• Livestock
• Economics

Innovative genomic technologies to commercial flock performance recording,

The project aims to accelerate the rate of genetic gain in the Irish sheep industry by applying innovative genomic technologies to commercial flock performance recording, thus increasing the productivity and profitability of the sector. The project (i) genotyped sheep in flocks which are collecting phenotypes, (ii) unlocked the value of these phenotypes for genetic evaluation by assigning full flock parentage, (iii) developed a model for commercial farm data capture, (iv) generated large quantities of health phenotypes for a health genetic index, (v) investigated establishing a routine transfer of carcase data into genetic evaluations. The activities included collecting DNA (ear biopsy) from all breeding animals in selected participating flocks (1,500 breeding ewes and rams) and DNA samples from all progeny born to these genotyped ewes at birth. Genotyping all project animals on a high-density 50K SNPchip custom-designed for the Irish industry. In addition, new phenotypes relating to health traits (lameness, dag and mastitis) and longevity traits from all project animals three times per year over the project lifespan investigated the establishment of routine carcase data transfer from sheep processors to the national genetic evaluation database.