Breeding strategies for animal resilience to weather variation in meat sheep
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Breeding strategies for animal resilience to weather variation in meat sheep Enrique Sánchez-Molano1 , Vanessa V. Kapsona2, Stavroula Oikonomou3, Ann McLaren2, Nicola Lambe2, Joanne Conington2 and Georgios Banos2*
Abstract Background: The alteration in weather patterns expected due to climate change will affect farm animal performance, probably resulting in lower quantity and quality of available products. A potential mitigation strategy would be to breed selected animals for enhanced resilience to climate change. In this context, resilience would reflect stable animal performance in spite of weather variation. The objectives of this study were to (i) derive and characterise novel animal resilience phenotypes, (ii) investigate their genetic profiles and (iii) assess the impact of integrating them in breeding strategies for genetic improvement in meat sheep. Results: Random regression models were used to jointly analyse live body weight measured in different time points throughout the growth phases of 4469 Scottish Blackface sheep and weather variables during the same period to derive novel resilience phenotypes. The genetic analysis of these phenotypes revealed significant genetic variance and heritability, and an antagonistic genetic correlation with some animal performance traits. Simulated breeding strategies demonstrated that a relative emphasis of 10% on resilience compared to other traits would enhance performance stability against weather volatility without compromising animal growth. Conclusions: Novel resilience traits exhibited sufficient genetic variation to be amenable to genetic improvement with selective breeding and are recommended to be included in future breeding goals. Keywords: Sheep, Resilience, Climate change, Production, Breeding schemes
Background The effect of human activities on climate change is manifested by increasing average temperatures and seasonal variability [1–5]. Several studies have assessed the impact of these changes on both plant and livestock, predicting a reduction in product quality and quantity as well as an increase in incidence and severity of diseases [6–8]. In livestock, a desirable animal trait would be performance unaffected by climate change. Previous work defined resilience as the ability of farm animals to produce according to capacity regardless of weather variation [9] and reported significant heritability estimates for the * Correspondence: [email protected] 2 Scotland’s Rural College, The Roslin Institute Building, Easter Bush, Edinburgh EH25 9RG, UK Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
new trait. Therefore, selective breeding for enhanced animal resilience may be a potential strategy to mitigate the effect of climate change on livestock production, but resilience phenotypes need to be properly derived based on the particular breeding goal. While the increase of temperatures beyond a certain heat stress threshold will be an important threat in tropical and sub-tropical regions [10, 11],
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