You are in > Home > SAC Research > Research Groups > Animal & Veterinary Science Research Group > Animal & Veterinary Science Team Profiles > CT Scanning Service > Livestock Breeding
Livestock Breeding
Livestock Breeding
The AVS Group has a long history of R&D on genetic improvement of farm livestock, and has an input to many of the indexes and other breeding tools in use in dairy, sheep and beef cattle breeding in the UK today.
Edinburgh Genetic Evaluation Services (GENES) is a specialist unit created within the AVS Research Group, which provides genetic evaluations (estimates of genetic merit derived from performance and ancestry data) for farm livestock and develops national and customised selection indexes.
Part of the rationale for creating the unit was to stimulate the rapid uptake of relevant new breeding tools/R&D into commercial practice, including the selection of new traits linked to health and welfare. Further information about the work of Edinburgh Genetic Evaluation Services can be found in 'New tools for sheep and cattle breeders'.
We have also developed software (‘BREEDS’) to enable beef producers to choose the most appropriate breeds and suckler cow replacement strategy for their enterprise. Further information on this decision support system can be found using the link to the right.