Could faecal moisture score be used to help select against DAG score in sheep?

Abstract

Daginess in sheep is undesirable with the most important reason being increased risk of flystrike and subsequent management costs. Genetic selection against daginess is possible by recording dag score on animals and using resultant ASBVs to guide selection. However additional correlated trait information could add strength to genetic evaluation of animals for dag notably if the correlated trait is closely linked genetically. One potentially correlated trait is faecal moisture, as this is likely to effect the formation of dag in sheep. Faecal moisture is often scored with worm egg counts and could also be assessed in animals not expressing dag due to environmental conditions.