Nattrass, G.Banks, R.Pitchford, W.2012-06-142012-06-142011Proceedings of the 19th Conference of the Australian Association for the Advancement of of Animal Breeding and Genetics, held in Perth, Western Australia, 19-21 July, 2011: pp.247-250http://hdl.handle.net/2440/71547Telomere DNA length exhibits an age-related decline in humans and it is emerging as a potential biomarker for longevity and fitness. As telomere DNA length in humans is a heritable trait, we assessed whether variation in telomere DNA length in sheep correlated with Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) for a range of production traits. The genetic relationship between telomere length and ASBVs was generally low, with the highest associations observed for birth weight (0.14), fatness (-0.14; CFAT) and two wool quality traits; staple strength (-0.1) and coefficient of variation in fibre diameter (0.15).en© Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics, 2011Conference paper002011900224559Pitchford, W. [0000-0002-5213-3978]