Project Number: 5438-32000-031-03
Project Type: Nonfunded Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Oct 01, 2012
End Date: Sep 30, 2017

Objective:
Develop an efficient high-throughput genotyping test for accurately determining parentage, animal identification, and disease traceback in U.S. sheep populations. The purpose is to provide a robust commercially available test for use by sheep producers, regulatory agencies, and researchers. Assay information and design features will be made publicly available by either scientific publication or public internet sites.

Approach:
Assays for approximately 100 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) will be designed from USMARC ovine DNA sequence information and publicly available information from more than 3000 sheep from 74 breeds around the world. Novel SNP assays will be developed for a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization--time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) platform. The accuracy, reproducibility, and power of these SNPs will be evaluated with USMARC reference DNA samples that have been previously sequenced to determine their genotypes.