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AAABG 2017


The 22nd AAABG conference was held at Rydges Southbank Townsville, Queensland from 2nd to 5th July 2017.

 

Proceedings of the AAABG 22nd Conference

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Papers

Plenary paper I

 
Functional annotation of animal genomes 1
E.L. Clark, S. Bush, R. Young, J.K. Baillie, L. Lefevre, P. Dutta, C. Muriuki, M. McCulloch, T.C. Freeman, D.W. Burt, L. Freem, C.B.A.Whitelaw, K.M. Summers, A.L. Archibald and D.A. Hume  

Industry 1

 
From breeding to market: opportunities within a disrupted food chain 9
A.W. Campbell and P.R Amer  
Investigating emerging inherited diseases in Australian livestock: a collaborative approach 15
S.A. Woolley, E.R. Tsimnadis, N. Nowak, R.L. Tulloch, M.R. Shariflou, T. Leeb, C.E. Willet, M.S. Khatkar, B.A. O'Rourke and I. Tammen  
High genetic merit dairy cows contribute more to farm profit: case studies of 3 Australian dairy herds 19
J.E. Newton, M.E. Goddard, H.N. Phuong, M.A. Axford, C.K.M. Ho, N.C. Nelson, C.F. Waterman, B.J. Hayes and J.E. Pryce  
There is nothing routine about routine testing. A perspective from the University of Queensland's animal genetics laboratory 23
R.E. Lyons and S. Buttsworth  

Sheep and goats I

 
Genetic correlation between purebred and crossbred performance of merino sheep for three weight traits using a genomic relationship matrix. 27
N. Duijvesteijn and J.H.J. van der Werf  
Genetic correlations between production traits and components of reproduction in Merino sheep 31
D.J. Brown, K.L. Bunter and A.A. Swan  
Genetic parameters and breed differences for ovine tick counts on indigenous and commercial sheep in autumn and spring 35
J.J.E. Cloete, A.J. Scholtz, S. Matthee and S.W.P. Cloete  
Genomic prediction using QTL regions identified from regional heritability mapping for parasite resistance in Australian sheep 39
M. Al Kalaldeh, J.H.J. van der Werf and C. Gondro  
Gene by birth type interaction in Merino lamb 45
A. Dakhlan, N. Moghaddar, C. Gondro and J.H.J. van der Werf  
Optimal and practical strategies to manage an ovulation rate mutation located on the X chromosome in a French sheep breed 49
J. Raoul, L. Bodin, J.M. Else and A.A. Swan  

Breeding Objectives I

 
Including feed intake and greenhouse gas emissions intensity into existing selection indexes - theory and practice 53
P. Amer, C. Quinton, T. Byrne, A. Cromie, C. Richardson and J. Archer  
Genomic analysis of health traits using an Australian genotyped cow reference population 57
M. Abdelsayed, M. Haile-Mariam and J.E. Pryce  
Genetic trends in the estimated feed intake of Angus cattle 61
B.J. Walmsley, A.L. Henzell and S.A. Barwick  
Relationship between feed intake, energy expenditure and methane emissions: implications for genetic evaluation 65
S. Dominik, D.L. Robinson, A.J. Donaldson, M. Cameron, K.L. Austin and V.H. Oddy  
A web-based application to assist selection for heat tolerance in combination with the balanced performance index in Australian dairy cattle 69
T.T.T. Nguyen, B.J. Hayes and J.E. Pryce  

Advances in statistical & computational methods I

 
Can we frame and understand cross-validation results in animal breeding? 73
A. Legarra and A. Reverter  
A comparison of relatedness estimates from SNP chip genotypes and from genotyping-by-sequencing results 81
K.G. Dodds, J.C. McEwan, T.C. Van Stijn, R. Brauning and S.M. Clarke  
Accuracy of genomic prediction when QTL effects are not normally distributed 85
M.E. Goddard and T.H.E. Meuwissen  
Approximating the accuracy of single step EBVs 89
L. Li, A.A. Swan and B. Tier  
Approximate GBLUP for efficient routine evaluations 93
T. P. Hancock  
On breed composition estimation of cross-bred animals using non-linear optimisation 97
V. Boerner  
Possibilities of binomial probabilistic principal component models to identify groups in genotyped populations 101
J.B. Holmes, K.G. Dodds and M.A. Lee  

Aquaculture

 
The next wave in selective breeding: Implementing genomic selection in Aquaculture 105
K.R. Zenger, M.S. Khatkar, D.R. Jerry and H.W. Raadsma  
Understanding the transcriptional changes associated with onset of maturation in Atlantic salmon 113
A.Mohamed, A. Reverter, P. Kube, H. King, B. Evans and J. Kijas  
Development of a low-density commercial genotyping array for the white legged shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei 117
D.B. Jones, K.R. Zenger, M.S. Khatkar, H.W. Raadsma, H.A.M. van der Steen, J. Prochaska, S. Forêt and D.R. Jerry  
Quantitative genomic analyses in the pacific whiteleg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei 121
M.S. Khatkar, K.R. Zenger, D.B. Jones, J. Prochaska, H.A.M van der Steen, D.R. Jerry and H.W. Raadsma  
Selection for Piscirickettsia salmonis (SRS) resistance in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) using genotyping by sequencing (GBS) 125
T. Kristjánsson, K. Dodds, J.C. McEwan, R. Brauning, R.M. Anderson, T.C. van Stijn and S.M. Clarke  
Breeding for disease resistance in Australian shrimp: how do we get there? 129
T.H. Noble, N. Wade, G.J. Coman and D.R. Jerry  

Dairy

 
Reliabilities of Australian dairy genomic breeding values increase through the addition of genotyped females with excellent phenotypes 133
J.E. Pryce, P. Douglas, C.M. Reich, A.J. Chamberlain, P.J. Bowman, T.T.T. Nguyen, B.A. Mason, C.P. Prowse-Wilkins, G.J. Nieuwhof, T. Hancock, M. Shaffer and B.J. Hayes  
Does experiencing birth difficulty influence performance as an adult (later life) in Holstein cattle? 137
M. Haile-Mariam and J.E. Pryce  
Pitfalls of pre-selecting subsets of sequence variants for genomic prediction 141
I.M. MacLeod, S. Bolormaa, C. Schrooten, M.E. Goddard and H. Daetwyler  
Genome-wide uncorrelated trait analysis identifies pleitropic markers for dairy cattle in Australia 145
R. Xiang, I.M. MacLeod, S. Bolormaa and M.E. Goddard  
Expression of heterosis for live weight in growth curves of New Zealand dairy heifers 149
R.C. Handcock, N. Lopez-Villalobos, L.R. McNaughton, G.R. Edwards and R.E Hickson  
Increasing the accuracy of genomic prediction for residual feed intake in dairy cattle by using SNPs associated with RFI in beef cattle 153
M. Khansefid, J.E. Pryce and M.E. Goddard  
Correlations and genetic trends for selection indices assessed using Australian and North American bull proofs 157
B.A Scott, M. Abdelsayed and J.E. Pryce  

Beef I

 
The new bovine reference assembly and its value for genomic research 161
J.F. Medrano  
Extensive sequencing of a tropically adapted breed - the Brahman sequencing project 167
L. Koufariotis, B.J. Hayes, M. Kelly, B. Burns, R. Lyons and S. Moore  
Genomics can contribute to selection to improve bottle teats in tropical beef genotypes 171
M.L. Wolcott, D.J. Johnston and Y.D. Zhang  
Possibilities of shortening the number days on feed for calculating NFI in cattle 175
S.A. Clark and J.H.J. van der Werf  
Use of genomic selection in a tropically adapted composite beef program 179
W.S. Pitchford, G.I. Popplewell and R. Terle  
Factors affecting puberty attainment in purebred and crossbred heifers 183
J.G. Alexopoulos, M.L. Hebart and W.S. Pitchford  
Prediction of genomic breeding values of primal cut weights in Korean Hanwoo cattle from different growth and carcass traits 187
H.A. Al-Mamun, S. Kim, B.H. Park, M.N. Park and C. Gondro  

Gene editing and novel gene technologies

 
Cutting and pasting: the future of genetic improvement for food animal genomes 191
T.S. Sonstegard, D. Carlson, P.B. Hackett, A. Watson and S.C. Fahrenkrug  
Detection and assessment of copy number variation using PacBio long read sequencing in New Zealand dairy cattle 197
C. Couldrey, M. Keehan, T. Johnson, K. Tiplady, A. Winkelman, C. Thresher, M.D. Littlejohn, A. Scott, K.E. Kemper, B.J. Hayes, S.R. Davis and R.J. Spelman  
1000 bull genomes and SheepGenomeDB projects: enabling cost-effective sequence level analyses globally 201
H.D. Daetwyler, R. Brauning, A.J. Chamberlain, S. McWilliam, A. McCulloch, C.J. Vander Jagt, B. Sunduimijid, B.J. Hayes and J.W. Kija  
Transcriptomics profiling reveals candidate genes to improve feed efficiency in dairy cattle 205
M.S. Salleh, G. Mazzoni, J.K. Höglund, D.W. Olijhoek, P. Lund, P. Løvendahl and H.N. Kadarmideen  
Prediction of genome-wide regulatory regions in sheep 209
M. Naval-Sanchez, Q. Nguyen, B.P. Dalrymple, T. Vuocolo, R.L. Tellam, L.R. Porto-Neto, S. McWilliam, A. Reverter and J. Kijas  
Depot-specific gene expression during differentiation of Hanwoo muscular satellite cells 213
S. De las Heras-Saldana, K.Y. Chung, S.H. Lee and C. Gondro  
Genotyping-by-sequencing for genetic improvement in honeybees 217
G.E.L. Petersen, P.F. Fennessy, T.C. Van Stijn, S.M. Clarke and P.K. Dearden  

Pig & Poultry

 
Genetics and genomics of swine lean growth at the interface between host and commensal gut bacteria 221
C. Maltecca, B. Lu and F. Tiezzi  
Behavioural traits recorded in gilts and associations with reproductive performance as group-housed sows 229
K.L. Bunter  
Genotype by parity interactions were not found for growth in Australian pigs 233
S. Hermesch and B.G. Luxford  
Extension of environmental descriptors used to analyse sire by environment interaction for growth of pigs 237
S.Z.Y. Guy, J. Harper, L. Li, P.C. Thomson and S. Hermesch  
Estimates of effective population size and inbreeding level for three Australian pig breeds 241
O. D’Augustin, V. Börner and S. Hermesch  
Genetic parameters for body-weight traits of a native poultry breed in Thailand 245
S. Tongsiri, M.G Jeyaruban, S. Hermesch, J. H. J. van der Werf, L. Li and T. Chormai  
Deviations around kinship expectations at various SNP marker densities in a population of broiler chickens 249
A. Reverter, Y. Li, A. George, J. Henshall, R. Sapp, R. Okimoto, R. Hawken and S.A. Lehnert  

Plenary paper II

 
Precision medicine: realistic expectations for prediction of risk to human complex disease 253
N. Wray  

Plenary paper III

 
Beef cattle genomic selection in tropical environments 255
L.G. Albuquerque, G.A. Fernandes Júnior and R. Carvalheiro  

Advances in statistical and computational methods II

 
A multi-trait approach to incorporating foreign phenotypes and genotypes in genomic predictions to increase accuracy and reduce bias 265
B.J.Hayes, G. Nieuwhof and M. HaileMariam  
Some alternative computational strategies for single-step national genomic evaluations 269
D.J. Garrick, H. Cheng, B.L. Golden and R.L. Fernando  
A novel numerical method to quantify the contribution of genes to the population structure 273
P. Kasarapu, L.R. Porto-Neto, M.R.S. Fortes, S.A. Lehnert, M.A. Mudadu, L. Coutinho, L. Regitano, A. George and A. Reverter  
Committed matings under mate selection 277
B.P. Kinghorn  
Using machine learning methods to identify subsets of SNP for genomic prediction 281
B. Li, A. George, A. Reverter and Y. Li  
Strategies to use whole genome sequence data for genomic prediction in dairy cattle 285
I. van den Berg, I.M. MacLeod, P.J. Bowman, T. Wang and M.E. Goddard  
A pipeline for the analysis of multi-omics data 289
L.T. Nguyen, M.R.S. Fortes and A. Reverter  

Beef II

 
Genetics of brisket disease in beef cattle: A not so high altitude problem 293
M.G. Thomas, G.M. Krafsur, T.N. Holt, R.M. Enns, S.E. Speidel, F.B. Garry, A. Canovas, J.M. Medrano, R.D. Brown, K.R. Stenmark and J.M. Neary  
Breeding for low methane is associated with longer days to calving in first-parity Angus females 301
K.A. Donoghue, T.L. Bird-Gardiner, P.F Arthur and R.M. Herd  
Genetic association of young male traits with female reproductive performance in Brahman and Santa Gertrudis cattle 305
M.G. Jeyaruban and D.J. Johnston  
Weighting factors for genomic information used in Single-Step genomic selection in Australian beef 309
Y.D. Zhang, A. Swan, D.J. Johnston and C.J. Girard  
Genetic and phenotypic characterization of MSA Index and its association with carcase and meat quality traits in Angus and Brahman cattle 313
M.G. Jeyaruban, D.J. Johnston and B.J. Walmsley  
Development of the beef genomic pipeline for BREEDPLAN single step evaluation 317
N.K. Connors, J. Cook, C.J. Girard, B. Tier, KP. Gore, D.J. Johnston and M.H. Ferdosi  
Effects of Irish beef indexes and breeding programs on greenhouse gas emissions 321
C. Quinton, F. Hely, T. Byrne, P. Amer and A. Cromie  

Sheep and goats II

 
Investigating variation in the test length required to estimate the trait of residual energy intake in growing maternal lambs 325
P.L. Johnson, J. Wing, K. Knowler and P. Johnstone  
Inheritance of wrinkle in Merino sheep at different ages 329
J.C. Greeff, L.J.E. Karlsson and A.C. Schlink  
Genotyping strategies of selection candidates in sheep breeding programs 333
T. Granleese, S.A. Clark and J.H.J. van der Werf  
Marketing and delivery of RamSelect workshops in South Australia: a coordinated approach 337
A.L. Collins, M. Cousins, B.L. Ashton, S. Milne, D. Milne, B. Hancock, P. Schulz, L. Hogan and F.D. Brien  
Use of genomic data to determine breed composition of Australian sheep 341
P.M. Gurman, A.A. Swan and V. Boerner  
Genetic correlations between lamb survival, birth weight, and gestation length differ between birth types 345
O.A. Kelly, M.L. Hebart, F.D. Brien and W.S. Pitchford  
Prediction accuracies for polled and horned Merino sheep using different genetic models 349
N. Duijvesteijn, S. Weerasinghe and J.H.J. van der Werf  

Plenary paper IV

 
Can grazing livestock in developing countries benefit from use of genomic selection? 353
H.M. Burrow, M.L. Wolcott, A. Maiwashe, M.L. Makgahlela, B.J. Hayes, J.G. Rees and M.J. Bradfield  

Industry II

 
BREEDPLAN in a genomics world - opportunities and challenges 361
H. Nivison  
An update on genetic progress in the Australian sheep industry 365
A.A. Swan, R.G. Banks, D.J. Brown and H.R. Chandler  
Economic value of genomic selection in a vertically integrated beef cattle production system 369
J.W. Buchanan, M.D. MacNeil, R.C. Raymond, A.R. McClain and A.L. Van Eenennaam  
The distribution of risk and reward in extensive livestock improvement systems, their consequences and possible responses 373
R.G. Banks  

Beef III

 
Applying new genomic technologies to accelerate genetic improvement in beef and dairy cattle 377
A. Canovas, J. Casellas, M. Thomas and J. F. Medrano  
The Repronomics project - enabling genetic improvement in reproduction in northern Australia 385
D.J. Johnston, T.P Grant T.J. Schatz, B.M. Burns, G. Fordyce, R.E. Lyons  
Mythbusters: non-additive genetic effects had negligible impact on wagyu carcass quality 389
R.A. McEwin, M.L. Hebart, S. de Bruin and W.S. Pitchford  
Factors influencing gestation length in tropically adapted beef cattle breeds in northern Australia 393
D.J. Johnston and T.P. Grant  
Breed composition effects and genetic parameters for productivity of tropical beef cattle 397
L.R. Porto-Neto, R. McCulloch, B.E. Harrison, R.J. Bunch, W. Barendse and, A. Reverter  

Breeding Objectives II

 
Do plainer bodied Merino ewes have higher lifetime reproduction rates? 401
S. Hatcher and S.I. Mortimer  
Optimising the proportion of selection candidates measured for methane emissions in a beef cattle breeding objective that includes feed intake 405
D.J. Cottle  
Economic value of selection for residual feed intake in the New Zealand sheep industry 409
J.A. Archer, L.E. Proctor and T.J. Byrne  
Nonlinear economic value for number of lambs born in New Zealand sheep indexes 413
C. Quinton, T. Byrne and P. Amer  
Effect of GxE on responses to selection in recorded multi-tier sheep breeding schemes 417
B.F.S. Santos, J.H.J. van der Werf, J.P. Gibson and P.R. Amer  

Poster Presentations

 
A simple method for evaluating the genotype quality of the sire X chromosome using half-sib families 421
M.H. Ferdosi, D. Johnston, H. A. Al-Mamun and C. Gondro  
Agreement among GWAS results from different statistical methods as a strategy to increase the power of QTL detection 425
T.P. Melo, B.F. Garcia Neto, M.R.S. Fortes, L.G. Albuquerque and R. Carvalheiro  
A look at computations for multivariate single-step genomic evaluations fitting the 'hybrid model' 429
K. Meyer  
Early prediction of important adult wool traits 433
S. Shahinfar, and G. Hinch, J. Van Der Werf and L. Kahn  
SNP-panel design for dairy proportion estimation and parentage testing 437
E.M. Strucken, C. Esquivelzeta-Rabell, H.A. Al-Mamun, C. Gondro, O.A. Mwai and J.P. Gibson  
Defining environmental stress conditions that produce differential survival in black tiger shrimp, Penaeus monodon 441
A.R Foote, C.N Stratford, E. Giardina, D.R Jerry and N.W Wade  
Reconstruction of unknown donor genome from chimeric pearl sac tissue and host genotypes in Pinctada maxima 445
M.S. Khatkar, D.B. Jones, P.B. Toole, H.W. Raadsma, D.R. Jerry and K.R. Zenger  
Comparison of different breeding design options for long term genetic gain and diversity in aquaculture species 449
M.S. Khatkar, G.J. Coman, P.C. Thomson and H.W. Raadsma  
Evaluation of pooled whole genome sequencing (Pool-Seq) to recover known GWAS signals (gene effects) 453
A. Mohamed, L. Porto-Neto, A. Reverter and J. Kijas  
Preputial eversion in young, tropically adapted bulls is a useful genetic indicator trait for improving female reproduction 457
M.L. Wolcott and D.J. Johnston  
Genetic and phenotypic parameters for feed efficiency traits in Australian Angus beef cattle 461
J.A. Torres-Vazquez, J.H.J. van der Werf and S.A. Clark  
Epinetr: a forward-time simulator for epistatic network modelling in R 465
D.C. Detterer, Paul Kwan and Cedric Gondro  
Methodology for quantification of circulating cell-free microRNA from bovine plasma for analysis of meat quality traits 469
K.J. Kochan, S.E. Forman, A.E. Hillhouse, H.R. Cross and P.K. Riggs  
Breed variation in tongue colour of dairy and beef-cross-dairy calves 473
L.W. Coleman, H.T. Blair, N. Lopez-Villalobos, P.J. Back and R.E. Hickson  
No evidence for genes with large effect on twinning in a beef herd with unusually high fecundity 477
L. Cummins, C.M. Reich and B.J. Hayes  
Genetic and phenotypic correlations between various growth and carcass traits with primal cut meat yield traits in Hanwoo cattle 481
H.A. Al-Mamun, B. H. Park, M. N. Park, S. Kim and C. Gondro  
Linking commercial carcase data to stud herds: the power of genomics 485
L.R. Porto-Neto, S. Harburg, R.J. Bunch, R. Lyons, S.A. Lehnert and A. Reverter  
Genotyping of Nellore biopsied embryos 489
R. Carvalheiro, H.H.R. Neves, T. Bresolin, D.R. Arnold, A.C. Basso and L.G. Albuquerque  
Genetics and genomics of bull fertility phenotypes measured as part of the bull breeding soundness evaluation 493
M.R.S. Fortes, F.S.S. Raidan, N. Satake, L.R. Porto-Neto and G.B. Boe-Hansen  
Preliminary estimates of productive lifetime and lifetime efficiency in Holstein cows as affected by age at first calving 497
C.J.C. Muller, H.L. de Waal and M.M. Scholtz  
Genome-wide mapping of loci affecting semen volume, sperm concentration and total and progressive motilities in boars 501
T.S. Gaggini, R.C. Antunes, H. Barbosa, P. Charagu and F.M. Rezende  
Productive lifetime and lifetime efficiency in Holstein cows as affected by first lactation milk yield 505
H.L. de Waal, C.J.C. Muller and M.M. Scholtz  
Genetic parameters for alternative measures of fertility in a commercial herd of tropical cows 509
F.S.S. Raidan, L.R. Porto-Neto, M.R.S. Fortes, S. Harburg and A. Reverter  
Georeferenced evaluation of genetic patterns of Montana Tropical® cattle 513
T.G. Sousa, C.M. McManus, J.B. Ferraz, J.P. Eler, N.S. Costa and F.M. Rezende  
Development of a custom ion AgriSeq genotyping-by-sequencing panel based on the ISAG bovine core parentage markers 517
P. Siddavatam, A. Burrell, R. Ferretti, A. Allred, K. Ridley  
The use of mid-infrared spectrometry to predict milk fatty acid, energy balance and methane emissions for Australian dairy cows 521
T. Wang, H.N. Phuong, E. Wall, S. Smith and J.E. Pryce  
Somatic cell count and milk urea nitrogen levels in Holstein and Fleckvieh x Holstein cows in a total mixed ration feeding system 525
C.J.C. Muller, L. Metaxas and S.W.P. Cloete  
Genetic parameters of puberty estimated using two genetically divergent groups of Holstein-Friesian dairy heifers 529
M.D. Price, M.D. Camara, J.R. Bryant, S. Meier and C.R. Burke  
Integration of IVF technologies with genomic selection to generate high merit AI bulls: a simulation study 533
F.S. Hely, P.R. Amer, B. Oback and D.N. Wells  
Developing a genomic selection breeding program for complex pearl colour traits within the silver-lipped pearl oyster 537
D.B. Jones, P.B. Toole, M.S. Khatkar, H.W. Raadsma, D.R. Jerry and K.R. Zenger  
Multi-tissue genome wide expression of mRNA and microRNA in cattle selected for high and low residual feed intake 541
Y. Chen, C. Gondro, W. Al-Husseini, S. De las Heras Saldana, R. Herd, P. Arthur  
Multi-assembler pipeline for the de novo transcriptome assembly on non-model organisms: the case of the black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) 545
R. Huerlimann, L. Gordon, J. Goodall, K. Siemering, N. Wade, M. Sellars, G.E. Maes and D.R. Jerry  
Juvenile IGF-I response in INRA RFI selection lines partly reflects changes in post-weaning attributes 549
H. Gilbert, I. Louveau, Y. Billon and K.L. Bunter  
A genetic exploration of Australian large white pigs 553
K.P. Gore, R.G. Banks, V. Boerner and S. Hermesch  
Weighting of genomic and pedigree relationships in single step evaluation of carcass traits in Australian sheep 557
A.J. McMillan and A.A. Swan  
Genetic variation of weaner survival in merino sheep and its relationships with growth and wool 561
S.F. Walkom, A.N. Thompson, E. Bowen and D.J. Brown  
Progesterone is an indirect indicator of reproductive outcomes for yearling ewes 565
K.L. Bunter, J.E. Newton and D.J. Brown  
Genetic responses in component and composite reproduction traits in Merino ewes divergently selected for number of lambs weaned 569
S.W.P. Cloete, J.B. van Wyk and J.J. Olivier  
Genetic parameters for dag- and cover scores of Merino ewes divergently selected for number of lambs weaned 573
A.J. Scholtz, J.J.E. Cloete and S.W.P. Cloete  
Genetic parameters for arena behaviour of lambs from Merinos divergently selected for lambs weaned per ewe mated 577
J.J.E. Cloete, A.J. Scholtz and S.W.P. Cloete  
Accommodating variable disease challenge on breeding value prediction for sires - using footrot as an example 581
S.F. Walkom, M.B. Ferguson, W. Gibson, D.J. Brown and K.L. Bunter  
A genome-wide scan of positive selection signature using Ovine Infinium® HD SNP BeadChip in two Romney lines, selected for resistance or resilience to nematodes 585
J. Yan, V.S.R. Dukkipati, H.T. Blair, P.J. Biggs, J. C. Hamie and A. Greer  
Genetic association of skin thickness with lamb survival from birth to weaning, and growth and wool traits in New Zealand Romney sheep 589
M. Soltani-Ghombavani, V.S.R. Dukkipati and H.T. Blair  
Accounting for population structure in genomic prediction of Australian Merino sheep 593
N. Moghaddar, D.J. Brown, A.A. Swan and J.H.J. van der Werf  
Preliminary results on the inheritance of early lamb growth as an indicator for milk production in Merino sheep? 597
J.C. Greeff, L.J.E. Karlsson and A.C. Schlink  
The effect of including immune competence in Merino sheep breeding programs 601
A. Alexander, B. Hine, J. Smith and S. Dominik