The meeting took place to present the team and the project. All team members belonging to the three participating institutions were present. The different phases of the project were discussed and the tasks distributed according to the areas of expertise.
The meeting also served to outline the sampling plan and discuss the methodologies, including the technological advances and new opportunities since the submission of the project. In this regard, it was decided to replace genotyping by Illumina SNP50 Beadchip proposed in the project, by the recently available Illumina Ovine HD Beadchip. The OvineHD Beadchip, with over 600,000 SNPs, includes nearly all genomic variants of the original OvineSNP50. The higher density of SNP will dramatically increase the ability to identify genetic markers responsible for the phenotypic characteristics under analysis.
Additionally, collaboration with the Institute of Parasitology and Tropical Veterinary Medicine of the University of Berlin for determining resistance to benzimidazoles by pyrosquencing and with the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production of the Universitá degli Studi di Napoli Federico II for the epidemiological study of parasites, using the Mini-Flotac device, was proposed.