• Question: in your profile it says you work with improving breeding with some animals what does this effect

    Asked by anon-241327 to Martin on 13 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Martin Johnsson

      Martin Johnsson answered on 13 Mar 2020:

      Yes, the research I’m involved in aims either:
      * to discover which genetic variants affect which traits (for example, what differences in DNA cause chickens to have stronger or weaker bones)
      * figure out new ways to use DNA information in breeding (for example, we have a project to add lots of whole-genome sequence data to pig breeding).

      Animal breeders try to improve productivity, fertility and health of animals at the same time, by choosing what animals to mate together. Breeding only makes a small difference each generation, but it adds up.

      Ideally, animal breeding research would lead to animals that produce more of the things humans want (eggs, meat etc) and at the same time have better health, fertility and so on.

Comments