Animal Sciences technicians Animal Sciences technicians scoop awards

TThree scientific technicians from the Directorate Animal Sciences in the Research and Technology Development programme performed exceptionally well at the 37th annual congress of the South African Society for Agricultural Technologists (SASAT) held in Pretoria (Roodeplaat) recently. Angel Maapea was awarded the SASAT trophy for the best animal paper presentation, “Microbiome of dusky kob ( Argyrosomus japonicas ) eggs and hatchery water and efficacy of various chemicals for egg disinfection”. Resia Swart received honorary membership of SASAT and was also awarded for the best poster presentation, “Effect of extrusion on rumen-undegradable protein (RUP) fraction of lupin meal and canola oil cake meal”. Annelie Kruger won the third prize for her paper presentation, “Sex and line differences in arena behaviour of divergently selected merinos”. SASAT currently has three branches countrywide – Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Western Cape – with intentions to establish more branches in all the nine provinces in South Africa. The congress is hosted by a different branch every year and the 38th annual SASAT congress will be hosted by the Western Cape branch in 2020, with the winning ladies forming part of the organising committee.