Animal husbandry | EPFL Graph Search

Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starting with the Neolithic Revolution when animals were first domesticated, from around 13,000 BC onwards, predating farming of the first crops. By the time of early civilisations such as ancient Egypt, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs were being raised on farms. Major changes took place in the Columbian exchange, when Old World livestock were brought to the New World, and then in the British Agricultural Revolution of the 18th century, when livestock breeds like the Dishley Longhorn cattle and Lincoln Longwool sheep were rapidly improved by agriculturalists, such as Robert Bakewell, to yield more meat, milk, and wool. A wide range of other species, such as horse, water buffalo, llama, rabbit, and guinea pig, are used as livestock in some parts of the

GEOME : A web-based landscape genomics geocomputation platform

Stéphane Joost, Michaël Kalbermatten

Landscape ecologists and resource conservation managers increasingly need geo-referenced data but are not trained to efficiently use Geographical Information Systems together with appropriate geo-environmental information and spatial analysis approaches. In the present context of rapid global climate change, they show a renewed interest to study adaptation in species of interest (wildlife, livestock, plants) with the help of landscape genomics. This emerging research field is at the interface of genome sciences, environmental resources analysis, bioinformatics, geocomputation and spatial statistics. Their combination permits to assess the level of association between specific genomic regions of living organisms and environmental factors, to better understand the genetic basis of local adaptation. Landscape genomics is thus able to provide objective criteria to prioritize species which are the most worthwhile preserving. In livestock science for instance, husbandry based on adapted breeds is of key importance to emerging countries. Consequently, to facilitate the use of landscape genomics, the GEOME project proposes a WebGIS-based platform for the integrated analysis of environmental, ecological and molecular data through the implementation of an original set of combined geocomputation, databases, spatial analysis and population genetics tools. The platform will gather two existing software to identify genomic regions under selection (BayeScan and MatSAM) using a WebGIS solution named MapIntera. The latter is a multiple views exploratory visualization interface allowing users to interactively browse and query multiple dynamic layouts (e.g. graphs, maps). It is based on a SVG graphical interface coupled to Javascript interactivity and AJAX technology for the retrieval of information from a spatial database. The platform will be connected to a High Performance Computing infrastructure, able to handle and process very large genome and environmental data sets

International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing2010

The Quest for Genes Involved in Adaptation to Climate Change in Ruminant Livestock

Stéphane Joost, Elia Vajana

Simple Summary:& nbsp;After domestication in specific regions, livestock followed human migrations and colonized the whole world. During this population expansion, human and natural selection, together with demographic events, molded the livestock genome leading to local breeds and populations able to produce milk, meat, wool and tractive power in many different agro-climatic conditions. The climate is changing, with temperatures and the frequency of extreme climatic events increasing, which affects livestock welfare and production efficiency, particularly of the highly productive breeds. Genomics is now able to explore the DNA of local breeds adapted to extreme environments in search of genes carrying signatures of selection for adaptation. This review summarizes methods used to accomplish this task, giving examples of results achieved and perspectives for future breeding. Livestock radiated out from domestication centres to most regions of the world, gradually adapting to diverse environments, from very hot to sub-zero temperatures and from wet and humid conditions to deserts. The climate is changing; generally global temperature is increasing, although there are also more extreme cold periods, storms, and higher solar radiation. These changes impact livestock welfare and productivity. This review describes advances in the methodology for studying livestock genomes and the impact of the environment on animal production, giving examples of discoveries made. Sequencing livestock genomes has facilitated genome-wide association studies to localize genes controlling many traits, and population genetics has identified genomic regions under selection or introgressed from one breed into another to improve production or facilitate adaptation. Landscape genomics, which combines global positioning and genomics, has identified genomic features that enable animals to adapt to local environments. Combining the advances in genomics and methods for predicting changes in climate is generating an explosion of data which calls for innovations in the way big data sets are treated. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are now being used to study the interactions between the genome and the environment to identify historic effects on the genome and to model future scenarios.

2021

The Quest for Genes Involved in Adaptation to Climate Change in Ruminant Livestock

Stéphane Joost, Elia Vajana

2021

GEOME : A web-based landscape genomics geocomputation platform

Stéphane Joost, Michaël Kalbermatten

International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing2010