Abstract
BackgroundThe alteration in weather patterns expected due to climate change will affect farm animal performance, probably resulting in lower quantity and quality of available products. A potential mitigation strategy would be to breed selected animals for enhanced resilience to climate change. In this context, resilience would reflect stable animal performance in spite of weather variation. The objectives of this study were to (i) derive and characterise novel animal resilience phenotypes, (ii) investigate their genetic profiles and (iii) assess the impact of integrating them in breeding strategies for genetic improvement in meat sheep.ResultsRandom regression models were used to jointly analyse live body weight measured in different time points throughout the growth phases of 4469 Scottish Blackface sheep and weather variables during the same period to derive novel resilience phenotypes. The genetic analysis of these phenotypes revealed significant genetic variance and heritability, and an antagonistic genetic correlation with some animal performance traits. Simulated breeding strategies demonstrated that a relative emphasis of 10% on resilience compared to other traits would enhance performance stability against weather volatility without compromising animal growth.ConclusionsNovel resilience traits exhibited sufficient genetic variation to be amenable to genetic improvement with selective breeding and are recommended to be included in future breeding goals.
Highlights
The alteration in weather patterns expected due to climate change will affect farm animal performance, probably resulting in lower quantity and quality of available products
These functions provide information regarding change in animal performance due to weather change, with a flat reaction norm being indicative of a resilient animal, whose performance will remain unaffected by weather
A genetic analysis of these phenotypes would produce estimates of relevant genetic parameters and animal breeding values to be used in selective breeding schemes
Summary
The alteration in weather patterns expected due to climate change will affect farm animal performance, probably resulting in lower quantity and quality of available products. A potential mitigation strategy would be to breed selected animals for enhanced resilience to climate change. In this context, resilience would reflect stable animal performance in spite of weather variation. Several studies have assessed the impact of these changes on both plant and livestock, predicting a reduction in product quality and quantity as well as an increase in incidence and severity of diseases [6,7,8]. Previous work defined resilience as the ability of farm animals to produce according to capacity regardless of weather variation [9] and reported significant heritability estimates for the Random regression models fitting reaction norm functions have been proposed for the study of individual animal performance across a range of weather variables [9, Sánchez-Molano et al BMC Genetics (2020) 21:116. A genetic analysis of these phenotypes would produce estimates of relevant genetic parameters and animal breeding values to be used in selective breeding schemes
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