E. John Pollak - Professor
PhD from Iowa State University
Graduate fields: Animal Science, Animal Breeding
Area(s) of interest: statistical and quantitative genetics, animal breeding
Teaching:
Email: ejp6@cornell.edu
Current Research
Dr. Pollak helping out at Bell Ranch, NM.
John Pollak does research in the area of genetic evaluation of domestic animals. The primary species of interest are beef and dairy cattle. The American Simmental Association (ASA) currently supports the research effort in beef cattle and supplies information from the national data set for that breed. This data set is used to accomplish genetic evaluations of Simmental cattle. Research with these data include analyses of weight traits (birth, weaning weight, and yearling weight) and calving ease traits. In both analyses (weight traits and calving ease) direct and maternal influences on calf performance are considered. In addition, data have been analyzed for traits such as gestation length and carcass measures. The ASA is currently collecting supplemental data on other characteristics such as cow weight, frame score, pelvic area, etc., which will become available to this research program. Recently, a multibreed evaluation program has been implemented that allows for genetic evaluations of individuals from different breeds. The Simmental data are currently being augmented by data from other breeds and from composite producers. Data are also available for work on dairy cattle genetics. These data include performance records of cows milking in many of the states in the Northeast.
Teaching
John Pollak is the instructor in Animal Science 221 (Introductory Animal Genetics) and Animal Science 420 (Quantitative Animal Genetics). He is also a co-instructor for Animal Science 321 (Applied Animal Genetics—Seminar).
Animal Science 221 is a core course in the animal science program. Material includes Mendelian genetics, population genetics, and quantitative genetics.
Animal Science 321 is a seminar course featuring speakers from Cornell and other institutions as well as from various industry groups. The focus is on presenting a wide range of the application of genetics to real-world problems, including breeding captive populations of endangered species, breeding domestic populations under selection, and application of new genetic technologies (mapping, finding genes, etc.).
Animal Science 420 is a course designed to show students how to extract genetic information from data. Emphasis is on estimating parameters such as heritability and on performing genetic evaluations from different genetic models.