history

Brief Introduction of ABRO & PRC

In 1943, the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and the Agricultural Councils of the United Kingdom set up a joint committee to examine the way in which research in animal genetics and breeding should be conducted after the end of the war. The committee recommended the creation under the ARC of a "National Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics". The proposal was implemented in 1945 with the post of Director being accepted by Professor R. G. White, then at the University College of North Wales in Bangor. A condition of acceptance was that he be allowed to tour North America to study schemes of research in the USA and Canada before organising the new institute. At the same time Dr C. H. Waddington was appointed to head the Genetics Section.

While several locations were discussed, including Oxford, Edinburgh offered several advantages including the existing Institute of Animal Genetics. In addition, the University volunteered accommodation alongside the Institute of Animal Genetics and agreed that it should be linked with the teaching and research of the University. Dr Waddington was to be offered the Buchanan Chair in Animal Genetics (and Head of Department at the Institute of Animal Genetics), to which he was appointed in 1947. It was also agreed that he should remain as head of the Genetics Section.

The organisation was initially known as the National Animal Breeding and Genetics Research Organisation (NABGRO), although this was soon changed to the Animal Breeding and Genetics Research Organisation in 1947. By the end of 1945 agreement had been reached that (the then) Dr Waddington and the Genetics Section would be located within the Institute of Animal Genetics, while Professor White with the rest of the Institute would occupy Glenbourne House nearby.

Professor White decided that new organisation should operate a network of field stations rather than a single large facility and ABRGO acquired several farms used for field research and large scale breeding experiments. In 1951, a Field Laboratory was established south of Edinburgh adjacent to a farm obtained in 1947 for the study of pigs, both on land feued from the Edinburgh Centre for Rural Economy. Other farms were obtained in East Lothian (1953), the Scottish Borders (1950 and 1951), Staffordshire (1948), and the Dee Valley of Wales (1950).

Following the retirement of Professor White in 1950 Dr H.P. Donald was appointed co-Director with Professor Waddington, each in charge of one section of the Institute; Animal Breeding and Animal Genetics respectively. The situation was even more curious in that the head of the Genetics Section was not employed by the ARC but by the University of Edinburgh. This unusual situation was "resolved" in 1951 when Dr Donald became Director of the renamed Animal Breeding Research Organisation (ABRO), while the Animal Genetics Section under Professor Waddington became a separate ARC funded Group within the University Department, eventually designated the ARC Unit of Animal Genetics in 1957. This Unit was to continue under Professor Waddington until his departure in 1968 when the Deputy Director, Professor D.S Falconer (from 1969 also Head of the Department of Genetics) took over as Director. The Unit continued until Professor Falconer's retirement in 1980 when it was disbanded.