Specific Challenge:
Genetics is currently one of the important levers for efficient livestock production, not only to increase performance and productivity, but also to ensure resilience and to reduce resource use and environmental impact, to ensure health and welfare of the animals, while maintaining or improving longevity of animals and product quality. Understanding of the biological mechanisms underpinning traits, including epigenetic responses to the environment and non-genetic inheritance, remains relatively limited and underexploited, notably when several complex traits need to be targeted simultaneously, while avoiding or reducing trade-offs. In addition, improving livestock breeding programmes in both cosmopolitan and local breeds requires an optimal level of genetic diversity that needs to be measured and exploited. There is a need also for new knowledge and tools to open up new prospects for the measurement, conservation and exploitation of genetic diversity in farm animal species, for optimal genetic diversity in farm animal breeding programmes in both cosmopolitan and local breeds and to inform and develop strategies to provide for cost-effective in vivo conservation of endangered genetic resources.
Scope:The selected projects will assist in the exploitation of existing knowledge on the genome sequence and its regulation and expression. They will do so by providing (i) analysis of the genome and the epigenome in relation to combinations of traits (including intermediate and/or indicators) important for efficient terrestrial livestock production and (ii) tools to improve breeding schemes, both for cosmopolitan and local breeds of terrestrial livestock, striving to ensure optimal genetic and epigenetic diversity, at least within breeds. The projects will encompass development of methods, tools and models to assist both industry and policy makers as well as to respond to social challenges. Proposals should fall under the concept of 'multi-actor approach'[1], involving representatives of breeders, biodiversity conservation and other relevant professionals from animal production, the food chain and decision-makers, as appropriate.
The activities may address:
The projects are encouraged to interact as appropriate with relevant Horizon 2020 projects.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 7 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:[1]See definition of the 'multi-actor approach' in the introduction to this Work Programme part.