Abstract

Meat yield is an important component of most sheep breeding programmes. To improve meat yield, breeders use a variety of tools including marker assisted selection (MAS). Ovita funded AgResearch to develop two marker tests to assist in selection for superior meat yield. These have been branded MyoMAX TMand LoinMAX TMand originated from quantitative trait loci (QTL)studies over the past decade. In both cases the development of these commercial marker tests involved refining the QTL locations, identifying informative marker haplotypes and validating these in industry flocks. Both the LoinMAX TMand MyoMAX TMbeta tests were field validated using a numberof commercial breeders. The validation process showed that the phenotypic effects of both LoinMAX TM and MyoMAX TM were significant in different genetic backgrounds and that there were no negative correlations between the presence of LoinMAX T Mand MyoMAX TM with other traits, such as meat quality and growth rate. Both LoinMAX TM and MyoMAX TM have now been successfully commercially launched byCatapult Genetics Ltd and are being widely used in industry.

AW, Campbell, and RJ McLaren

Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 67, Wanaka, 160-162, 2007