WE GET VISITORS Editor’s Note: Dr. Dorian Garrick is a Professor of Animal Science at Iowa State University. A native of New Zealand, he holds dual citizenship. He currently fills the prestigious Lush Endowed Chair in Animal Breeding and Genetics and has been deeply involved in ASA’s genomic analyses.
Noted Geneticist Comments Garrick
Q: What brings you to the Northwest? DG: I came out to Cody, Wyoming, for the Patron’s Ball which is a benefit for the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Museum there. A good friend manages a large ranch in that area and my wife, Karen and I, spent some time there. We also took advantage of the opportunity to photograph the large herds of elk in that area. Q: What is your connection to the American Simmental Association? DG: I’m here at ASA because I’ve been doing all the genomic analyses for some time, so I communicate with Wade Shafer and Lauren Hyde on a regular basis. Recently, I’ve been working with them on the development of the molecular predictions for Simmental and we’ve identified a few issues that needed addressing. Since I was so near in Cody, I decided to visit the ASA headquarters and catch up-to-date with Wade. Q: Explain the significance of the Lush Chair. DG: Dr. Jay L. Lush was really the first animal breeder. Before him, there was a debate about what caused inheritance. There were some people who thought inheritance was based on a few big factors and tried to explain inheritance being due to a small number of very big genes. Other people thought that environmental factors were somehow passed on to the next generation, and still others believed in a statistical approach. Lush and others realized that there was an element of truth in all three theories. Dr. Lush was the first to write a textbook on the subject. Q: Discuss your own research. DG: I started work with animal breeding in 1981 and have been working on improving populations ever since. That involves many different aspects, including the primary technical one of prediction, utilizing historic pedigree and performance information for predicting performance. But, it also involves aspects like which particular traits matter and how important one trait is to another. Prediction is a large part of what I do and for the past six years, we have been using DNA and Genome information, developing theoretical methods and computer programs to do that. I have been applying those methods on a wide range of species, even trees, chickens, pigs and more personally, on beef cattle. Q: What is your take on All-Purpose Indexes? DG: An index is definitely an efficient way to make progress, if you believe in it and it is properly constructed. For various reasons, it has not been widely accepted by the beef industry. It has, however, been very natural for the sheep industry because they see the profits from wool and lamb, so it makes sense for them to combine wool with reproductive and growth information to create indexes. It is also more natural for dairymen who focus on milk and swine breeders who have large litters. Many beef producers may like the idea of the API, but then they focus on such individual traits as birth weights, mature weights and others. ◆
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November 2013