Abstract
Footrot is a contagious disease that affects the hoof of sheep and other ungulates. The severity of the disease varies from a slight limp to the death of the individual due to injuries that prevent them from feeding. Variants of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC)-DQA2 gene (MHC-DQA2) have been associated with a greater or lesser susceptibility to footrot in Greek, New Zealand and German sheep. In this study, variation in ovine MHC-DQA2, the absence or presence of footrot and the severity of infection was analysed in 117 Spanish Merino, Black Merino and Churra Lebrijana sheep. A total of 21 alleles/haplotypes and 65 genotypes were found with different frequencies in these breeds. As found in other studies, the MHC-DQA2 allele *1101 appeared to be associated with increased susceptibility to footrot, while allele *1201 appeared to be associated with decreased susceptibility. Overall this would suggest the ovine MHC plays a role in controlling susceptibility to footrot infection and that there are breed differences in susceptibility. Sheep might therefore be able to be selected by their MHC-DQA2 alleles/haplotypes to reduce the incidence of the disease in flocks.
Highlights
Footrot is a contagious hoof disease of sheep and other ungulates and begins as an interdigital dermatitis, which is followed by lesion devel opment on the interdigital wall of the hoof and the subsequent separation of the hard horn from the foot (Ben nett et al, 2009; Hickford et al, 2011)
This paper describes the association of genetic variants of the MHCDQA2 gene with susceptibility to footrot in the Spanish Merino sheep breed, and Churra Lebrijana breed
Genetic resistance to footrot was observed for the Churra Lebrijana sheep
Summary
Footrot is a contagious hoof disease of sheep and other ungulates and begins as an interdigital dermatitis, which is followed by lesion devel opment on the interdigital (axial) wall of the hoof and the subsequent separation of the hard horn from the foot (called under-running) (Ben nett et al, 2009; Hickford et al, 2011). Footrot can cause a reduction in feed intake, which results in a decreased quantity and quality of production, and in the most serious cases the death of the animal (Stewart, 1989). The economic impact of footrot in UK is estimated to be 27,500,000-31,000,000 € per year (Nieuwhof and Bishop, 2005; Wassink et al, 2010). Winter and Green (2017), calculated that the overall cost of lameness per ewe and year in flocks with ≥10% lameness was approximately 7.45 € versus 4.50 € for flocks with
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