Abstract
BackgroundClimate change is expected to have a negative impact on food availability. While most efforts have been directed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, complementary strategies are necessary to control the detrimental effects of climate change on farm animal performance. The objective of this study was to develop novel animal resilience phenotypes using reaction norm slopes, and examine their genetic and genomic parameters. A closely monitored dairy goat population was used for this purpose.ResultsIndividual animals differed in their response to changing atmospheric temperature and a temperature-humidity index. Significant genetic variance and heritability estimates were derived for these animal resilience phenotypes. Furthermore, some resilience traits had a significant unfavourable genetic correlation with animal performance. Genome-wide association analyses identified several candidate genes related to animal resilience to environment change.ConclusionsHeritable variation exists among dairy goats in their production response to fluctuating weather variables. Results may inform future breeding programmes aimed to ensure efficient animal performance under changing climatic conditions.
Highlights
Climate change is expected to have a negative impact on food availability
Selective breeding for enhanced animal resilience to weather changes may contribute to the mitigation of the problem, leading to stable animal performance that is unaffected by weather variability
The use of linear slopes derived from reaction norm functions fitted to random regression models provided an assessment of the response of individual animal performance to changing weather including atmospheric temperature and temperature-humidity index (THI)
Summary
While most efforts have been directed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, complementary strategies are necessary to control the detrimental effects of climate change on farm animal performance. Agriculture is believed to contribute to climate change mostly due to greenhouse gas emissions through the use of fertilisers, methane production by livestock and nitrous oxide emissions from soils [1]. There is a growing concern that climate change may adversely affect the quality and quantity of both plant [9] and livestock [10] products leading to reduced food availability as well as increased frequency and severity of disease [11].
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