Technical Keynote Session 4

International Collaboration on Economically Relevant Traits

By Troy Smith

During the 2009 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) symposium, U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) geneticist Gary Bennett reported that collaborators from Australia, Canada and the United States are attempting to maximize use of high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) information by combining their research results.

Bennett said each collaborator has a large group of animals that have been genotyped for approximately 50,000 SNPs. In addition considerable phenotypic information is available for weights, carcass measurements and feed intake. Each collaborator is analyzing their own data, but sharing the results.

“Comparing these results across the different environments and germplasm represented in the collaboration should offer better estimates of their reliability,” Bennett predicted.

Opportunities to expand the collaboration to other public and private groups having genotypes and phenotypes is being pursued with the intent of further testing the reliability of SNP associations with weight, carcass and feed intake traits, and expanding the effort to female reproductive traits.

Editor’s Note: This summary was written under contract or by staff of Angus Productions Inc. (API). To request reprint rights contact Shauna Rose Hermel, editor, at 816-383-5270. PowerPoints are posted with permission of the presenter and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the presenter.

The 41st BIF Research Symposium and Annual Meeting was hosted by the California Beef Cattle Improvement Association and the California Cattlemen's Association. For more information, visit www.bifconference.com or www.calcattlemen.org/bif2009.html.