17 Texel Sheep Society drives genetic innovation in UK sheep industry
Texels driving change in GB sheep industry Texels are well and truly cemented at the heart of GB sheep production, according to figures released in EBLEX’s British Sheep Breeds Survey. The results of the survey which took place in 2012 show Texels as the most dominant sire breed with a 27% share of the ram market, and the second most widespread breed, with North Country Mules being the most widespread. On the ram side the Texels comprised more than a quarter of all rams in Britain and were found on nearly 18,000 farms. In the last 40 years since the first importations of Texels were made in to the UK the breed has adapted to the wide variety of climatic and topographic conditions. But, what is perhaps most marked is the overall impact of the breed on the industry, with Texel crosses also accounting for 1.6m crossbred ewes too, more than 12% of the total National ewe flock . RAM CHOICE Major change in GB Stratified industry 1971 (86:14) to 2012: (55:45) – lowland breeding influence • Half the rams used in GB are Terminal Sire • 27% are Pure Texel (add x-derivatives and it is significant) • The genetic composition of the sires of the lamb crop is Terminal Sire breeds at 68% & Hill breeds 12% • Terminal Sire breeds provide 45% of the genes in carcases produced
Tackling one of the UK sheep industry’s most underestimated health problems, mastitis, will be easier in future thanks to pioneering new research being undertaken by the British Texel sheep Society (BTSS) in collaboration with SRUC. Thanks to a £450,000 project award from the Technology Strategy Board, BTSS will be using the very latest genomic technology to investigate the role of genetics in controlling the disease. The unique research, which would be conducted across both pedigree and commercial flocks the length and breadth of the UK, was designed to identify those bloodlines that are more resistant to mastitis. “Mastitis is without doubt one of the least understood and most costly health problems faced by the sheep sector, with reports suggesting it affects about 5% of breeding ewes. There are very few treatment options and currently no effective preventative treatments. “Crucially, like many other diseases, mastitis has a genetic component to resistance. Using the very latest genome screening techniques the research will identify bloodlines of sheep that are more resistant to mastitis.” The research was the first step in the Society’s quest to better understand a number of key diseases affecting UK sheep producers and identify those animals with greater genetic resistance to them. “The project will create a valuable enhancement to the Society’s dataset by including disease phenotypes. Initially this will focus on mastitis, but the intention is to include additional traits such as footrot and faecal egg counts. “The availability of new genomic ‘SNP chip’ technology for sheep that is specific to mastitis and tailored for use in the Texel breed will propel the Society and its breeders in to the genomic era”. “Using genomics to identify those bloodlines resistant to key diseases will enable breeders to pursue breeding objectives allied to the requirements of the commercial sheep producers, combining key productivity and health traits in their future breeding plans.
PURE EWE CHOICE • 13.1M National flock (2.2M less than in 2003) • Ratio of purebred to cross bred ewes is now 44:56 . In 2003 this was 50:50 • Pure Ewes - LLEYN is now the largest none hill breed and have ~474K ewes, 3.6% of national flock - TEXEL are second most popular non hill breed with 2.3% of National flock - 304k ewes
Importantly, due to the Texel breed’s extensive influence on the UK sheep industry the results of this research will be felt widely across the sheep sector. “There are more than 1.6m Texel sired breeding ewes in the national flock, representing more than 12% of all ewes, and 27% of all rams used in the UK are Texels.
CROSS BRED EWE CHOICE • Cross bred ewes - NC Mules were most popular x-bred ewe found on 20% of farms with 12.6% of national flock and 1.62M ewes - TEXEL being next most widespread with 1.6M which is 12% of National flock - BFL sired crosses totalled 2.8M, or 21.3% - Suffolk had 0.9M ewes, or 6.8%
Joanne Conington who is leading the research at SRUC, said the project would implement the first commercially-available genomic breeding values for mastitis resistance in meat sheep in Europe.
#addtexeladdvalue
“Therefore, the potential influence from this and future disease resistance research on the wider industry is beyond comparison in the sheep sector. The benefits of these genomic breeding advances will quickly be felt by those commercial producers placing Texels at the heart of their flocks”.
“Genomic breeding values will improve the accuracy of selection of sheep more resistant to mastitis, and in the future, enable farmers to select future male breeding stock without having to wait for their daughters to become lactating ewes to generate data on mastitis. “Genomic technology is particularly attractive for use in sheep for such characteristics that are only expressed in females such as maternal traits or for disease and meat quality traits because they are typically difficult or expensive to measure.”
British Texel Sheep Society, National Agricultural Centre, Stoneleigh Park, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, CV8 2LG Tel: 024 7669 6629, Fax: 024 7669 6472, Email: office@texel.co.uk