Ovine FABP₄ variation and its association with flystrike susceptibility
2021
Burrows, LER | Zhou, Huitong | Frampton, CMA | Forrest, RHJ | Hickford, Jonathan
Flystrike is a major cost and a welfare issue for the New Zealand sheep industry. There are several factors that can predispose sheep to flystrike, such as having fleecerot, a urine-stained breech, and “dags” (an accumulation of fecal matter in the wool of the breech). The FABP₄ gene (FABP₄) has been associated with variation in ovine fleecerot resistance, with a strong genetic correlation existing between fleecerot and flystrike occurrence. In this study, blood samples were collected from sheep with and without flystrike for DNA typing. PCR-SSCP analyses were used to genotype two regions of ovine FABP₄. Sheep with the A₁ variant of FABP₄ were found to be less likely (odds ratio 0.689, P = 0.014) to have flystrike than those without A₁. The likelihood of flystrike occurrence decreased as copy number of A₁ increased (odds ratio 0.695, P = 0.006). This suggests that FABP₄ might be a candidate gene for flystrike resilience in sheep, although further research is required to verify this association.
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