How to accelerate genetic gain in sheep?

N Mc Hugh1, A. O’Brien1, F. McGovern1, E. Wall2,

T. Pabiou2, K. McDermott2, and D. Berry1

1Teagasc, Moorepark, Ireland & 2Sheep Ireland

Sheep Breeders Roundtable, 18th 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

Ped

Commercial

Central progeny test (CPT)4 commercial flocks

Matings to provide linkage

Teagasc BETTER farmsCommercial data

LambPlusRams to commercial flocks

Irish sheep breeding programme

Breeding Objectives

ReplacementTerminal

Benchmarking our progress…

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Current NZ rate of gain

Large potential

Worth €750m

Can we improve this??

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

ReplacementTerminal

Meat

Carcass fat & conformation

Lambing

Difficulty & Survival

Growth

Days to slaughter

Health

Lameness & dag score

Irish sheep breeding programme

Breeding Objectives

Replacement

Ewe traits

Milk YieldNo. lambs born

Ewe weight

Meat

Carcass fat & conformation

Lambing

Difficulty & Survival

Health

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

Accuracy v. low

Research underway:UK for Texel, Suffolk & CharollaisFrance for Vendeen NZ INZAC flock

INZAC Flock

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Year of birth

Current 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)

TX (30)

SU (30) SU (30)

TX (30) TX (30)

INZAC Flock

INZAC Flock (180 ewes)

Elite NZ genetics (60)

Elite Irish genetics (60)

Low Irish genetics (60)

SU (30)

TX (30)

SU (30) SU (30)

TX (30) TX (30)

Objectives1. Compare Irish versus New Zealand elite ewes

2. Test if Irish replacement index fit for purpose

Phenotypes Measured

Fertility

Lambing difficulty

Survival traits

Mothering abilityMilk yield

Ewe longevity

Lamb weight & GR

Ewe weight & BCS

Feed Intake

Health Data

Measurements

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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

•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) h2

Genomic Selection

• Applied to all genes & all traits

Parentage

• Low cost option for hill and commercial flocks

Major gene effects

• Scrapie, lethal recessive genes….

Breed mapping

• How closely related are breeds??

Genomic Selection

OVIGEN Project

LambPlus Flock visits 2015 - 2016All breeding ewes and rams

12,000 animals

New health sub-index 2017

Free!!

TexelBeltex

SuffolkVendeen

Population structure

Border Leicester

Bluefaced Leicester

Charollais

Belclare Galway

Parentage assignment

Parentage12,733 animals genotyped

5,008 animals had a parent genotyped

Sires Dams

10.0% sire incorrect 7.6% dams incorrect

Sire and Dam pairs

2.1% sire and dam 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

Major genes, inbreeding

Multi breed genomic evaluations 2018

Long term strategy

New traits

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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

Decision Support tools

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• Farmers collecting large amounts of data

• Useful for:

1. Genetic indexes

2. Management reports (currently not provided)

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Weight

(kg)

Age (days)

Flock Individual Lamb

Example – flock weight report

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Weight

(kg)

Age (days)

Flock Individual Lamb

Example – flock weight report

Lamb underperforming

Sick??

Role of new technology

Treatment

Far fetched??

Conclusions

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• 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