Genetic tool for sheep and beef breeders

A new genetic product, or SNP Chip, aimed at assisting sheep breeders and Angus beef breeders with molecular breeding values, has been launched in the United States and will be available in NZ later this year. The products are being commercialised by Pfizer Animal Health. Sharl Liebergreen, the company's technical service regional manager, said the technology was leveraged off the bovine genome sequencing, which allowed geneticists initially to use 50,000 DNA markers at once but would soon grow to 500,000 markers. By comparison, the dairy industry was using 500,000 gene markers reports The ODT. Progress was a bit slower in sheep, with geneticists using 50,000 gene markers to determine molecular breeding values. Mr Liebergreen told a Silver Fern Farms sheep and beef forum in Gore that, by themselves, most of those markers had small effects. Cumulatively, those effects were large and influential, allowing selection of animals for diverse values, such as carcass weight, numbers of offspring born, survival or beef tenderness. The information for beef cattle has been extended to include previously difficult-to-measure values such as average daily weight gain, dry matter intake and net feed intake.