Bovine respiratory disease (BRD), and resulting pneumonia caused by viral and/or bacterial pathogens, is the most common disease affecting the cattle industry globally. Calf pneumonia is a cause of major economic loss, affecting over a million animals across the UK and costing the UK dairy industry ~£60-80million pa. While BRD can affect up to 50% of cattle, with resulting fatalities of up to 10%, half of all cases are often not detected or treated at the time of infection, potentially resulting in a lifelong reduction in productivity and costing up to an estimated £1k per infected animal. Detection of BRD/pneumonia in calves is currently through clinical signs, usually first identified, and often treated, by the farmer with the application of anti-inflammatories and/or antibiotics. However, many of these symptoms can be subtle, or an indication of other diseases. Early stage diagnosis of BRD in calves provides a means for early intervention to effectively treat the disease, and limit its spread, reducing the use of antibiotics, improving animal welfare, and increasing lifelong potential milk yields by as much as 8%. The innovation delivered by this project is a fast response capnometer for early stage diagnosis and management of BRD/pneumonia respiratory conditions. This technique has been successfully deployed for use in diagnosis/ management of chronic respiratory conditions in humans, supported by previous input from team members in this project. Competitive techniques include remote temperature sensing and behaviour monitoring, neither of which are specific to respiratory disease but could be complementary to the proposed sensor system. This project draws on Albasense's novel fast-response solid state gas sensor technology; Wideblue's electro-mechanical systems design and integration; Paragon's veterinary expertise; and McCaskie's knowledge of innovative technologies in the sector, to address this key challenge of the dairy industry. At a time when skilled labour is at an all-time low and input costs high, improving productivity and margins for dairy farmers is critical to sustaining the UK industry and dairy supply chain. The adoption of novel sensing technologies can add value beyond the mere financial, for overstretched and under pressure farmers.

The environmental impact of cattle is frequently challenged, particularly with regard to methane production, yet significant variations in carbon emissions (per unit of milk or meat) exist between countries, farming systems, herds and individual animals. This project utilises the latest technology to determine and demonstrate the best model in breeding cattle for improved sustainability, establishing a line of highly methane-efficient animals for dissemination of these hugely important genetics throughout the industry, and showing the importance of cattle breeding as an integral part of farming strategy as we look to achieve net zero by 2050 and beyond whilst ensuring and improving health, welfare and food security.

The global demand for dairy products continues to grow (combination of increased per capita consumption by 20%, and an increase in population to 9 billion by 2050, FAO), and this demand must be met in an efficient and environmentally sustainable manner. This project will support early pregnancy establishment in lactating dairy cows by the use of either trophoblastic vesicles (embryos containing only the cells which support placental development), or parthenogenetic embryos (non-viable embryos containing only female chromosomes) in addition to artificial insemination. Improving dairy cow fertility in early lactation will increase feed conversion efficiency, and reduce the numbers removed from the herd due to infertility. This allows cows to remain in the herd for longer, thereby improving animal welfare and increasing lifetime production, whilst reducing overall numbers required. The reduction in overall herd size will reduce the environmental impact arising from greenhouse-gas emissions from the UK dairy herd.

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Genetic improvement is imperative to increase the efficiency of milk and meat production in developing countries, improving the availability of healthy nutritious food, maximising feed efficiency and minimising environmental impacts. Utilising genomic selection, ovum pick-up (OPU) and in-vitro embryo production (IVP) routine selection and breeding is accelerated - no genes are modified. So highly desirable UK genetic traits can be sent to Zimbabwe cost effectively, minimising biosecurity risks, and allowing calves to adapt to the environment from birth. This breeding plan will then multiply these genetics locally utilising multiple ovulation embryo transfer (MOET), developing a genomic index to reselect, reamplify and rapidly accelerate genetic gain. There are 3 key objectives: 1. To investigate the likely performance of implanting selected bovine embryos produced by OPU/IVP in the UK into indigenous cattle in Zimbabwe; 2. To develop and optimise an embryo production and transfer platform in Zimbabwe to amplify the imported genetics into more herds; and 3. To develop a new veterinary-led animal health service, facilitating the establishment of a practice supporting local dairy farmers with high quality veterinary care and health management including reproductive technologies.

"Significant advances are being made in technologies associated with cattle breeding that seek to improve production efficiency, animal health and welfare whilst minimising environmental impact. These advances are motivated, in part, by the increased global demand for milk and beef, and a public desire that this is achieved in a sustainable manner. This project seeks to develop in vitro embryo production as a tool to facilitate enhanced genetic improvement. Specifically, it will manufacture new equipment to recover more oocytes (eggs) per donor-cow cycle (i.e. via ovarian-follicular flushing) and to create a new generation of improved media for the culture of embryos within the laboratory. Collectively, these technical innovations will increase embryo production efficiency and lead to higher pregnancy rates following transfer. This, in turn, will lead to increased rates of genetic improvement by breeding from only the best cows. Cattle breeders are eager to engage with and utilise this technology in order to improve the health, productivity and efficiency of their herds. This will enable farmers to produce and rear animals more suited to their farming system with greater precision. This will, in turn, reduce demand for resources such as animal feed, fertilisers and pesticides, and a reduction in animal waste and greenhouse gas emissions."

To make high-throughput laser-assisted biopsy of in-vitro produced bovine embryos available to commercial breeders in order to undertake genetic evaluation prior to transfer. It will also determine if the techniques involved can improve pregnancy rates of non-biopsied embryos.

This project will apply advanced breeding technologies to produce (both in-vivo and in-vitro) pre-implantation bovine embryos from which biopsies will be taken to interrogate their genomic makeup using single nucleotide polymorphism arrays (SNP chips). It is currently possible to screen dairy and beef cattle genomically, but responses to selection are impeded by waiting for the gestation of the calf on which genomic selection is performed. The screening of bovine embryos will optimise the delivery and amplification of superior genetics by advancing the time of selection and reducing “wastage” of unwanted calves. This project will therefore combine advanced embryo breeding technologies with state-of-the-art genomic screening (so called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis), and karyomapping (combining parental DNA information with the offspring's genomic information to provide more genetic detail). The project will develop strategies for optimal bovine embryo biopsy, cryopreservation and genomic screening of small cell numbers. It will provide proof of principle that the new technologies can be used to deliver superior genetics more efficiently to the breeding herd.

To develop an Enterprise Platform for Embryo Inventory Management, using a bespoke software system. The software will be designed to offer a multi access, web based database for veterinary advanced breeding technologies with both sheep and cattle.

This project will apply advanced breeding technologies to amplify and distribute bovine genetics to increase production efficiency and sustainability. Strand 1;- Utilisation of "ovum pickup" (OPU) and "in-vitro embryo production" (IVP) to accelerate the speed of genetic gain in cattle (3 times faster than "multiple ovulation embryo transfer" (MOET) and 12 times faster than conventional breeding). There is a need to; improve reliability and consistency of embryo production; improve efficacy of sexed semen in IVF; develop "quick thaw" systems; expand the network of collection and transfer centres; create a route to export for sexed, frozen embryos. Strand 2;- Development of robust techniques to allow rapid, affordable, real-time assessment of bovine fertility interventions; identify criteria within the OPU/IVP system that act as fertility markers.