ARS | Publication request: GENOMICS AND MARKER-ASSISTED SELECTION STRATEGIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COCCIDIOSIS CONTROL (PRESENTATION: KOREAN POULTRY SCIENCES MTG; AVIAN BIOTECHNOLOGY SEMINAR)

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: July 1, 2001
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Coccidiosis is a ubiquitous intestinal protozoan infection of poultry which seriously impairs the growth and feed utilization of infected animals. Conventional disease control strategies have relied on prophylactic medication which costs the U.S. industry over $700 million annually. Due to the continual emergence of drug resistant parasites in the field and increasing incidence of broiler condemnations, novel approaches are urgently needed to reduce economic losses from this disease. Understanding the genes influencing interplay between host and parasites in the intestine is crucial for design of new approaches against this disease. New molecular biological tools in studying gene-gene interactions using high-throughput DNA sequencing and gene expression profiling technology are revolutionizing the identification of candidate genes which are important in the development of novel control strategy against coccidiosis. Our efforts to develop a practical marker-assisted selection strategy for avian coccidiosis identified a quantitative trait locus (QTL) on chromosome 1 which is significantly associated with disease resistance. Additional fine mapping studies are carried out to identify QTL for coccidiosis resistance. High-throughput DNA microarray analysis is being conducted using well-characterized cDNAs from our normalized intestinal cDNA library to identify candidate host genes. These new methodologies will enable us to identify novel immune response genes of significant importance to host survival and increase our knowledge base of host-parasite.