How to accelerate genetic gain in sheep? N Mc Hugh 1, A. O Brien 1, F. McGovern 1, E. Wall 2, T. Pabiou 2, K. McDermott 2, and D. Berry 1 1 Teagasc, Moorepark, Ireland & 2 Sheep Ireland Sheep Breeders Roundtable, 18 th November 2017
Outline 1. Overview Irish breeding programme 2. What are we achieving currently 3. Ireland s 5 year plan 4. Ireland s long term strategy
Irish sheep breeding programme Data Sources LambPlus Ped Rams to commercial flocks Commercial Central progeny test (CPT) 4 commercial flocks Matings to provide linkage Teagasc BETTER farms Commercial data
Irish sheep breeding programme Terminal Breeding Objectives Replacement
Replacement Index /lamb Replacement Index /lamb 2.50 10 9 2.00 8 7 1.50 6 Benchmarking our progress Large potential 5 1.00 4 3 0.50 2 1 0.00 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Current Year of birth Current NZ rate of gain
Can we improve this?? Worth 750m
Ireland s 5 year plan Genetic gain levels remain low Farmer confidence Accuracy levels Accuracy (and genetic gain) can be improved by: 1. Superior genetic evaluations 2. Genomic selection
Irish sheep breeding programme Breeding Objectives Terminal Replacement Lambing Growth Meat Health Difficulty & Survival Days to slaughter Carcass fat & conformation Lameness & dag score
Irish sheep breeding programme Breeding Objectives Replacement Ewe traits Lambing Meat Health Milk Yield No. lambs born Ewe weight Difficulty & Survival Carcass fat & conformation Lameness & dag score
What s missing??? 1. Health traits Mastitis, FEC 2. Carcass data Carcass weight, fat & conformation 3. Lambing traits Lamb vigour, ewe mothering ability 4. Ewe survival Age at culling, stayability
International data Research underway: UK for Texel, Suffolk & Charollais France for Vendeen NZ INZAC flock Accuracy v. low
Replacement Index /lamb INZAC Flock 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Current Year of birth NZ rate of gain
INZAC Flock INZAC Flock (180 ewes)
INZAC Flock INZAC Flock (180 ewes) Elite NZ genetics (60)
INZAC Flock INZAC Flock (180 ewes) Elite NZ genetics (60) Elite Irish genetics (60)
INZAC Flock INZAC Flock (180 ewes) Elite NZ genetics (60) Elite Irish genetics (60) Low Irish genetics (60)
INZAC Flock INZAC Flock (180 ewes) Elite NZ genetics (60) Elite Irish genetics (60) Low Irish genetics (60) SU (30) SU (30) SU (30) TX (30) TX (30) TX (30)
INZAC Flock INZAC Flock (180 ewes) Elite NZ genetics (60) Elite Irish genetics (60) Objectives SU (30) SU (30) SU (30) Low Irish genetics (60) 1. Compare Irish versus New Zealand elite ewes 2. Test if Irish replacement index fit for purpose TX (30) TX (30) TX (30)
Measurements Feed Intake Ewe longevity Fertility Health Data Phenotypes Measured Lambing difficulty Ewe weight & BCS Lamb weight & GR Milk yield Survival traits Mothering ability
Results to date NZ Elite Irish Irish Low Scan rate 1.84 1.56 1.45 Dystocia 2.2% 13.0% 5.5% Lamb Mortality 6.0% 3.6% 9.7% Milk Yield 1.92 1.76 1.33 DTS 155 164 178 20
Genomic Selection At birth we know parts of the lamb s DNA Lamb EBV accuracy increases to ~ 76% (dairy)» Equiv. of 16 (181) progeny for high (low) h 2
Applied to all genes & all traits Parentage Low cost option for hill and commercial flocks Major gene effects Scrapie, lethal recessive genes. Breed mapping Genomic Selection How closely related are breeds??
OVIGEN Project LambPlus Flock visits 2015-2016 All breeding ewes and rams 12,000 animals Free!! New health sub-index 2017
Texel Beltex Population structure Bluefaced Leicester Border Leicester Belclare Galway Charollais Suffolk Vendeen
Parentage assignment
Parentage 12,733 animals genotyped 5,008 animals had a parent genotyped Sires Sire and Dam pairs Dams 2.1% sire and dam incorrect 10.0% sire incorrect 7.6% dams incorrect
Monitoring major genes Monitoring lethal genes
Major genes Prolificacy genes BMP15 Xb associated with Belclare breed 1 copy increased ovulation rate 2 copies sterile Genotyped 1 copy All population 0.07% Belclare 9.78% +0.53 lambs born
Benefits Multi breed genomic evaluations 2018 Major genes, inbreeding
Long term strategy
New traits 1. Animal welfare Linked to health, lamb and ewe survival 2. Greenhouse gases Linked to productivity 3. Meat eating quality 4. Ram functionality Difficulty to measure 5. More commercial data Genomics to provide parentage 31
Weight (kg) Decision Support tools Farmers collecting Example large flock amounts weight of report data 40 35 30 25 20 Useful for: 15 10 5 1. Genetic indexes 2. Management reports (currently not provided) Lamb underperforming Sick?? 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 Age (days) Flock Individual Lamb 32
Role of new technology Far fetched?? Treatment
Conclusions Large potential to increase genetic gain Short term 1. Improve genetic evaluations 2. Genomic selection & index validation Long term Difficult to measure traits Integrated industry approach 34