Project Number: 5438-32000-023-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Nov 17, 2001
End Date: Nov 16, 2006

Objective:
1) Identify nucleotide sequence variation in host genes that play a fundamental role in the infection process and 2) identify DNA sequences that are associated with susceptibility or resistance to infectious disease, 3) provide a secure, well-annotated database of nucleotide seqence data, and associated biological data, of relevant viral pathogens affecting livestock.

Approach:
Infectious diseases in livestock are a significant source of economic loss and represent a potential risk to human health. Improvements in herd health and food safety may result, for example, if individuals with the highest risk for infectious disease are eliminated from the production cycle. The ultimate goal of functional genomics with regard to animal health is to read an animal's DNA sequence and estimate its risk of acquiring or maintaining infections. Before this can be accomplished, there are two key issues to address: 1) the identification of nucleotide sequence variation in host genes that play a fundamental role in the infection process and 2) the identification of DNA sequences that are associated with susceptibility of resistance to infectious disease. This project 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 reading an animal's DNA sequence for estimating its risk of acquiring or maintaining infections. In addition a database containing a set of well-annotated genomc sequences of viral pathogens currently on the threast list, and sequences of known pathogens that produce disease similar to those caused by threat list agents. Beyond providing the basis for analysis of pathogen isolates, this high quality core of reference sequences will enable the discovery of association between pathogen sequence and phenotypes on a scale not yet approached in livestock infectious disease research.

Project Team

Heaton, Michael Clawson, Michael Laegreid, William

Project Annual Reports

FY 2003   FY 2002

Related National Programs

Animal Health (103)

Related Projects

Genetic Mechanisms for Host Cell Resistance to Viral Pathogens    A Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (Snp) Marker Set for Dna-Based Traceback in North American Beef and Dairy Cattle