Transmission experiment in turbot shows high genetic variation in host infectivity affecting disease spread and survival

Publication Name
Proceedings of 12th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (WCGALP) Technical and species orientated innovations in animal breeding, and contribution of genetics to solving societal challenges
Publisher
Wageningen Academic Publishers
ISBN
978-90-8686-940-4
Abstract
Evolutionary theory predicts substantial genetic variation in host infectivity influences infectious disease spread and mortality rates in populations. This study combined data from a bespoke transmission experiment in turbot, and novel inference software (SIRE 2.1) to provide empirical genetic parameter estimates for host infectivity, in addition to susceptibility and infection induced mortality. Validation of SIRE 2.1 with simulated disease and survival data mimicking the experimental design provided reliable (co-) variance estimates and high prediction accuracies for all three traits. Confirming theoretical expectations, posterior means for genetic variance in host infectivity, estimated from the experimental data, were at least twofold higher than those for susceptibility and mortality respectively. Infectivity was positively genetically correlated with mortality. The results highlight the huge potential to reduce infectious disease transmission in livestock through genetic selection.
Year
2023
Category
Book Chapter
Output Tags
Livestock genetics