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Food, fibre and pharmaceuticals from animals
REVIEW

The role of molecular genetics in livestock production

Gregório Miguel Ferreira de Camargo
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Avenida Adhemar de Barros, 500, Departamento de Zootecnia, Escola de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Ondina, Salvador, Bahia, 41170-110, Brazil. Email: gregorio.camargo@ufba.br

Animal Production Science 59(2) 201-206 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN18013
Submitted: 6 January 2018  Accepted: 4 May 2018   Published: 4 July 2018

Abstract

Genetic variations that lead to easy-to-identify phenotypic changes have always been of interest to livestock breeders since domestication. Molecular genetics has opened up possibilities for identifying these variations and understanding their biological and population effects. Moreover, molecular genetics is part of the most diverse approaches and applications in animal production nowadays, including paternity testing, selection based on genetic variants, diagnostic of genetic diseases, reproductive biotechniques, fraud identification, differentiation of hybrids, parasite identification, genetic evaluation, diversity studies, and genome editing, among others. Therefore, the objective of this review was to describe the different applications of molecular genetics in livestock production, contextualising them with examples and highlighting the importance of the study of these topics and their applications.

Additional keywords: animal husbandry, genetic variation, molecular markers.


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