SMARTER Final Conference

The SMARTER final conference has been organized on 22^nd – 23^rd May 2023 at the Palacio de Congresos de Toledo “El Greco” (Toledo Congress Centre El Greco) in convergence with ICAR’s conference on “Breeding for resilience: transitioning diverse livestock farming systems into the future”. The choice of organizing the SMARTER final conference in connection with the ICAR annual meeting in Toledo was made to maximize the exchanges with stakeholders (European associations, breeders, sheep and goat farmers, inter-professional organisations, technical institutes, NGOs, ministries, etc.). Two kind of publics were gathered: scientists as well as stakeholders interested in the robustness of the animals, and in their breeding for resilience and efficiency. A total of 59 project partners, 12 stakeholders attended the event. Moreover, 112 participants took part to the presentation of the results of SMARTER’s WP4 at the joint SMARTER – ERFP – RUMIGEN session.  During the conference the researchers taking part in the project made 28 presentations.

Below you will find the pdf presentations.

WP1 – Novel traits to improve resource use efficiency

• “Feed efficiency in small ruminants; genetic basis and novel traits for a complex traits” – J.J. Arranz (UNILEON)
• “Phenotypes related to Feed Efficiency in small ruminants” – M. Etancelin (INRAE)
• “Genetic determinism of feed and resource use efficiency” – J. Conington (SRUC)
• “Genetic correlations between feed efficiency and production traits in small ruminants” – I. De Barbieri (INIA-UY)
• “GxE interaction for the resources use efficiency related phenotypes” – S. Vouraki (AUTH)

WP2 – Novel resilience traits to improve health and welfare

• “Highlights” – J. Conington (SRUC)
• “Survival of fetus and young animals” – A. Delpeuch (IDELE) 
• “Behavioural adaptation traits” – S. Vouraki (AUTH)
• “Lifetime resilience” – K. Kaseja (SRUC)

WP3 – Genetic of trade-offs and synergies between resilience & efficiency related traits

• “General intro and major achievements” – R. Rupp (INRAE) and A. Wilson (UEDIN)
• “Toward genetic selection for resilience based on milk metabolites” – M. Ithurbide (INRAE)
• “Towards a resource allocation model for dairy goats building on SMARTER data – N. Friggens (INRAE) 
• “Modelling the energy cost of host resistance to gastrointestinal parasites in meat sheep” – F. Douhard (INRAE) 
• “Evaluation of novel resilience phenotypes based on longitudinal performance measures” – M. Ghaderi Zefreh (UEDIN)

WP4 – Genomic characterization of hardy or underutilised breeds’ envrionmental adaptation using existing and wely generated data

• “Intro” – B. Servin (INRAE)

WP5 – Genomic/genetic modelling and methods of selection for resilient and efficiency traits

• “Introduction to WP5’s objectives and deliverables” – R. Pong-Wong (UEDIN) and A. Legarra (CDCB)
• “Activities coordinated by UEDIN” – R. Pong-Wong (UEDIN)
• “INRAE & friends activities” – A. Legarra (CDCB)

WP6 – Practical selection tools to benefit from international cooperation

• “Intro” – J.M. Astruc (IDELE) and D. Berry (TEAGASC)
• “Low density SNP chip” – J.M. Astruc (IDELE) and D. Berry (TEAGASC)
• “Accross country evaluation” – A. Legarra (CDCB)
• “Initiative for harmonisation and international evaluation” – J.M. Astruc (IDELE)

WP7 – Balanced breeding goals for agro-ecological resilience

• “Delivering more systematic breeding goals for small ruminants in Europe” – T. Byrne (AbacusBio)
• “Agro-ecological impacts of breeding at farm level” – A. Theodoridis (AUTH)
• “Farmers’ breeding management practices: which pattern for different countries?“ – V. Thénard (INRAE)
• “Breeding program modelling for resilience & efficiency in Lacaune sheep” – T. Byrne (AbacusBio)