Genetic parameters for growth and faecal worm egg count following Haemonchus contortus experimental infestations...

Haemonchosis is a parasitic disease that causes severe economic losses in sheep industry. In recent years, the increasing resistance of the parasite to anthelmintics has raised the need for alternative control strategies. Genetic selection is a promising alternative but its efficacy depends on the availability of genetic variation and on the occurrence of favourable genetic correlations between the traits included in the breeding goal. The objective of this study was twofold. First, to estimate both the heritability of and the genetic correlations between growth traits and parasite resistance traits, using bivariate linear mixed animal models, from the phenotypes and genotypes of 1004 backcross lambs (considered as a single population), which underwent two subsequent experimental infestations protocols with Haemonchus contortus. Second, to compare the precision of the estimates when using two different relationship matrices: including pedigree information only or including also SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) information.

Heritabilities were low for average daily gain before infestation (0.10 to 0.15) and average daily gain during the first infestation (0.11 to 0.16), moderate for faecal egg counts during the first infestation (0.21 to 0.38) and faecal egg counts during the second infestation (0.48 to 0.55). Genetic correlations between both growth traits and faecal egg count during the naïve infestation were equal to zero but the genetic correlation between faecal egg count during the second infestation and growth was positive in a Haemonchus contortus free environment and negative in a contaminated environment. The standard errors of the estimates obtained by including SNP information were smaller than those obtained by including pedigree information only.

The genetic parameters estimates suggest that growth performance can be selected for independently of selection on resistance to naïve infestation. Selection for increased growth in a non-contaminated environment could lead to more susceptible animals with long-term exposure to the infestation but it could be possible to select for increased growth in a contaminated environment while also increasing resistance to the long-term exposure to the parasite. The use of molecular information increases the precision of the estimates.