Growth and Development of the Academic Societies and Animal Production in Korea , China and Asia over the Last 50 Years *

The Korean Society of Animal Science (KSAS) was officially born on October 8, 1956 under the leadership of Professor Sang W. Yun of Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea a few years after the end of the Korean War. At that time, there were 0.9 million Korean native cattle, 1.3 million pigs and 8.9 million chickens in Korea. Per capita income for Korea (US$ 66) or China (US$ 59) was about 10% of Asian's average income (US$ 513) in 1956. Korea produced less than 0.2 million M/T of formula feed and consumed 6.1 kg/person/year of animal products. One could say that Korea was an example of an under-developed country in the world. Although the first issue of the Proceedings of the KSAS was published on October 28, 1958, regular quarterly journals of the KSAS were not published until March 1, 1969. Major activities other than publishing its journal were: holding an annual meeting and/or scientific forum at national or international level. The Asian-Australasian Association of Animal Production Societies (AAAP) was founded on September 1, 1980 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with founding members from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, NZ, Philippines and Thailand. Thirteen AAAP Animal Science Congresses have been held in its 28 year history. Hosting countries were Malaysia (1980), Philippines (1982), Korea (1985), NZ (1987), Taiwan (1990), Thailand (1992), Indonesia (1994), Japan (1996), Australia (2000), India (2002), Malaysia (2004), Korea (2006) and Vietnam(2008). In 1988, significant progress of the AAAP was made by creating an official English journal of the AAAP entitled “Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences (AJAS)” under the initiative of the KSAS. This journal is now published monthly and distributed to more than 50 countries in the AAAP region and the world. It should be mentioned that the KSAS was able to successfully host the 3rd AAAP Animal Science Congress in 1985 and the 12th in 2006, as well as the 8 WCAP in 1998. During the last 50 years of KSAS history, per capita income of Korea increased to US$ 17,690 (268 fold), formula feed production increased to 15 million M/T (97 fold) and consumption of animal products increased to 105 kg/person/year (17 fold). Cattle, pig and chicken numbers also increased to 2.5 million (2.8 fold), 9 million (7.4 fold) and 119 million (13 fold). This trend was also found for China and Asia, even if the rate of growth was slightly lower than that of Korea. It is expected that a similar rate of growth in economics, animal numbers, formula feed production and animal protein intake will likely be achieved by other Asian countries in the 21 century with somewhat lower rate of development than that of Korea. (


Introduction of the KSAS Animal Science Award and the AAAP Animal Science Award
In 1967, the Korean Society of Animal Science granted its first "Animal Science Award" to recognize distinguished Korean animal scientists.Between 1967 and 2007, a total of 66 eminent Korean animal scientists received this award.A large portion of this award fund was donated by Professor In K. Han.Professor Han has donated his Korea Science Award money given by the Korean Government in 1971.The "KSAS Distinguished Service Award" was also introduced in 1977 by the Professor In K. Han.The first award was given to Professor Sang W. Yun, the founding president of the KSAS.Currently, a total of 66 scientists and technical personals have received this award.
The AAAP has three different categories of awards.The "AAAP Animal Science Award" was established in 2000 to recognize internationally known animal scientists in the AAAP region.This award is funded for by Hans' Animal Life Science Foundation (HALSF).So far, six famous animal scientists have received this award.In order to stimulate the research activities and submission of manuscripts to the AJAS by young Asian scientists under age of 40 years, the "AJAS-Cargill Agribrand Purina Inc. Outstanding Research Award" was introduced in 1990 with

Birth of the AAAP in September, 1980
A historical event was happened in 1980.The Asian-Australasian Association of Animal Production Societies (AAAP) was officially founded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on September 1, 1980.It is important to note that the KSAS was a charter member of the AAAP.
By reviewing available minutes of the AAAP Council Meetings, records on the AAAP Animal Science Congress programs, proceedings of each AAAP Animal Science Congress and "Quarter Century History of the AAAP", the followings in Table 3 is considered as the best official record for the AAAP membership.
Data in Table 3 shows that there were 8 founding members of the AAAP.Taiwan was accepted as a member in 1982 and Iran was accepted as the 17 th member country in 2002.At the council meeting in Busan Korea in 2006, China and Sri Lanka became members of AAAP.It was a memorable moment for AAAP when China finally joined AAAP as a regular member in 2006.Now AAAP with a total of 19 members encompass major area of Asian and Australasian region and became a leading association in animal science in the world.
Though the AAAP is important, activity and involvement of member countries is limited.Thus, one important aspect of the society is to encourage and promote more active involvement of all member countries.
Regarding the membership of P. R. China, many individuals and all council members tried hard during the last decade.Most definite movement was made at the 12 th AAAP Council Meeting in New Delhi, India in September 2002, which decided that China would be accepted as a member of the AAAP on condition that an official application letter be submitted to Secretary-General and the content be in accordance to the AAAP Statutes in regard with the membership of Taiwan.This was also confirmed at the 13 th AAAP Council Meeting in 2004.Finally, acceptance of China as a member has been materialized in 2006 at 14th Council Meeting.
The procedure to become a member is fairly easy and straightforward.There is no special application form: all that needs to be done is to submit a written application letter  to the Secretary-General and council for approval.So far, no applications have been rejected.Only on one occasion the Council Meeting had to deliberate the pros and cons of Taiwan's application in 1982.No one really objected to Taiwan's admission except that caution had to be taken to determine its legitimacy, since some members feared that with Taiwan's involvement they might lose their own government's support.If this should happen they were in no position to participate actively in the AAAP affairs.Fortunately, this did not happen and the AAAP continued to flourish with Taiwan as a member.

KSAS: a member of the World Association for Animal Production (WAAP)
The KSAS submitted an application letter for membership to the headquarter of the WAAP located in Rome, Italy in 1979.Dr. Kally, Secretary-General, has made postal vote among council members for their approval of the President Y.Nishikawa of the WAAP.Finally, after two year wait, KSAS became a member of the WAAP on March 1, 1981. In 1983, Professor In K. Han was elected to be a Vice-President of the WAAP, when the 5 th WCAP was held in Tokyo, Japan.6).Growth in animal production and per capita income of Korea, China and Asia for this time period can be seen Table 4.It is apparent that the growth rate of animal production is about the same degree as that observed between the 1970's and 1980's.However, growth rate of personal income, formula feed production and intake of animal products for Koreans were much higher than that for Chinese or Asian (Table 4).

Official Journal of the AAAP (AJAS)
The KSAS initiated the creation of an official quarterly journal of the AAAP entitled "Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Science (AJAS)" in March, 1988.The current printing office is located in Seoul, Korea, and now publishes a monthly journal of SCIE.Prof.In K. Han served as founding editor-in-chief until he was succeeded by Prof. Jong K. Ha.Some Statistics on the publication of the AJAS are recorded in Table 5.

The previous AAAP Animal Science Congress in summary (1980-2006)
The AAAP Animal Science Congress is an important forum that draws together scientists, as well as professionals, engaged in livestock development and trade in Asia.It is also through this forum that ideas are disseminated and developed.Scientists from many parts of Asia rarely have the opportunity to attend scientific conventions due to lack of finance, but the support scheme provided by the organizers is so essential to speakers, who may not have participated otherwise.
There have been 12 AAAP Congress meetings once every two to four years, depending on decision of host society.The 3 r rd d and 5 th meetings took place at three year and the 9 th at four years interval.The rest of the meetings were held in every two years.The Congresses were held in 10 different countries and countries that have hosted twice so far are Malaysia and Korea (Table 6).Member countries that have yet to host the AAAP Animal Science Congress are China, Bangladesh, Iran, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam until 2006.The 11 th council which was held in Sydney recommended that a rotation should be established within the Societies with the resources to host Congress and this rotation should be based on the historical order that had been established by the AAAP.However, this idea was amended at the 14th Council Meeting in Busan, Korea, when it was recommended to set up suitable guidelines for the selection of hosting countries.
As far as the number of participants is concerned, it has  been generally increasing, reaching more than 1,000 in the 3 r rd d , 8 th and 12th meetings in Korea, Japan and Korea, respectively as is appeared in Table 6.Some of meetings were attended by scientists from more than 30 different countries.
The AAAP Animal Science Congress has a history of 26 years since its inception.It is now an international forum with participation not only from Asia and Pacific region but also over the world.With the Congress generating big interest in the region, it is confident that the numbers of participants will continue to grow.
Perhaps the most important outcome of the Congress is the Proceedings of the AAAP Animal Science Congress, which are a useful compilation of both the plenary lectures and scientific papers.While the plenary lecture covers a broad area of interest highlighting the advances in animal science and production, the latter displays individual contribution to the sector.The Congress Proceedings are important documents due to the fact that they record numerous contributions by scientists and professionals in the region.Proceedings of the 2 nd congress was not published, and that of the 10 th Congress has yet to be published although all the abstracts were printed (Table 6).
The quality and quantity of presentations was continuously improved.In part, this is because of the large numbers attending the congress, which provides opportunities for scientists, especially the younger ones, to learn from their peers.As a result, the standard of research has improved which augurs well for the livestock industry in this region.
Congress themes (Table 7) reflect main interests of the region at the time of the congress.Production strategies and efficiency were major concerns during the early meetings, while sustainability of livestock production and environment have become main areas of focus of the meetings held in recent years.

Numbers and categories of papers presented at the different AAAP Animal Science Congress (1980-2006)
As is shown in the Table 8, the number of scientific papers presented at the different AAAP Animal Science Congresses is steadily increasing.At the 12 t th h AAAP Animal Science Congress, the largest number of papers (1,268) were presented and followed by 9th ( 594 121), and 1 s st t (73) AAAP Congresses.On average, it appears that the number of papers presented is between 300 and 600 except the 12th AAAP.
It was found that the numbers of scientific papers presented at the AAAP Animal Science Congress by 19 AAAP member countries varied significantly.Korea (1,042), Japan (991), Australia (521), India (470) and Taiwan (444) presented more than 400 papers throughout the 12 Congresses.On the other hand, less than 100 papers were presented by Bangladesh (54), Mongolia (2), Nepal (14), Pakistan (68), Papua New Guinea (23), and Vietnam (27).Between these two groups, Indonesia (291), Malaysia (265), New Zealand (247), and Thailand (219) presented between 100 and 300 papers.This difference in presentation capability among AAAP member countries could partly be solved by increasing financial support for those underrepresented countries to participate more actively in the Animal Science Congress in the future.
It is interesting to note that slightly more than 11% (621) of papers were contributed from non-AAAP countries and about 89% papers (4,939) came from the AAAP member countries (5,560 in total).

CONCLUSION
Based on the above analyses and observations during the last 50 years beginning in 1956, it may be concluded that Korea, China and Asia have remarkably grown in animal production levels and the activities of academic societies.In the case of Korea, the KSAS played some important roles to enhance activities of academic societies by holding its annual meetings and/or technical seminars/symposia, and by hosting international conferences such as the AAAP Animal Science Congress and the WCAP.Publishing the societies' journal since 1956 has also played important role.Moreover, the KSAS was known to be a core society that stimulated academic collaborative programs of international nature including hosting of the AAAP Animal Science Congress in 1985 and 2006, hosting the FAO/WAAP/KSAS International symposium in 1995 and the 8 t th h WCAP in 1998 in Korea.The KSAS is co-publishing society of the AJAS with the AAAP.
These academic interactions certainly resulted in promoting the development of animal production in Korea and Asia.Increased production of animal products (11 times) significantly stimulated the improvement of both income source (268 fold) and animal protein consumption (17 fold) of Koreans.It is expected that activities of academic societies and animal production would be even further expanded in Asian countries, including Korea and China in the forthcoming 50 years in the 21 s st t century.

Table 1 .
Per capita income, number of major species of animals inKorea, China and Asia in 1956

Table 2 .
Publication record of the Korean J. of Animal Science since 1958

Table 3 .
Member country of the AAAP (as ofSeptember 23, 2006) 11AAAP Animal Science Congress has not been held in these countries.

Table 4 .
Per capita income, number of major species of animals in Korea, China and Asia in 1985 Data including Oceania and Pacific. 2 World Bank, 1992.3Dataincluding beef, pork, chicken meat, eggs and milk.

Table 8 .
Summary of the papers presented at the AAAP Animal Science Congress (ASC) by member countries (Korea was significantly higher than that of China or Asia by 2005.Annual consumption amount of animal products are also higher for Korea (105.3 kg/person/year) than that for China (92.9 kg/person/year) and Asia (77.2 kg/person/year) as is illustrated in Table10.These data indicate that animal production in most Asian countries has been steadily growing.