Michael P. Heaton

  

heaton@email.marc.usda.gov

 

Phone: 402-762-4362

 

 

 

Genetic predisposition to infectious diseases

 

 

Infectious diseases in livestock are a significant source of economic loss and represent a potential risk to human health.  Removing animals with the highest risk of disease from the production cycle will lead to improved herd health and food safety.

 

The ultimate goal of livestock genomics with regard to animal health is to read an animal's DNA sequence and estimate its risk of acquiring or maintaining infections.  Our immediate aim is to evaluate natural genetic variation in diverse populations and identify alleles that predispose livestock to infectious diseases.  

 

Before this can be accomplished, two key issues need to be addressed: 

1.   identification of nucleotide sequence variation in host genes that play a fundamental role in the infection process

2.   identification of gene haplotypes that are associated with susceptibility or resistance to infectious disease. 

 

Health traits of interest include:

• Failure of passive transfer in cattle
• Ovine progressive pneumonia
• Bovine respiratory disease complex
• Scrapie susceptibility in sheep

 

Our research is designed to address these issues in commercial populations of livestock.  As these objectives are achieved for selected candidate genes, new information and technology will be developed that will facilitate our ability to  estimate an animal’s risk of acquiring or maintaining infections.