I-Corps: Prognostic test for dairy heifer selection

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种检测方法，以确定无法存活到2岁或将是低产奶者的小牛。这项拟议技术的目标是减少奶牛场必须饲养的替代牛犊的数量，这样奶牛场就可以将资源集中在饲养健康、高效、多产的牛犊上，并降低成本、饲料废物以及甲烷和粪便的生产。在最初的24个月内，小母牛的死亡损失和淘汰可能高达20%，导致每头小母牛损失1800-2400美元。目前，奶牛场面临着将这些小母牛提高到生产年龄(2岁)，以确定哪些小母牛应该保留，哪些小母牛只需要保留50%作为替代品时进行扑杀。这每年增加约90万美元的成本，用于喂养和护理小母牛，这些小母牛本应在不到一周大的时候被出售并饲养用于牛肉，这使得小母牛饲养成为奶牛第二大成本。此外，拟议的技术还可以用于开发其他促进能源效率、牛奶产量和健康的产品，如心磷脂、益生菌、益生菌、维生素水平以上的产品，以及对酮症、脂肪肝、肥胖症和低钙症等疾病的新疗法的开发。这项i-Corps项目基于线粒体功能预测分析的开发，以识别无法活到2岁或产奶能力低的小牛。线粒体是细胞的能量发生器，在代谢灵活性中发挥着关键作用，代谢灵活性是指线粒体对免疫挑战、能量限制、哺乳和妊娠等生理变化做出反应的能力。线粒体有自己的基因组，是母系遗传的，然而，目前的基因测试不包括它们对产奶量或寿命的影响。建议的预后分析是基于对线粒体活性的测量，并包括年龄、产奶量水平和电子传递链中特定的线粒体酶活性之间的明显关系。根据3-5日龄小牛犊的测试数据，直到第二次哺乳，所建议的检测方法已被证明可以预测死亡和扑杀。这表明，检测结果可以预测生存能力，并可以用来确定支持线粒体功能的潜在干预措施，从而改善免疫功能和牛奶产量。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to develop an assay to identify calves that will not survive to 2 years of age or will be low milk producers. The goal of the proposed technology is to reduce the number of calves that must be raised by dairies as replacements so dairies may focus their resources on raising healthy, efficient, productive calves and reduce costs, feed waste, and methane and manure production. During the first 24 months of age, heifer death loss and culling can be as high as 20% resulting in a loss of $1800-$2400 per heifer. Currently, dairies are faced with raising these heifers to a productive age (2 years old) to determine which heifers to keep and which to cull when they only need to keep 50% as replacements. This adds approximately $900,000 in costs per year to feed and care for heifers that should have been sold and raised for beef at less than 1 week of age, making heifer raising the second largest cost for a dairy. In addition, the proposed technology also may be used to enable the development of other products that promote energy efficiency, milk production and health such as cardiolipin, prebiotics, probiotics, supra levels of vitamins as well as the development of novel therapies for diseases such as ketosis, fatty liver, obesity, and hypocalcaemia.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a prognostic assay of mitochondrial function to identify calves that will not survive to 2 years of age or will be low milk producers. Mitochondria are cellular energy generators and play a key role in metabolic flexibility - the ability of mitochondria to respond to physiological changes such as immune challenge, energy restriction, lactation, and gestation. Mitochondria have their own genome and are maternally inherited, however, current genetic tests do not include their impact on milk production or longevity. The proposed prognostic assay is based on measuring mitochondrial activity and includes distinct relationships between age, level of milk production, and specific mitochondrial enzyme activities within the electron transport chain. The proposed assay has been shown to predict death and culling based on data from calves tested at 3-5 days of age and followed through to their second lactation. This suggests that the assay results may predict survivability and could be used to identify potential interventions that support mitochondrial function resulting in improved immune function and milk production.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.