New Section Leader recruited to NordGen Farm Animals

2018.05.18

NordGen Farm Animals is a service- and knowledge center aiming to secure a sustainable use of our farm animal genetic resources. The center will now develop further as Mervi Honkatukia takes over as Section Leader.

aims to promote the sustainable use of farm animals connected to food and agriculture. In our different projects we have, among other things, investigated how milk from different breeds taste to create incentive for the increased use of them (

). And through our Brown Bee Network and

we spread the knowledge of the Nordic Brown Bee. These operations and many others will now be more visible as Mervi Honkatukia takes over the responsibility. – My predecessors have done a good job. I will continue working with the good practices and try to strengthen the best ones. However, I have some favorite themes of my own. Eventually, the Nordic countries, will be stronger and we can achieve better results in the field of animal genetic resources, Mervi Honkatukia says.

Teamleader and researcher

Mervi Honkatukia currently works as researcher and team leader at the Finnish Natural Resource Institute

. She did her PhD study in co-operation with an international poultry breeding company,

 but has also worked with molecular characterization of egg quality traits in chicken and studied gene mapping of production traits in dairy cattle. - I am very satisfied that NordGen managed to recruit such a strong, competent woman as Mervi Honkatukia as Section Leader for NordGen Farm Animals. We’re looking forward to Mervi strengthening NordGen Farm Animal’s effort to facilitate a sustainable use of our animal genetic resources in the Nordic Region, Lise Lykke Steffensen, CEO of NordGen says.

National Coordinator

Apart from her research background, Mervi has been part of NordGen Farm Animals Council for Animal Genetic Resources for many years. She also has been Finland’s national coordinator for animal genetic resources, working with the preservation of several Finnish breeds. – I am really excited to have all the Nordic native animal breeds in my “portfolio” now Mervi Honkatukia says. Mervi Honkatukia will be placed at NordGen Farm Animals in Ås, close to Oslo. She will start working on the 1st of June 2018.