Aboshady Hadeer

My PhD in a nutshell:

One way to meet the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050 is to rapidly improve productivity and resources utilization in livestock farming systems. Small ruminants are a very valuable species, since they can be bred for multiple purposes and their raising and farming is less restricted by the environmental setting. Nevertheless limitations, especially due to diseases, will need to be taken care of to allow their efficiency and to avoid possible risks to the human health. Gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) have been identified as a major constraint for grazing ruminant production. Even though a number of strategies for the control of GIN infection have been identified and successfully implemented, long term experiences have shown their limitations. A focus on a more sustainable solution is therefore needed. The identification of biomarkers has been suggested since their application will allow the breeding of resistant or more tolerant animals. The project will focus on the identification of useful markers using genetic data from a goat population established at INRA in Guadeloupe (France). The aim of the study is to identify regions of the genome, which are differentially expressed in goats susceptible and resistant to GIN. The application of bioinformatics and other analytical tools and methods will be in the focus of this project.