The launching of the Australian Journal of Agricultural, Veterinary and Animal Sciences (AJAVAS) on May 1, 2025 was the culmination of a ten-year dream that began with MARCIAS AUSTRALIA’s registration with an ABN Number 66814341257 by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on January 6, 2016. Australia’s reputation as a global thought leader in agricultural innovation, ethical livestock production, food security, animal welfare and veterinary sciences is rock-solid. Establishing AJAVAS with a strategic operational base in Australia and a global spread aims to provide an authentic and reliable global reference point for sound science, integrated and multidisciplinary innovations in sustainable agricultural food security, ethical livestock production and veterinary sciences. The key focus is on integrated, novel, innovative, strategic and applied sciences, multi- and inter-disciplinary research with practical ‘real world’ applications. The Foundation Editorial & Advisory Board members of AJAVAS were drawn from UK’s University of Cambridge, Australian Universities of Newcastle, Melbourne, RMIT, Sydney, and New England, Iranian Universities of Guilan and Semnan, Nigerian National Veterinary Research Institute & National Animal Production Research Institute, Brazilian University of Campina Grande, Finnish Natural Resources Institute, American Kansas State University and Tunisian La Manouba University. Thus, AJAVAS has a global spread with Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe, North & South American representation. The journal comprises 4 Sections – Agricultural, Veterinary and Animal Sciences, and PhD Thesis Reviews. AJAVAS membership on LinkedIn is free at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13200707/. The inaugural issue of AJAVAS focusses on ultrasonographic assessment of post-anaesthetic gastrointestinal function in rabbits and emerging applications of postbiotics to sustainable livestock production systems.

This study characterised mitochondrial genetic diversity in Vietnamese Ven dogs using a 582-bp fragment of the HV1 region from 21 individuals. A total of 32 polymorphic sites was identified, and sequence variation resolved 14 haplotypes assigned to three major haplogroups (A, B, and C). Haplogroup A was predominant, while haplotype C2 was the most frequent (19.06%). One novel haplotype (Cn) was detected at low frequency (4.67%). Genetic diversity indices indicate substantial maternal variation within the sampled population (Hd = 0.943; Pi = 0.01524), consistent with patterns reported in other Vietnamese and Southeast Asian village dogs. The haplotype network further supports the coexistence of both closely related and moderately divergent maternal lineages, although demographic inference remains limited by sample size. Overall, the findings suggest that Vện dogs represent a phenotypically defined subset embedded within a diverse regional gene pool rather than a distinct maternal lineage. This study provides a baseline HV1 dataset for Vện dogs and highlights the need for expanded sampling and genome-wide analyses to better resolve population structure, evolutionary history, and implications for conservation and breeding strategies.