PhD Student
Purdue University
My name is Artur Oliveira Rocha, I am from Sao Luis-MA Brazil. I obtained my DVM degree from the Federal University of Piaui. I participated in research projects as an undergraduate research assistant during this period. They all aimed to select sheep and goats that were more productive and resistant to infections by gastrointestinal parasites. In parallel, I also participated in projects on the genetic diversity of local breeds of chickens and the association of genes with carcass phenotypes. I am a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Animal Sciences at Purdue University, co-advised by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I participate in the Sheep GEMS project, a USDA-funded project to investigate sheep breeds in the United States genetically. Focusing on objective 3 of this project, I am exploring genotyping strategies to optimize the genetic gain and implement the genomic evaluation of flocks participating in the National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP).