Breeding for resistance or tolerance to coccidia in broiler chickens

肉鸡球虫抗性或耐受性育种

• 批准号: 1839441
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Newcastle University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1839441
• 关键词: Breeding; resistance; tolerance; coccidia; broiler

Broiler chickens are the domestic species most intensively selected for production and Eimeria (coccidia) infections are the most pervasive challenge to their health and productivity, estimated to cost the UK industry > £80m per annum. The various method of its control are either not effective or are threatened by long term sustainability, such as the development of coccidian resistance to drugs The issue of controlling through genetic selection for diseases that cause such substantial production losses remains unresolved, although it is an attractive possibility. The breeder has the choice of exploiting two host strategies: resistance to (the ability to limit pathogen replication) and tolerance of (the ability to limit the impact on host productivity or health). The relative contribution of these two strategies to infection outcomes, is poorly understood. Understanding has been hampered by statistical methods to analyse the genetic basis of tolerance at individual level and by considering it as a static as opposed to a dynamic trait. We recently developed a methodology that overcomes these limitations, by considering individual infection dynamic trajectories portraying simultaneously changes in infection severity and performance. The aim of this project is to apply this methodology to Eimeria infections of broilers to determine: 1) whether there is genetic variation in tolerance to Eimeria; 2) how broiler chicken genotypes selected for different production intensities map onto distinct trajectory types; 3) whether these genotypes rank similarly in terms of resistance and tolerance to infection and 4) whether this ranking is affected by different coccidian infections regulated by different immune responses.The proposal falls entirely under the remit of BBSRC Strategic Research Priority 1: Agriculture and Food Security. It is consistent with BBSRC aim to 'support research in areas that have profound implications for food security and food safety, such as animal health and welfare, and genetics and genomics for improved production and disease resistance'.The studentship falls within the remit of the animal Health priority of BBSRC, which aims to to support fundamental and strategic research leading to the development of intervention strategies for combating endemic diseases that reduce the health and welfare of either animals farmed for food production in the UK (and where appropriate, in the international context) or other domesticated animals of importance to the UK economy. The student will be trained in a number of disciplines that are of relevance to food security and food safety (animal breeding and genetics, parasitology, animal science, statistical techniques), and by doing so it will advance the BBSRC aim of 'ensuring that the UK skills base has appropriate critical mass and specialist research expertise to support these disciplines'.

肉鸡是被选来生产的最密集的家养品种，艾美耳球虫(球虫)感染是对它们的健康和生产力最普遍的挑战，估计每年给英国养殖业造成8000万英镑的损失。控制该病的各种方法要么无效，要么受到长期可持续性的威胁，例如球虫对药物产生抗药性，通过基因选择控制造成如此重大生产损失的疾病的问题仍未解决，尽管这是一种有吸引力的可能性。育种者可以选择利用两种寄主策略：抗性(限制病原菌复制的能力)和耐受性(限制对寄主生产力或健康的影响的能力)。人们对这两种策略对感染结果的相对贡献知之甚少。在个人一级分析耐受性遗传基础的统计方法，以及将其视为静态特征而不是动态特征，阻碍了人们的理解。我们最近开发了一种克服这些限制的方法，通过考虑同时描绘感染严重性和性能变化的个体感染动态轨迹。本项目的目的是将这一方法应用于肉鸡的艾美耳球虫感染，以确定：1)对艾美耳球虫的耐受性是否存在遗传差异；2)不同生产强度下选择的肉鸡基因型如何映射到不同的轨迹类型；3)这些基因型在对感染的抵抗力和耐受性方面是否排名相似，4)这一排名是否受到不同免疫反应调控的球虫感染的影响。它与BBSRC的目标一致，即支持对食品安全和食品安全有深远影响的领域的研究，如动物健康和福利，以及遗传学和基因组学，以提高产量和抗病能力。该项目属于BBSRC动物健康优先事项的范围，旨在支持基础和战略研究，从而制定防治地方病的干预策略，以降低英国(以及在适当情况下，在国际范围内)为食品生产而饲养的动物或其他对英国经济重要的家养动物的健康和福利。学生将接受与食品安全和食品安全相关的多个学科(动物育种和遗传学、寄生虫学、动物科学、统计技术)的培训，通过这样做，它将推进BBSRC的目标，即“确保英国技能基础拥有适当的临界量和专业研究专业知识来支持这些学科”。