Partners
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Goals
Main goal
Development of conservation and sustainable use of autochthonous breeds of sheep and goats through joint research and knowledge exchange of partners from Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Serbia and Montenegro.
Objectives
Objective 1 :: Scientific development through cross-border cooperation and the involvement of young scientists.
Objective 2 :: Defining the genetic diversity status of autochthonous sheep and goat breeds in partner countries based on genomic data at intra- and inter-population levels.
Objective 3 :: Knowledge transfer and dissemination of results.
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Project Team
Austria :: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna
Czechia :: Czech University of Agriculture in Prague
Serbia :: Belgrade University
Slovakia :: Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra
Montenegro :: University of Montenegro in Podgorica
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Activities
Objective 1 :: Scientific development through cross-border cooperation and the involvement of young scientists
- Renowned universities involved in education and research in animal sciences
- Unique opportunity to develop the scientific field of conservation of AnGR at the regional (Central and Eastern Europe) and international levels.
- Unique opportunity for a new generation of scientists who will be involved in the training process.
- Partnership will not only strengthen the existing links between the partners but will contribute to the creation of new links through the collaboration of young scientists.
- Consortium that is sufficiently attractive for young researchers and will lead to an increase in the level of academic exchange between the partner universities, whether in the form of short-term mobilities or long-term internships.
- Project will represent the first opportunity in the career to engage in international research, collaboration and presentation of their results in joint events organised within the consortium.
Objective 2 :: Defining the genetic diversity status of autochthonous sheep and goat breeds in partner countries based on genomic data at intra- and inter-population levels
a) Inventory of existing autochthonous populations and analysis of their intra-population diversity.
- Phylogenetically related breeds of sheep and goats kept in Slovakia (Original Valachian, Improved Valachian, Cigaja, White and Brown Shorthaired Goat), Austria (Bergschaf, Tauernscheck, etc.), the Czech Republic (Valachian goat, Sumava goat, white and brown shorthaired goat), Serbia (Pramenka, Tsigai, Balkan goat, Serbian white goat, etc.) and Montenegro (Pramenka, Tsigai, Balkan goat, etc.) as well as the cosmopolitan breeds that have been used in their grading-up process will be identified.
b) Analysis of the inter-population diversity regarding their phylogenetic origin.
- The overall degree of inter-population diversity.
- Nei's genetic distance (Da) .
- Pairwise Wright's FST index.
- Discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC).
c) Determination of the impact of selection on the gene pool of autochthonous populations with respect to the breeding programs of the countries involved.
- Calculation of Wright's FST index at the whole genome level.
- Identification of the distribution of ROHs in the genome.
- Determination of the variability of linkage disequilibrium among the analysed breeds.
Objective 3 :: Knowledge transfer and dissemination of resultss
- Knowledge transfer between the partner organisations through intensive courses and workshops will increase their competence in the use of genomic tools for the management and conservation of autochthonous sheep and goats breeds and their acceptance in the field at the international level.
- Dissemination of the project outputs will be ensured by their presentation at national and international conferences and publication of scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.
- In addition, the official channels (university websites, newsletters, social media) of the partner organisations will be used to disseminate the project outputs and raise the overall visibility of the project.
- As a novel dissemination approach, selected project results and methods will be disseminated on the Genomics Boot Camp, a YouTube channel (4500 subscribers, 13.5K monthly views) managed by one of the project participants.
- Other project activities will focus on the possibility of establishing long-term cooperation between the partner organisations through participation in a joint research project in the framework of future EU or other calls.
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Primary Contact
Prof. Ing. Radovan Kasarda, Ph.D. 
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2723-3192
Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra
Tr. A. Hlinku 2
949 76 Nitra
Slovakia
E-mail: radovan.kasarda@uniag.sk
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