U niversity of Nebraska- of Food and Agriculture. Improving robustness and climatic resilience in US sheep populations through genomics is the formal title of the project, with a start date of January 1, 2022. With support from USSA and other sheep organizations there is great optimism for this project. Lincoln received funding for a research project from the USDA National Institute The review panel wrote: “This is an outstanding, industry-driven proposal with a high probability of success and beneficial impact across scientific, industry, and producer audiences.” “Sheep GEMS” is the working title for the project, where GEMS stands for its four target areas: Genetics, Environment, Management and Society. That fits the sheep industry. Distinct breed-types are spread across climatically diverse regions and management systems. Breeding robust sheep that perform well under these conditions is
critical to the industry’s long-term sustainability. Currently, however, traits affecting robustness and climatic resilience are largely absent in our genetic evaluations. The aim of this project is to remedy that shortfall. By using established and new genomic tools, the goal is to provide an accurate tool—Genomic-enhanced Estimated Breeding Values (GEBV)—to improve the robustness, resilience, and profitability of flocks. The traits the project will focus on are lamb survival, ewe longevity, udder health, and gastrointestinal parasitism. Four breeds will be involved in the project: Katahdin, Polypay, Rambouillet, and Suffolk. The project depends on private and public collaboration across the industry. Three USDA Agricultural Research Service Centers are core to the research: Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Center (DBSFRC); US Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC); and US Sheep Experiment Station (USSES). Suffolk sheep at
two of these centers will be used in the project. Yet, to impact the sheep industry, a subset of these traits must also be recorded in National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP) member flocks. This is necessary for adding these novel traits to the genetic evaluation system. Furthermore, for the genomic information collected to be of value, large numbers of sheep with both genotypes and performance records are needed. To achieve that, 20 to 25 NSIP Suffolk flocks will be needed for the project. Three years of data collection will take place in these “Innovation Flocks.” With pledges of support from the United Suffolk Sheep Association and the American Lamb Board, complemented by grant funds, 2,300 Suffolk sheep from the Innovation Flocks will be genotyped over the three-year timeframe. This will be supplemented by over 800 genotypes collected at the USDA ARS centers. With that number of genotypes and the corresponding performance
records, GEBV’s will be available to US Suffolk producers for traits that affect performance and profitability. The research team includes Drs. Luiz Brito (Purdue University), Joan Burke (DBSFRC), Brad Freking (USMARC), Tom Murphy (USMARC), and Bret Taylor (USSES), and Ron Lewis (UN-Lincoln). Contact any of member of the Suffolk Sheep GEMS team for more information - Amanda Everts (amanda@ suffolks.org), Brenda Reau (reau@msu.edu), Bill Shultz (bunkerhillfarm@ gmail.com), Jeremy Geske (jeremy.geske@gmail.com), Gavin Blonquist (Gavin. blonquist@serviceking. com), or Ron Lewis (ron. lewis@unl.edu). Acknowledgement. This project is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Grant number 2022-67015- 36073 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Animal Breeding and Functional Annotation of Genomes program, A1201.
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