Sheep Industry News November 2023

A methionine research project at the Arlington (Wis.) Sheep Research Unit might one day lead to a greater understanding of how the diet of a person’s parents and grandparents affect their overall health. It’s a vast undertak ing with a long way to go, but in the short term the project has provided a lifeline of funding for the unit. Under the leadership of longtime professor Dave Thomas, Ph.D., the University of Wisconsin developed a tremendous commitment to sheep. But when he decided to retire in 2017, the university set about dispersing its dairy flock in Spooner, Wis. Concerned that the same might happen in Arlington, he approached several fellow faculty members about develop ing research projects that would involve the unit’s inhabitants, which consisted of Polpay, Hampshire, Targhee and Rambouil let breeds at the time. “Dr. Thomas was pretty concerned that the lack of research out here was going to cost us the sheep unit,” recalls Arlington Sheep Unit Research Program Manager Todd Taylor. “Dr. Hasan Khatib was one of the first ones he nudged to come up with some ideas for projects, and he came up with this idea right before Dr. Thomas retired. We started getting the framework in place.” METHIONINE PROJECT The research started as a small, pilot project with a minor grant. But positive results from the initial efforts led to a full fledged, five-year study with significant backing from a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant. Dr. Khatib has since applied for a second grant to continue the research. “You’ve heard the old adage: You are what you eat,” Taylor asked? “What we’re looking at is are you what your parents and grandparents ate?” The five-year study fed methionine – an amino acid – to rams to see how it would affect the DNA of the sperm cells. With that study complete, a second project feeding methionine to both rams and ewes will look to see if there is an additive effect. “A lot of this stems around human medicine,” said Taylor, who oversees the methionine feeding process on a daily basis. “A lot of the health issues we see in humans – such as diabetes – could come from the diet that their parents or grandparents were consuming during depressions and wars, and how that diet affected their DNA. It’s an intriguing project.” But the results could also change the way sheep are fed, as those consuming methionine in the project have shown a tendency to reach maturity more quickly, while also develop ing leaner, more heavily muscled carcasses. Sheep are penned in small groups during feeding and hand fed a supplement that includes cracked corn and molasses along with the methionine. “Swine diets are heavy in balancing for specific amino acids, not just overall protein,” Taylor said. “But it was never looked at very hard in ruminant diets. This project isn’t so much about

nutrition as it is in the reproduction of the animal and the DNA it passes on. The other thing that there’s been some evidence of in small animals is that the DNA change can skip genera tions. That’s why the first study followed five generations. We’ve looked at everything from performance traits to wool. We didn’t see any real differences in the wool, so we haven’t looked at that as closely.” For more detailed information on the initial project and its results, go to NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9885981/. “Dr. Khatib told me that having access to those sheep is one of the best things that’s ever happened for his research,” Thomas said. “I was retired by the time they really started those projects, but I’m pleased to see that research going on and to know that it has secured the future of the sheep unit. It’s tough to maintain sheep research because those always seem to be the first projects to go when budgets get cut.” The current project seems less likely to lose funding in such an instance because of its human health implications and will benefit the sheep unit and the industry in the process. “Some of what we’re doing will definitely extrapolate to the sheep industry,” Taylor said. THE SHEEP UNIT “When Dr. Thomas was still at the university, the sheep were

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