SABRE will provide the fundamental knowledge of the genomics and epigenetics of animal health, food safety and food quality traits of livestock species, together with the strategies to deliver such technologies for use in selection. This will enable producers to move animal breeding and production towards more sustainable, environmentally and welfare friendly, low-input systems, that deliver safe and high quality foods in line with consumer expectations and European Policy.

Our overall strategy is to combine the power of gene mapping technologies, gene expression studies in target tissues and modern bioinformatics tools with available and expanded genome sequences, to determine the origin of genetic variation in key quality safety, health and sustainability traits in real-world livestock populations. Research will be clustered in three areas: development of underpinning technologies and knowledge, including mathematical genomics, epigenetics and sequencing; understanding of the genomics of key biological systems concentrating on fertility, mammary function and the intestine, and tackling focused breeding goals including meat quality, reduced incidence of zoonotic infection and improved animal well-being.

SABRE will integrate and build upon the expertise, resources and significant co-funding contributions of 33 of Europe’s key research and industry centres in the field of animal production and breeding. The results of this ‘cutting-edge’ project will be identified genetic variation in key livestock traits together with the tools and knowledge necessary to use this variation in sustainable selective breeding strategies in a wide range of production systems. These new breeding strategies will help industry improve animal health and welfare, adopt lower chemical and energy inputs, reduce livestock waste and pollution, produce safer and better quality foods whilst maintaining biodiversity and economic sustainability.