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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

• Assoc. Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Gábor Mészáros  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5937-0060
  
• Univ. Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Johann Sölkner  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1517-5829

Czechia :: Czech University of Agriculture in Prague

• Prof. Ing. Luboš Vostrý, Ph.D.   https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9778-980X
• Ing. Hana Vostrá-Vydrová, Ph.D.   https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3443-964X

Serbia :: University of Belgrade, Faculty of Agriculture

• Prof. Vladan Bogdanović, Ph.D.   https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8345-1258
• Ass. Prof. Dragan Stanojević, Ph.D.   https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0793-0107

Slovakia :: Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra

• Prof. Ing. Radovan Kasarda, Ph.D.   https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2723-3192
• Assoc. Prof. Ing. Nina Moravčíková, Ph.D.   https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1898-8718
• Ing. Adrián Halvoník (Ph.D. student)
• Ing. Monika Chalupková (Ph.D. student)

Montenegro :: University of Montenegro, Biotechnical Faculty

• Prof. dr. Božidarka Marković   https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6644-4630
• Msc. Milena Đokić   https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2410-3366

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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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Results, Events & Publications 

Dissemination Activities

Animal Science Days 2023

The 31st edition of the International Symposium Animal Science Days 2023 was held in Lipica, Slovenia, from 20 to 22 September 2023. The conference featured invited speakers and presentations selected from participants' contributions. This year's programme included a variety of sessions in the field of animal sciences, including a session on ethology and animal welfare, which was also the theme of the course for students: Animal Welfare and Sustainability, held on 19 September. Presentations of the SHEGEND project researchers were also part of the conference, namely: prof. Vostrý (Classical, ancestral and new inbreeding of X-chromosome in Czech local dairy goat breed) and prof. Kasarda and assoc. prof. Moravčíková (Diversity status of Slovak population of Askanian Merino sheep).
Symposium ASD 2023 Gallery

Animal Science Days 2024

The 32nd edition of the Animal Science Days conference took place in Oberaichwald (Austria), from 2 to 4 October 2024. This meeting, organised annually, aims to foster collaboration between colleagues from Central and Eastern Europe, interested academics and professionals from all over the world in the field of animal science to make their cooperation and exchange of knowledge more effective and, most importantly, to promote a new generation of young scientists and professionals in this field. This year, the topics of the presentations were oriented towards breeding and genetics, nutrition and physiology, health, husbandry and livestock farming systems. The results of the SHEGEND project were presented at this event by prof. Vostrý (CZU Praha) with the presentation entitled "Effective population size in local sheep and goat breeds in the Danube region", assoc. prof. Mészáros (BOKU Vienna) with the presentation "Genomic inbreeding coefficients in local sheep and goat breeds in the Danube region" and assoc. prof. Moravčíková (SUA in Nitra) with the presentation "Genetic structure and relationships between local sheep and goat breeds in the Danube region".
Symposium ASD 2024 Gallery

75th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Sciences (EAAP)

During the 75th Annual Meeting of the EAAP, which took place in Florence (Italy) from 1 September to 5 September 2024, the SHEGEND project was actively presented by prof. Kasarda with poster entitled „Genome-Wide Association Study on Somatic Cell Count and Health Status of Dairy Sheep“, assoc. prof. Moravčíková with abstract „Footprints of balancing selection in the genome of Original Valachian sheep“ and Ing. Chalupková with poster entitled „Usability of raw phenotypic data in selective breeding of dairy cattle on health traits in Slovakia“ from SPU in Nitra. Because this congress is the largest congress in the field of animal sciences in the world in terms of the number of participants (scientists, academics and Ph.D. students) as well as presentations, participation in it allowed the project investigators to make the project visible not only locally but also globally.
EAAP Meeting Gallery

Events

First annual meeting of SHEGEND project partners (DS-FR-22-0016) - Kick-off meeting :: Nitra, Slovakia, 12th October 2023

The first meeting of the partners of the SHEGEND project (DS-FR-22-0016) "Indicators of genetic diversity of autochthonous sheep and goat breeds from Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Serbia and Montenegro" was held at the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra (Slovakia) on 12th October 2023. The main objective of the project, as its name implies, is to evaluate and define the state of genetic diversity of autochthonous sheep and goat breeds in Austria, Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia and Montenegro through cross-border cooperation, joint research and knowledge exchange between the partners: BOKU Vienna, Czech Agricultural University in Prague, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Agriculture, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, University of Montenegro - Biotechnical Faculty. During this first meeting, the partners discussed the possibilities of intensifying mutual cooperation concerning the collection of biological samples, the use of methods for the evaluation of various indicators of genetic diversity, and the dissemination and publication of the results obtained. Last but not least, the partners discussed project activities and meetings planned for 2023 and 2024, as well as short internships of scientists and Ph.D. students within the partner organisations.
Kick-off Meeting Programme :: Photo

Second annual meeting of SHEGEND project partners (DS-FR-22-0016) :: Vienna, 13th - 15th December 2023

From the 13th to the 15th of December 2023, BOKU University hosted the second annual meeting of the SHEGEND project partners (DS-FR-22-0016) in Vienna (Austria). This annual meeting aimed to evaluate the realised activities, in particular with regard to the dissemination of the project outputs and the preparation of the annual report, and to plan further activities for the next research phase of the project. This meeting also included an intensive workshop focused on preparing scientific papers, either in the form of joint articles or abstracts, for international scientific journals and conferences.
Meeting Programme

Workshop of SHEGEND project partners (DS-FR-22-0016) :: Belgrade, 10th - 12th April 2024

Data workshop within the SHEGEND project (DS-FR-22-0016) organised by the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Agriculture (Serbia) was held from 10th to 12th April 2024. This workshop aimed to harmonise the available genomic information for autochthonous sheep and goat breeds in the partner countries (Czech Republic, Montenegro, Austria, Serbia and Slovakia), to create a shared database of data between partners and to provide a short course on the use of genomic data for the analysis of population structure, estimation of effective population size and evaluation of genomic inbreeding as basic parameters for defining the status of the level of diversity in animal populations. The first results of the above analyses and the possibilities of their dissemination during 2024 were also discussed during this workshop.
Workshop Programme

Publications

• Dovč, P. & Zorc, M. (Eds.). (202). Animal Science Days : 31st international symposium, September 20–22, 2023, Lipica, Slovenia. Book of abstracts. Biotechnical Faculty in Ljubljana. https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/IzpisGradiva.php?lang=eng&id=151290
• European Federation of Animal Science – EAAP. (2024). Book of Abstracts of the 75th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science, Florence, Italy 1-5 September, 2024. Book of Abstracts No. 34. European Federation of Animal Science. https://docs.eaap.org/boa/2024_Florence_EAAP_Book_Abstracts.pdf

• Vostry, L., Vostra-Vydrova, H., Moravcikova, N., Kasarda, R., Margetin, M., Rychtarova, J., Drzaic, I., Shihabi, M., Cubric-Curik, V., Sölkner, J., & Curik, I. (2024). Genomic analysis of conservation status, population structure and admixture in local Czech and Slovak dairy goat breeds. Journal of Dairy Science, 10(107), 8205-8222. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2023-24607
• Halvoník, A., Moravčíková, N., Chalupková, M., & Kasarda, R. (2024). Commonly used genomic estimators of individual inbreeding in livestock. Czech Journal of Animal Science, 69(7), 269–279. https://doi.org/10.17221/91/2024-cjas
• Chalupková, M., Moravčíková, N., Halvoník, A., & Kasarda, R. (2024). Genetic and Genomic Evaluation of Health Traits in Cattle Breeding: a review. Acta fytotechn zootechn, 27(3), 209–215. https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2024.27.03.209-215
• Mészárosová, M., Mészáros, G., Moravčíková, N., Pavlík, I., Margetín, M., & Kasarda, R. (2024). Genome-wide association study for polledness, horn shape, and wool traits in Original Valachian sheep. Archives Animal Breeding/Archiv Für Tierzucht, 67(3), 373–381. https://doi.org/10.5194/aab-67-373-2024

• Genomics Boot Camp. (2024, November 6). PGDSpider and Everything (feat. the SHEGEND project) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HcNEuNDWH4

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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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