Combined genomic evaluation of Merino and Dohne Merino Australian sheep populations.

Background: The Dohne Merino sheep was introduced to Australia from South Africa in the 1990s. It was primarily used in crosses with the Merino breed sheep to improve on attributes such as reproduction and carcass composition. Since then, this breed has continued to expand in Australia but the number of genotyped and phenotyped purebred individuals remains low, calling into question the accuracy of genomic selection.

Using a very low-density SNP panel for genomic selection in a breeding program for sheep.

Background: Building an efficient reference population for genomic selection is an issue when the recorded population is small and phenotypes are poorly informed, which is often the case in sheep breeding programs. Using stochastic simulation, we evaluated a genomic design based on a reference population with medium-density genotypes [around 45 K single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)] of dams that were imputed from very low-density genotypes (≤ 1000 SNPs).

Methods: A population under selection for a maternal trait was simulated using real genotypes.

Effects of the FecL major gene in the Lacaune meat sheep population.

Background: The major prolificacy gene FecL was first described in the Lacaune sheep meat breed Ovi-Test in 1998. A few studies estimated the effect of this gene on prolificacy but little data is available. In 2010, the Ovi-Test cooperative started genotyping FecL in all of their replacement ewe lambs.