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Australia’s cattle industry is set to reap significant economic benefits from the recent completion of the bovine DNA sequence, according to one of Australia’s leading cattle geneticists.
Dr Bill Barendse from CSIRO Livestock Industries and a research leader for the Beef Cooperative Research Centre (Beef CRC), Australia’s largest integrated beef research program, predicts the complete DNA sequence from the international bovine genome project will form the backbone of livestock research for the next half century. (CSIRO contributed US$1m to the US$54m sequencing project.)
“Using the bovine sequence will eliminate much of the guesswork of cattle genetics in future and will help improve the health and disease management of cattle whilst also improving the nutritional value of beef products,” said Dr Barendse.
“In turn, this precision cattle breeding will significantly improve the profitability of Australian beef herds,” Dr Barendse added.
“Scientists in the sequencing project have been looking for genetic markers known as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs. SNPs can help identify specific genetic traits such as meat tenderness, marbling, reproductive performance or resistance to parasites such as ticks,” said Dr Barendse.
According to Dr Barendse SNPs can also be used to work out how genetic traits can be switched on or off to control economically important traits like feed efficiency.
To value add the multi-million dollar sequencing project for Australia’s cattle industry, the Beef CRC collaborated with EMBRAPA in Brazil and the International Livestock Research Institute (IRLA) in Kenya. The three organisations each contributed additional cash to specifically develop a new genotyping tool for use in Bos indicus cattle such as the Brahman, Droughtmaster and Santa Gertrudis breeds.
7,000 new SNPs unique to Bos indicus cattle have been identified using the funds and will now be used to assist in the discovery of genes associated with tropically adapted cattle.
“The international sequencing project, coordinated in the United States, originally only looked at European breeds of cattle,” said Dr Heather Burrow, Beef CRC Chief Executive. “But more than half of the Australian cattle herd is derived from Indian or African breeds from tropical areas. It was therefore essential that genomic tools be developed for use specifically in tropically adapted cattle,” she said.
”Gene discovery and gene expression for traits important to beef production will take the cattle industry through the 21st century,” Dr Burrow said, “and will create precision breeding and management strategies that will value add the Australian industry by millions of dollars each year.”
For more information:
Warwick Fraser, Beef CRC Communication Manager, (02) 6773 3795 or 0408 776 673
Dr Heather Burrow, Beef CRC CEO, (02) 6773 3512
Dr Bill Barendse, CSIRO Livestock Industries and Beef CRC Research Leader, (07) 3214 2444
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