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Implementation of genomic selection in French dairy sheep and goats and opportunities for sustainable animal breeding
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Edité par CCSD ; American Dairy Science Association -
In France, the implementation of genomic selection in dairy sheep and goats seemed less obvious than in dairy cattle, due to higher relative cost of genotyping, small reference populations and high genetic diversity. Our research work using "Single-Step GBLUP" approach has, however, yielded genomic reliability similar to those obtained in some dairy cattle breeds, as well as higher theoretical accuracies of genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV) for genotyped young male candidates. This work led selection schemes to switch to genomic selection in the late 2010s. Studies then focused on ways of increasing reliability of genomic evaluations. In sheep, the over-dispersion of GEBVs for young candidates can be reduced by taking into account missing pedigrees using the metafounders method. In goats, the genomic prediction quality can be improved by weighting SNPs (WSSGBLUP) to take account of major genes or QTLs, or by using sequence data. In order to assess the possibilities of building an international reference population, across-countries genomic correlations were estimated. These correlations make it possible to envisage collaborative projects between France and Spain for two sheep breeds, and France and Italy for goats. Genomic selection opens up the possibility of selecting new traits. Small ruminant farms are often located in areas with severe environmental constraints where they suffer the consequences of climate change. In this context, breeders are concerned about resilience and efficiency traits, key elements for sustainable animal breeding. Thus, a genomic evaluation of artificial insemination success of females has been developed for goats, and a genomic evaluation of rams for their resistance to gastro-intestinal parasites is now operational in three breeds of sheep. Finally, research work has been carried out in both species on functional longevity, feed efficiency, milk persistency and maturity, opening up new selection prospects.Part of this work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 772787 (SMARTER).Key Words: genomic selection, dairy sheep, dairy goats
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