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Animal Breeding & Genomics
Charolais cattle (opens in new window)
The overall goal for SAC’s animal breeding and genomics research is to bring together our strengths in developmental biology and animal breeding and genetics to:
- optimise health, welfare and fitness-related traits in domestic species
- improve the economic value and quality of livestock products
- meet the need for disease-free conservation of animal genetic resources.
As appropriate to this goal, our works spans the continuum from detailed studies of nutritional effects on gene expression during the very earliest stages of development to systems-level work assessing genotype and environmental interactions on sustainable livestock systems. Our main current research areas are:
- Design of breeding programmes for more sustainable use of genetic variation
- Selective breeding for scrapie resistance in sheep
- Use of molecular genetic technologies in conservation and selection programmes
- Broader breeding programmes to address health, welfare and fitness-related traits
- Breeding better crossbred sheep
- Sustainable genetic improvement of hill sheep
- Improving selection and management strategies for cows of different genetic merit for production, managed in different systems
- Energy stores in hill ewes
- A UK fertility index for dairy cattle
- Programmes to improve the economic value and quality of products from livestock
- Improving sheep carcass quality using CT (computer tomography) scanning
- Conformation and meat-eating quality in sheep
- Developing effective suckler cow replacement strategies
- The production of healthy, viable offspring through improved nutritional management of early development
- Reversing dairy cattle infertility
- Understanding and reducing within-litter variability in piglet birthweight
- Maternal nutrition, foetal development and post-natal viability in relation to production potential
- Development of improved assisted reproductive technology both to improve economic performance and to support conservation of genetic resources
- Biosecurity – oocyte/embryo conservation in disease-free conditions
- Improving embryo quality by reducing adverse effects of lipids
The team has access to specialist research facilities including:
- Edinburgh Genetic Evaluation Services - a unit providing genetic evaluations for farm livestock and national and customised selection indexes
- A CT (computer tomography) scanning facility - allowing minimally disruptive studies of body composition and form; the unit is the only one in the UK devoted to farm animal studies, and only one of six worldwide for this purpose
- A purpose built facility for in vitro handling and assessment of gametes and embryos, including in vitro culture, maturation, fertilisation and cryopreservation.
Using these facilities we also offer specialist services to end users.