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Impact: Economic: Genomic selection has revolutionised, and is now standard practice, in the major dairy cattle, pig and chicken breeding programmes, worldwide and provides multiple quantifiable benefits to breeders, producers, consumers and animals.
Significance: Increased food production world-wide
Beneficiaries: Breeding companies, primary producers, consumers, livestock.
Attribution: Work led by Haley and Woolliams (Roslin Institute now part of UoE).
Reach: Methodologies applied worldwide in livestock improvement, and more recently applied in human genetics and plant breeding.
Impact: Economic / animal health and welfare / environment: Improved profitability and sustainability of the UK dairy industry.
Significance: The use of the Profitable Lifetime Index (£PLI) increased the profitability of the dairy sector by an estimated £634M in 2008-2013 and reduced the greenhouse gas emissions from the sector by an estimated 8.4%.
Beneficiaries: Dairy producers, breeding companies, general public/environment, dairy cattle welfare and health.
Attribution: Drs Wall, Mrode (SRUC), and Brotherstone (UoE), Profs. Coffey, Simm, Stott, Veerkamp, Oldham (SRUC), and Woolliams (UoE/Roslin)
Reach: UK dairy industry. Tools developed, such as the routine recording of body condition score, and using these data in national genetic evaluations, have been widely adopted internationally, including in major dairy genetics exporting countries such as the USA, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
Fertility of dairy cows has been in decline since the 1970's and this has threatened sustainability of the dairy industry worldwide. Research led by Nottingham University (UoN) identified key drivers of fertility and provided genetic and nutritional tools for the industry, to help combat the decline. The genetic tool was the UK Fertility Index, which is used universally by breeders for national and international bull selection. The nutritional tool, which is widely applied by international feed companies, used the concept that nutritional manipulation of insulin enhances fertility. Evidence shows that use of these tools between 2008 and 2013 has reversed the decline, and fertility is being restored. This has brought commercial benefits for breeding companies, cattle food producers and farmers and had a positive impact upon animal welfare.
African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus; referred to as `AWDs' hereafter for brevity) have been classed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for 22 years. Large, well-managed captive breeding programmes provide a safety net to restore wild populations. However, the management of the AWD population has been difficult owing to an incomplete family record of captive AWDs, which risks introducing genetic disorders caused by inbreeding. A genetically informed management plan developed by University of Glasgow researchers has provided a genetic measure of diversity and establishes a genetically informed pedigree, which is used in the European Endangered Species Programme for African Wild Dogs. This has introduced a more informed means to manage the captive AWD population, to maintain the genetic diversity of the species across the European zoo network (roughly half the world's captive AWD population), with 53 zoos in 16 European countries (and Israel) currently participating.
Foal Immunodeficiency Syndrome (FIS) is an emerging fatal inherited equine disease which has caused much concern in the equine industry. Research at the University of Liverpool (UoL) into the genetic basis of this disease has identified the genetic mutation and developed a carrier test which led to equine population screening to understand the spread of this disease (>40% adult carriers in one breed, Fell ponies) and provided a tool for vets and owners to design selective breeding programmes to eradicate the disease. Since the introduction of the test in 2010, the number of cases has drastically fallen (only 1 detected in any breed in 2012) and FIS spread into other breeds is now considered most unlikely.
Oats are recognised as a healthy grain reducing the risk of coronary heart disease and as a valuable grain for livestock feed. Research within BEAA has provided the genetic, physiological and agronomic knowledge that underpins the breeding of high yielding husked and naked oat varieties that meets the needs of end-users in the human food and livestock sectors. BEAA bred oat varieties account for approximately 65% of the UK market and have a significant impact on health and welfare, the economy and on production and support the expanding instant oat breakfast market sector that alone is worth £160million per annum.
During the last 10 years Cardiff University researchers have developed and applied a range of genetic and molecular analysis techniques to inform conservation and biodiversity policy and practice in regions around the world where specific species and biodiversity are under threat. Genetic research on orang-utans and elephants in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Borneo has guided strategic action plans for these species. Cardiff's molecular censusing and genetic analysis of giant panda populations in China have directly informed the strategic relocation of individual animals into isolated populations in the wild to preserve the genetic diversity of the species.
Research using novel techniques of genetic marker-aided selection enabled the development of new high yield, disease- and drought-resistant pearl millet hybrids, of which HHB67-Improved was released throughout India. HHB67-Improved is the first product of marker-assisted breeding to reach cereal producers in India and has spread rapidly since its release, preventing yield losses to downy mildew of up to 30% (valued at £7.8M) per year, and providing £2.6M additional annual grain yield. By 2011, it was grown on over 700,000 ha and currently three million people have improved food security as a direct result of this international development focused work.
Research carried out by the University of Southampton into the genetic causes of diseases, and the gene mapping techniques and applications derived from this research, has benefited patients worldwide through improved prediction, diagnosis and treatment for common diseases with a complex genetic basis. A particularly striking example is age-related macular degeneration which is a common cause of blindness. Commercially, the research provides cost-effective strategies for genotyping DNA samples, and marker-based selection strategies for economically relevant animal species, such as cattle. The work underpins the development of the personal genomics industry, which specialises in individual genetic risk profiling.
As a result of research from Oxford's Professor Andrew Wilkie, accurate genetic diagnostic tests are now available for over 23% of all craniosynostosis cases nationally and internationally, leading to improved family planning and clinical management of this common condition worldwide. The premature fusion of cranial sutures, known as craniosynostosis, is a common developmental abnormality that occurs in 1 in 2,500 births. Over the past 20 years, the University of Oxford's Clinical Genetics Lab, led by Professor Wilkie in collaboration with the Oxford Craniofacial Unit, has identified more than half of the known genetic mutations that cause craniosynostosis and other malformations of the skull.