Work Package 5 - Mammary Function

Rationale: Increasing resistance to mastitis will decrease use of medicines, improve animal welfare, food safety, product quality and economic returns. However, the genetic resistance to clinical mastitis is negatively correlated to production traits, and is therefore a key factor in a balanced sustainable breeding goal. It is difficult to improve resistance to mastitis by traditional means. However, progress using selective breeding could be improved substantially by the use of genomic tools. Therefore, the overall objective of WP5 is to identify important genes and genetic pathways involved in the immune response to mastitis including those genes that are regulated by previously identified QTL.

Objectives

·       Fine mapping QTL affecting mastitis

·       Assess pathogen specificity of identified QTL affecting clinical mastitis

·       Identify candidate genes and genetic pathways involved in response to infection

·       Identify the subset of genes and pathways controlled by a previously identified QTL

·       Associate SNPs in identified candidate genes with phenotypes in broader populations.

WP Leader: Dr Peter Sorensen (University of Aarhus Faculty of Agricultural Sciences)

Partners involved:

University of Aarhus Faculty of Agricultural Sciences

The Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS, University of Edinburgh

Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center

MTT Agrifood Research Finland