Abstract
Gastrointestinal parasitism presents a major constraint on livestock production, resulting in reduced animal performance and welfare. Resistance to gastrointestinal parasitism in sheep, as measured by faecal egg count, is heritable suggesting that selection for increased resistance may be used as a longterm control measure, in addition to existing management strategies. Predicting likely responses to selection for resistance gastrointestinal parasites is a challenging problem, however, because (i) interactions between animals affect the expression of disease resistance traits, and this contravenes the assumptions normally made when predicting responses to selection and (ii) disease severity within a population is rarely shows a Normal distribution, and in the case of gastrointestinal parasitism typically shows a negative binomial distribution. This paper outlines a model which may be used to describe likely responses to selection for resistance to gastrointestinal parasitism in sheep, and presents results obtained from this model.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
More From: Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.