M.; BLASCO, A. 1989. Mejora Genética del Conejo de producción de carne. Mundi-Prensa.
  • BLASCO A. (Ed.). 2000. 7th World Rabbit Congress, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Association Française de Cuniculture. 3 vol.
  • BLASCO A. 2011. Etica y bienestar animal. Akal.
  • BLASCO A. 2013. Animal Ethics: A Scientific Perspective. Akal. Kindle edition.
  • BLASCO A. 2017. Bayesian data analysis for Animal Scientists. Springer.
  • ​BLASCO A. 2021. Mejora genética animal. Editorial Síntesis.

Book chapters
  • BLASCO, A; BASELGA, M. 1981. Desarrollo embrionario en animales. En: Aspectos prácticos de la enseñanza de la Biología". J.L.Guardiola (Ed.) E.T.S.I.A. Valencia.
  • BLASCO, A. 1984. Genética y nutrición del conejo. En: Nutrición de conejos. C. de Blas (Ed.). Mundi-Prensa.
  • BLASCO, A.; BIDANEL, J.P.; HALEY, C. 1995. Genetics and Neonatal survival. En: The neonatal pig. Development and survival. M.Varley (Ed.) C.A.B. International.
  • BLASCO, A. 1995. La base animal en las explotaciones intensivas. En: Zootecnia, vol. III Ganado Porcino. C. Buxadé (Ed.) Mundi-Prensa.
  • BLASCO A., HERNANDEZ P., PASCUAL J., ROSELL, J., VICENTE J. 2005. Achievements of research in the field of Rabbits. In: WAAP Book of the Year 2004. A. Rosati, A Tewolde, C. Mosconi (Ed.). Wageningen Academic Publ.
  • PASCUAL J., BLASCO A., HERNANDEZ P., ROSELL, J., VICENTE J. 2007. Achievements of research in the field of Rabbits. In: Animal production and animal science worldwide. WAAP Book of the Year 2007. A. Rosati, A Tewolde, C. Mosconi (Ed.). Wageningen Academic Publ.
  • BASELGA M., BLASCO A. 2008. El BLUP y los métodos bayesianos. Aplicación a la mejora genética vegetal. En: La adaptación al ambiente y los estreses abióticos en la mejora vegetal. Ávila, C.M., Atienza, S.G., Moreno, M.T., Cubero, J.I. (Ed.). Junta de Andalucía.
  • BLASCO A. 2011. Animal Breeding Methods and Sustainability. En: R.A. Meyers (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology. Springer.
  • BLASCO A. 2012. Animal Breeding Methods and Sustainability. En: Sustainable food production. P. Christou, R. Savin, B. Costa-Pierce, I. Misztal, B. Whitelaw (Ed.). Springer.
  • BLASCO A., PENA R. 2018. Current status of genomic maps, genomic selection/GBV in livestock. In: Animal Biotechnology. H. Niemann, C. Wrenzycki (Ed.). Springer
  • BLASCO A., NAGY I., HERNANDEZ P.2021. Genetics and genomics of growth, carcass and meat production traits in rabbits. In: L. Fontanesi (Ed.). The genetics and genomics of the rabbit. CABI.
  • PILES M, SANTACREU M.A., BLASCO A., SANCHEZ J.P. 2021. Genetics of reproduction in the rabbit.. In: L. Fontanesi (Ed.). The genetics and genomics of the rabbit. CABI.
  • BLASCO A. (2023). Animal Breeding Methods and Sustainability. In: Spangler, M.L. (Ed.). Animal Breeding and Genetics. Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology Series. Springer.