A genomic solution to reduce clinical mastitis in Norwegian Red cattle

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Identifying the genes and pathways responsible for clinical mastitis in Norwegian Red cattle is the primary focus of this application. Mastitis is an important disease affecting dairy herds worldwide, and leads to economic loss, poor animal health, cullin g, and reduced food quality/safety. A comprehensive breeding program operating in Norway has helped guide selective breeding and resulted in a significant decrease in disease incidence and savings of hundreds of millions of NOK. A large part of this benef it is derived from genetic gain, which testifies to an underlying biochemical cause. While phenotypic data is available for Norwegian Red, the ability to resolve causative genes and loci has been technically limited. New state-of-the-art technologies with in sequencing, genotyping and gene expression analyses make it realistic to dissect the genetics behind a complex trait like clinical mastitis. We will utilize our infrastructure and collaborative networks to identify large numbers of SNPs, develop genoty ping assays and expression analysis to target pathways of interest. Our instrumentation, know-how and multidisciplinary setting make us well able to meet these demands. The project will contribute considerably to the general knowledge base on the bovine g enome, and will be of great benefit in the understanding and eradication of clinical mastitis. Implementation of this information in the breeding scheme will have a huge innovative profile, and enable marker and gene assisted selection with consequent ben efits in animal health, productivity, and food safety.