Improving efficiency of animal breeding programs using nuclear related genomic information – practical applications in developing countries

Livestock contribute significantly to global agricultural economy and are a major source of rural livelihood and food security. As global human population increases, so does the demand for the necessary animal-based food products such as eggs, meat and milk. Milk has an even greater significance owing to its high nutritive value. Appropriate animal selection and breeding strategies need to be implemented to meet the demand for milk and milk products. Efficiency must also be enhanced in the dairy sector to optimize resource utilization and reduce the impact on climate change. Traditionally, dairy cattle are improved by selecting breeding animals based on their observable phenotypes and/or that of their relatives, a process that is slow and expensive, as it takes several years to determine their breeding merit. But now, thanks to advances in nuclear and related genomic technologies, it is possible to accurately estimate an animal’s breeding potential much sooner (at birth) and hasten the genetic gain for improved productivity. However, developing countries lack the necessary infrastructure (e.g., animal identification, performance recording systems, etc.) and tools/technologies (e.g., cost effective DNA chips for genotyping, reference population for locally available breeds, etc.), to implement such advanced animal breeding programs. Dairy development in these countries is also constrained by low efficiency of artificial insemination services. This project aims to enable developing member states (MSs) utilise nuclear and related genomic technologies to enhance the efficiency of their national breeding programs for increased milk productivity and dairy animal adaptability to its prevailing production environment. Specifically, it aims to (i) develop nuclear and related genomic tools/resources such as radiation hybrid maps and DNA microarrays for phenotyping and genotyping tropical dairy species (ii) identify genomic regions of importance for milk and adaptability traits in local dairy animal populations (iii) establish strategies that incorporate genomic information for selection and breeding of dairy animals and (iv) develop and validate radiolabelled biomarker assay for early pregnancy diagnosis in cattle. Three major dairy animal species viz. cattle, buffalo and camel will be targeted. Nuclear techniques involving isotopes such as 60Cobalt (radiation hybrid mapping), 13Carbon and 15Nitrogen (biomarker discovery) and 125Iodine (radioimmunoassay development) will be utilized to achieve the above objectives. The project will run for five years and will involve 10 Research Contract (RC) holders from developing countries, three Technical Contract (TC) holders and four Research Agreement (RA) holders from laboratories engaged in high level animal genetics and breeding research and field application.