Empowerment of the Italian small ruminant sector: new traits and tools toward a sustainable management

This work summarizes the main results of the CHEESR project, a national initiative with the aim of introducing innovative tools for biodiversity conservation and genetic improvements of the Italian small ruminant populations. Pedigrees from 81 breeds and genomic data from 11 case-study breeds have been analyzed. These, together with the collection of new phenotypes, led to the development of welfare- and health-related genomic tools for the first time in Italian sheep and goats. The introduction of these new instruments, which will continue with the SHEEP&GOAT project, will contribute to devise new strategies for sustainable development of the Italian small ruminant sector.