Phenomics as the central dogma in animal science: linking precision livestock farming with precision animal breeding and selection

As animal breeding relies on the availability of accurate and specific phenotype data to reach its goals, phenotyping is increasingly being recognised as a limiting factor in all applications of livestock genetics and genomics and is fundamental to routine and daily management of livestock populations in order to optimise reproduction strategies, disease control and welfare of the animals. However, there is a knowledge gap on the developing of phenotyping approaches, technologies and methods that should be filled for a long-term sustainable progress in the livestock production system. Phenomics is emerging as a major new technical discipline in biology that has the potential to fill this gap. Phenomics is focused on one major aim: to systematically describe the phenome, referred to as the physical and molecular traits of an organism. European Network on Livestock Phenomics (EU-LI-PHE) is an international network funded by the European COST Association that aims to create a Europe-centred multidisciplinary, interconnected, and inclusive community of experts that will enhance scientific collaboration, catalyse developments, and transfer livestock phenomics concepts and applications to improve the sustainability and competitiveness of the European livestock production sector. EU-LI-PHE links actions, studies and projects with focus on phenotyping technologies and infrastructures for applications in livestock phenomics, approaches and methods for genome to phenome integration in livestock species, computational resources and data analysis methods needed for this big data discipline, and regulatory framework and a societal vision on livestock phenomics.