2006 Annual Report 4d.Progress report. This report serves to document research conducted under a Trust Agreement with International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya. Additional details of the research can be found in the report for the parent project 1265-31000-081-00D entitled "Identification, validation and fine-mapping of quantitative trait loci in dairy cattle." In an attempt to better understand parasite-indicator QTL results from the BARC/Wye Angus population, we are collaborating with scientists at ILRI and the International Atomic Energy Agency (Vienna, Austria) to detect QTL in a sheep resource population. This sheep population was developed using a back cross design derived from Dorper and Red Masai sheep that were phenotyped for worm fecundity and feeding (e.g. fecal egg count in feces and packed blood cell volume), and should be more amenable at this time to interval analysis compared to the complex pedigree structure of the Angus population. Initiated as a non-funded cooperative agreement, the project has been expanded twice with funding from USAID Linkages program (~$15,000 and $24,000 to BFGL) to complete a genome-wide analysis for QTL in the sheep population and conduct some follow-up fine mapping of potential QTL, respectively. For the genome scan, BFGL has completed genotyping of eleven chromosomes (60 markers) with an additional 20 markers from other various chromosomes. BFGL has also completed pedigree analysis and the quality control analyses of all genotypic data. QTL detection analysis is being done jointly with ILRI. Preliminary analysis has revealed that a sheep QTL for fecal egg count was located in a position synonymous with a similar QTL for FEC found on Chr 6 in the BARC Angus herd. Review Publications Sonstegard, T.S., Iraqi, F., Mugambi, J., Van Tassell, C.P., Garcia, F., Hanotte, O., Nagda, S., Gibson, J., Baker, L. 2005. Identification of quantitative trait loci affecting parasite indicator traits in a double backcross population of sheep. [abstract]. ADSA/ASAS Joint Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, number 252.