All going well, the work following on from that, including proving the data, should have the programme available for commercial breeders a year later, The New Zealand Merino Co production science manager Dr Mark Ferguson said.
The group was keen to see footrot bred out of the NZ fine-wool flock, potentially allowing the industry to expand out of the high country into down country land where the typically wetter, warmer conditions were usually more conducive to the disease.
That is a key objective of the Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) project FeetFirst in which NZM has linked up with Merino Inc and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).
“We’ve some confidence that we can one day get into Hawke’s Bay and the east coast North Island as well as lower down in places such as South Canterbury,’’ Ferguson said.
Fine-wool flocks have already been established at lower levels in coastal North Canterbury, giving the industry more confidence a wider area can be farmed.
The plan is to establish footrot-resistent sires through the ram lines. The disease is estimated to cost the sector about $10 million a year in lost productivity and treatment.
There’s no quick-fix to breeding footrot out of flocks, Ferguson said. “We’re saying that in 10 years time we can expect to be in a much better place, rather than having a bullet-proof process. You’ll always have variations in whatever we achieve, but on average much better.’’
Until now, finding whether flocks, and individual sheep within flocks, were resistant to footrot has largely involved standing them on affected ground. This has achieved some success through sire selection.
“We’re saying that in 10 years time we can expect to be in a much better place, rather than having a bullet-proof process.”
Dr Mark Ferguson
The New Zealand Merino Co
Over the last three years, Ferguson’s team, with the help of overseas scientists, has developed the prototype from which footrot resistance could be established from a test on a single drop of blood, without exposing the animal to the disease.
The FeetFirst team inspected the feet of thousands of fine-wool sheep as well as collecting ear tissue samples for genetic typing (genotyping).
Two sets of samples (for sheep with footrot and those without) were prepared for the DNA work used to develop the prototype.
Over the next two years, the prototype will be worked in with the wider sheep genetics programme, allowing breeders and buyers to incorporate it into the ram-breeding and buying decisions, NZM managing director John Brakenridge said.
Work so far has proven that susceptibility to footrot can be inherited, in as much as 20% to 30% of numbers, Ferguson said.
Some animals could stand all year in a footrot zone and not suffer at all, but others could be there a week and be affected.
“You’ve probably got 5% of the flock are very good, 5% are very bad, and the rest are in the middle, and there’s a wide variation and spread.’’
