14-ATC2. Using genomic technologies to reduce mastitis in meat sheep

该项目旨在通过探索抗病基因组选择来解决绵羊肉的可持续集约化问题。对于纯种和杂交的特克赛尔绵羊，将使用新的高(700K)和现有(50K和1K)密度基因组筛选(SNP)技术和生物信息学程序，i)识别与乳房炎显著相关的SNP，以及ii)进行新的归因分析，这些分析将支持未来的研发和开发使用更低密度(6-9K)、更负担得起的SNP技术。该项目将建立在德克萨尔协会之前关于乳房炎的两个“火花奖”项目的基础上，以确定哪些不同的表型策略是临床型和亚临床型乳房炎的最佳预测因子，以及重要的是，哪些最有可能由农民进行常规操作，以作为其更广泛育种目标的一部分。其中包括农民主导的表型记录、构象评分和基于实验室的程序的组合，其中包括加州乳腺炎测试(CMT)程序，该程序可以在不需要实验室测试的情况下进行。作为这项探索性研究的一部分，将对不同定义的乳房炎进行第一次基因组育种价值预测(GEBV)，并将其提供给参与研究的育种者，以期它们与作为Signet绵羊育种者品种改进计划一部分收集的其他育种目标性状一起进行常规研究。

This project aims to address the sustainable intensification of sheep meat through the exploration of genomic selection for disease resistance. With pure- and crossbred Texel sheep, new high (700K ) and existing (50K and 1K) density genome screening ('SNP') technology and bioinformatic procedures will be used to, i) identify SNPS that are significantly related to mastitis, and ii) for new imputation analyses that will underpin future R&D and exploitation of use with lower density (6-9K), more affordable SNP technology in the future. The project will build on two previous 'Spark Award' projects by the Texel Society on mastitis, to establish which different phenotyping strategies are the best predictors of clinical and subclinical mastitis and importantly, which are most likely to be routinely undertaken by farmers to include as part of their wider breeding goals. These include a combination of farmer-driven phenotyping protocols for recording, conformation scoring and lab-based procedures including the California Mastitis Testing (CMT) procedure that can be undertaken without the need for laboratory testing. As part of this exploratory research, the first genomic predictions of breeding value (GEBVs) for the different definitions of mastitis will be undertaken and delivered to the participating breeders with a view to them being routinely undertaken in tandem with other breeding goal traits that are collected as part of Signet's Sheepbreeder breed improvement plan.