ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Genet.

Sec. Livestock Genomics

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1635947

Estimation of breed composition of South African sheep affected with wet carcass syndrome

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Agricultural Research Council of South Africa (ARC-SA), Pretoria, South Africa
  • 2University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
  • 3University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
  • 4Delta G, Miles City, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Wet carcass syndrome (WCS), a condition that negatively affects the quality of carcasses after slaughter, is seriously threatening the South African sheep industry. Despite its economic impact, the underlying genetic mechanisms of WCS remain unknown. Initially, WCS was predominantly observed in Dorper sheep, leading to speculation that the condition was breed-specific. However, recent reports indicate WCS has occurred in various sheep breeds. This study aimed to determine whether WCS is breed-specific and whether breed composition influences its incidence. Meat samples from 164 WCSaffected and 83 unaffected sheep were collected and genotyped using the Ovine 50K SNP Bead Chip. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and ancestry matrix assessments revealed that WCS-affected and unaffected sheep belonged to different commercial breeds. Additionally, crossbred animals were affected. These findings suggest that WCS is strongly associated with breed and that Dorper and Merino-types show heightened susceptibility. The genetic diversity of the affected animals suggests a multifactorial etiology, potentially involving environmental and managerial factors. Future studies should also explore the physiological mechanisms underlying WCS, including metabolic and stressrelated pathways, to develop effective prevention strategies.

Keywords: case-control study, meat quality, breed specificity, Population Genomics, and ovine genetics, Genetic admixture

Received: 27 May 2025; Accepted: 02 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Kooverjee, Van Der Nest, MacNeil, Scholtz, Neser and Soma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Bhaveni B Kooverjee, Agricultural Research Council of South Africa (ARC-SA), Pretoria, South Africa

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