Improving sheep production efficiency by genomics and metabolomics blood biomarkers of feed efficiency and subclinical parasite infection

This proposal is devoted to two areas of sheep production: animal health (parasitic infection) and feed efficiency, which both areas are economically important and make a substantial impact on the profitability and sustainability of the enterprise. We will investigate to find potential biomarkers that could be indicator of parasite resistance and/or feed efficiency and could be used potentially to differentiate animals for these traits as early as possible in their life time. We will also develop standard operating procedure for feed efficiency test. Two MSc and 1 post doctorate fellowship will involve through this project to accomplish independent tasks and collectively accomplish the project objectives. This project provide great opportunity for Interns who are eager be work on the field, interact with industry partners and implementing advanced technology such as metabolomics, genomics, and machine learning.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ghader Manafiazar

Student:

Partner:

Alberta Lamb Producers;Ontario Sheep Farmers;Sheep Producers Association of Nova Scotia

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

Dalhousie University

Program: