Gene pool fishing by out-crossing and back-crossing cycles in one Terminal Sire Sheep Breed- Blueprint for Terminal Sire Breeding in the UK and beyond

Project Title:
Gene pool fishing by out-crossing and back-crossing cycles in one terminal sire sheep breed -blueprint for terminal sire breeding in the UK and beyond.
Project Number: 101085
Project Partners:
H.R. Fell & Sons Ltd (The Meatlinc Sheep Company)
Lead Partner
Total Grant £42,460
Scottish Agricultural College
Academic partner
Total Grant £122,000
Project description:
This project will provide a genetically improved terminal sire sheep breed and a demonstration on how to achieve substantial extra selection gains in one breed by exploiting genetic variance in others. It will use high accuracy (computed tomography [CT]) technology, available in the UK to sheep breeders, to comprehensively evaluate growth, composition, muscling and meat quality indicators of selection candidates produced by outcrossing, inter-se matings and repeated backcrossing. The aim will be to identify carriers of valuable genetic variants relating to production efficiency that have been carried over from the other breeds, then to increase their frequencies in the target terminal sire breed, therefore enriching their gene pool. CT is non-invasive and allows very accurate measurements of carcass quality in live animals. CT will serve as a "dense net in a gene fishing exercise" for suitable gene variants.