Towards sustainable agriculture: Using genomics to understand Cryptosporidium infection in cattle breeds

仅在2017年，就有190万头牛死于非捕食性原因，其中呼吸系统问题占损失比例最高（26.9%），其次是消化系统问题（15.4%）（美国农业部），总死亡损失价值38.7亿美元。隐孢子虫病是一种主要的消化系统疾病，由原生动物寄生虫隐孢子虫引起。在牛中，特别是在集约化养牛系统中，隐孢子虫病被认为是全球流行病，据报告欧洲牛群粪便样本中隐孢子虫的流行率为13%至93%。虽然这一经济成本很高，但目前可用于防治它的工具相对较少，没有现有的疫苗，只有一种效用有限的药物。我们最近在几个欧盟农场发现了对隐孢子虫感染具有抗性的牛，这个项目的目的是了解这种抗性的遗传基础。为此，学生将结合生物信息学和湿实验室技术对来自英国和欧盟农场的动物进行基因分型。然后，利用最先进的种群基因组技术，他们将确定区分受感染动物和健康动物的基因组区域。然后，这项研究将扩大到包括来自南亚的牛品种，目的是在世界范围内确定耐药品种。

Only during 2017, ~1.9 million cattle were lost to nonpredator causes, with respiratory problems accounting for the highest percentage of losses (26.9%), followed by digestive problems (15.4%) (USDA), representing a combined death loss valued at $3.87 billion. One of the main digestive diseases is cryptosporidiosis, caused by the protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium. In cattle, and especially for intensive cattle farming systems, cryptosporidiosis is considered globally endemic, with a prevalence of Cryptosporidium in stool samples of European cattle herds reported to range from 13% to 93%. Although this high economic cost, relatively few tools are currently available to combat it, with no existing vaccine and only one drug of limited utility. We have recently identified cattle resistant to Cryptosporidium infection in several EU farms, and the aim of this project is to understand the genetic basis of this resistance. To do so, the student will combine bioinformatics and wet-lab techniques to genotype animals from UK and EU farms. Then using state-of-the-art population genomics techniques, they will identify genomic regions differentiating infected from healthy animals. The study will then be expanded to include cattle breeds from South Asian origin with the aim to identify resistant breeds worldwide.