Selection for prolificacy in Finnsheep and in Norwegian sheep

Litter size (LS) at birth and other production traits were recorded for Finnsheep (F), Norwegian(N) breeds Dala (D), Steigar (St) and Spael (Sp), for N sheep crossed with 1/4 F and ½ F and for a group of sheep established by collecting offspring of highly prolific N(N+) ewes. The N breeds and the ¼ F group were part of the national breeding scheme. In the 1/2F and N+, selection was solely for LSB. The other groups were selected normally. There were 4263 lambings. In adults, there were no breed group differences in lambing-% (mean 94 %), but in 1-yr. olds there were differences: Sp 90 %, F and F-crosses 80—85 %, D 70 %, N+ 60 % and St 50 %. F-crosses had clearly the best LS’s (Fca. 3.0, 1/2F2.4, 1/4F2.0). Those of N+ decreased through the 5 years recorded from near 2.0 to 1.8 lambs. The other breed groups gave LS’s of 1.7—1.8. In the two groups selected for LS, no selection response was found. The reasons are not known. Although the pure F and ½ F gave lower weaning weights (34 and 38 kg at 150d.) than the other groups (41—45 kg), their weaned lamb yield per ewe was ca. 20 kg higher. Considering the poorer carcass quality observed in earlier experiments for these groups, the use of 1/4 F is recommended for Norwegian conditions. This breed group gave no reduction in weaning weight, but increased the LS by some 0.2 lambs

Casein SNP in Norwegian goats: additive and dominance effects on milk composition and quality

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The four casein proteins in goat milk are encoded by four closely linked casein loci (<it>CSN1S1</it>, <it>CSN2</it>, <it>CSN1S2 </it>and <it>CSN3</it>) within 250 kb on caprine chromosome 6. A deletion in exon 12 of <it>CSN1S1</it>, so far reported only in Norwegian goats, has been found at high frequency (0.73). Such a high frequency is difficult to explain because the national breeding goal selects against the variant's effect.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, 575 goats were genotyped for 38 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) located within the four casein genes. Milk production records of these goats were obtained from the Norwegian Dairy Goat Control. Test-day mixed models with additive and dominance fixed effects of single SNP were fitted in a model including polygenic effects.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Significant additive effects of single SNP within <it>CSN1S1 </it>and <it>CSN3 </it>were found for fat % and protein %, milk yield and milk taste. The allele with the deletion showed additive and dominance effects on protein % and fat %, and overdominance effects on milk quantity (kg) and lactose %. At its current frequency, the observed dominance (overdominance) effects of the deletion allele reduced its substitution effect (and additive genetic variance available for selection) in the population substantially.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The selection pressure of conventional breeding on the allele with the deletion is limited due to the observed dominance (overdominance) effects. Inclusion of molecular information in the national breeding scheme will reduce the frequency of this deletion in the population.</p

Characterization of biodiversity in six goat breeds reared in Southern Italy by means of microsatellite and SNP markers

An integrated analysis, using 20 microsatellite markers and 32 SNP markers belonging to thecasein cluster has been carried out on 174 goats from 6 local goat breeds and populations from Southern Italy.Microsatellite markers provided 216 alleles (10.8 per locus; from 6.6 to 8.2 per breed).The average expected heterozygosity (He) was 0.732. Fis value (0.148) indicated a general heterozygosity deficiency.A high number of intragenic haplotypes (56) have been detected at casein loci, 25 at aS1 casein (CSN1S1), 12 atb casein (CSN2), 8 at aS2 casein (CSN1S2), 11 at k casein (CSN3), when 1% frequency was required for each breed.The breeds with higher production and management level, fixed the lowest number of combinations at casein loci(28). Molecular data have been used to calculate genetic distances and in clustering analysis