Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) is an online database that keeps track of the explosion of information on mutations causing inherited disorders in non-laboratory animals.

It was created in, and is still run from, the Sydney Faculty/School of Veterinary Science. Starting in 1980 as a mainframe database (in pre-internet days), OMIA was launched on the internet as an open-access resource in 1995. OMIA continues to provide researchers from 150 countries with up-to-date summary information on all the known harmful mutations in non-laboratory animals, together with background information on all known inherited disorders, including those for which harmful mutations have not yet been discovered. This seminar will summarise the history of OMIA, its current global role and plans for its future.