Applied Genetic and Epigenetic Influences on High and Low Immune Responder Phenotypes of Dairy Cattle

免疫系统是用来控制传染病的，因此我们有理由期望高免疫应答者比低应答者具有健康优势。具有增强免疫反应（IR）的食用动物应具有较低的疾病风险，需要较少的治疗性干预，包括抗生素，从而生产质量更高的牛奶和肉类。圭尔夫大学先前的研究现在允许使用专利测试系统将奶牛和小牛分为高，平均或低免疫反应。为了提供对多种病原体的保护，适应性免疫包括两个组成部分，抗体（AMIR）和细胞介导的免疫反应（CMIR）。对2个研究畜群和一组商业畜群的研究表明，高反应者患病风险较低。AMIR和CMIR的遗传率为~ 0.25，表明有可能通过遗传选择来改善这些性状。正在进行的研究集中在更多地了解影响这些独特和重要表型的分子、基因和DNA结构差异（表观遗传效应）。此外，关于申请还有很多东西要学

The immune system is designed to control infectious disease and it is therefore reasonable to expect that high immune responders will have health advantages compared to low responders. Food-producing animals with enhanced immune responses (IR) should have reduced risk of disease, require less therapeutic intervention, including antibiotics, thereby producing milk and meat of improved quality. Previous research at the University of Guelph now allows dairy cows and calves to be classified as high, average or low immune responders using a patented test system. In order to provide protection against diverse pathogens, adaptive immunity includes two components, antibody (AMIR) and cell-mediated immune responses (CMIR). Studies in 2 research herds and a set of commercial herds show that high responders have lower risk of disease. Heritability of AMIR and CMIR are ~ 0.25 indicating that it is possible to improve these traits via genetic selection. Ongoing research is focused on learning more about the molecules, genes and DNA structural differences (epigenetic effects) that influence these unique and important phenotypes. Additionally, there is great deal more to learn about applying