Profile: Professor Jon Hickford and the gene marker lab

Jon Hickford (left) in the gene-marker laboratory with one of their honours students.

Jon Hickford is a professor of animal breeding and genetics at Lincoln University, Canterbury. He joined as a student in 1983 and with a small break of three years he has been there since.

“In that time I have taught across a huge range of disciplines from genetics and breeding to molecular biology and biochemistry, and then the more practical aspects of agriculture, meat and wool production.”

He has now partly retired to pursue a range of personal and commercial interests.

“With research, I have published over 250 refereed scientific articles, working with students and colleagues from across the globe. I have supervised research projects for over 100 postgraduate students, with many of them going to establish their own successful careers across the globe and here in NZ.

“I have twice been the president of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science and am a Fellow and Honorary Fellow of that institute. I have won major prizes for my research work in New Zealand and offshore.

“The Lincoln University Gene Marker Laboratory came about in the late 90s courtesy of the research that I was doing with my students. Using DNA analyses, we had revealed that we could differentiate sheep based on their immune response to the organisms that cause footrot, and accordingly select sheep that were less susceptible. This underpinning research is now widely cited, and the test developed from that research used across many different countries. It works irrespective of breed. In the last year, that test remains our biggest earner commercially.”

The inherited disease dermatosparaxis in a lamb that was brought in for tailing. The lamb was euthanised. Based on this poor lamb and others we developed a gene test for dermatosparaxis. We suspect that we might have eradicated the disease in New Zealand sheep.

“Since then, we have commercialised a range of other tests, including tools to select sheep that are more cold tolerant, less susceptible to scrapie, and more fertile. We have tests for sheep that carry genetic mutations causing microphthalmia, Gaucher disease, and dermatosparaxis, and cattle tests for Celtic polled genetics, SLICK and A2 milk. Our full range of tests is available here.

“We have more tests in development, looking at such things as wool traits, intramuscular fat, subcutaneous fat and growth and other cattle traits with milk production. There are currently nine people working in the laboratory, either as students, foreign visitors or commercial staff. I would be lost without my two ‘right-hand men’, principal research scientist Dr Huitong Zhou and technical officer Dr Freeman Fang, my colleagues of near on 25 years.

Tailing – as the tails are cut off the sheep, the lab collects blood from the tail for DNA typing.

“The gene testing we undertake allows breeders and their clients to select superior genetics and cull sheep that carry undesirable/lethal mutations. They can make better-informed breeding decisions, that do contribute to their bottom line.

“Each test has unique benefits, with use for breeding, but also for screening sheep and cattle genetics for export. We try hard to keep the cost of gene testing as low as possible, and as the first laboratory to offer commercial testing [dating back to 1999], our competitors have multimillion or even billion-dollar backers, so I like to think we hold them to account a little. Most of our tests have been developed with farmers for farmers, so we have our feet well placed on the ground, and Lincoln University does of course have a great reputation for delivering to NZ agriculture since 1878.

“With sheep, we have worked assiduously with Australian and New Zealand stud Texel breeders to eradicate the mutation that causes microphthalmia in Texel sheep. The disease renders sheep blind, and yet we still see unregistered breeders and some sheep genetics importers NOT testing, so the mutant form of the gene is still entering the country and a cost to NZ sheep production.

Bright Wool testing at The Doone in North Canterbury. Our ambition is to produce strong wool of much higher quality using testing to reduce fibre variability and improve quality.

“Working with various sheep industry people [breeders and AI/embryo transfer experts] we have been trying to get MPI to mandate compulsory gene testing, but to no avail. We know of Texel studs in the UK that are riddled with microphthalmia and that export to NZ, and it was only earlier this year that the British Texel Sheep Breeders Society decided to do something about the problem, targeting 2026 for implementation.”