Agriculture and animal husbandry have strong ties to the history of genetics — Darwin, after all, relied heavily on evidence from livestock to shore up his evolutionary theory in Origin. This (rather technical) article illustrates the continued importance of farmers, in this particular case sheep breeders, in providing practical knowledge and production using modern medical technology and an understanding of genetics.
Having more or less mastered the balance of fat to muscle in their stock, sheep breeders may next be trying to perfect low-heritability traits such as health and reproduction.
View the original article here: Sheep breeders at cutting edge of genetics
