Australia Dairy Cooperative Research Centre - Dairy benefit from genetic finger printing
Published:October 30, 2006
Source :Australia Dairy Cooperative Research Centre
Australia has taken an international lead in the race to breed the world’s finest and most productive dairy cows with the aid of genetic finger-printing. This will allow dairy farmers to predict the on-farm performance of their animals with a high degree of accuracy, speeding up herd improvement and increasing farmers’ profits.
The advance in genetic marker technology, by researchers in Australia’s Dairy Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) will enable dairy farmers to predict the quality and performance of a bull’s offspring – well before its daughters are born.
It will also allow the genetic potential of individual cows to be assessed.
Genetic markers are patterns in DNA associated with particular characteristics or traits.
They are used to make breeding decisions in a process known as genomic selection.
Dr Paul Donnelly, CEO of the Dairy CRC, says that this offers a significant boost to productivity for the Australia’s $9 billion dairy industry.
It's also a chance to capture valuable export markets for dairy semen and embryos with elite Australian dairy genetics
The CRC team is the first in the world to comprehensively link 15,000 genetic markers with 37 key dairy production traits.
The particular genetic markers are associated with traits such as:
• Milk output and quality
• Resistance to disease
• Length of lactation and
• Even overall profitability
All these will enable dairy breeders to select the best animals for use in their herds. The markers are now being evaluated in the field.
This technology will double the precision of genetic selection in young animals, he says.
