The ability of scientists to improve health and disease management of cattle and enhance the nutritional value of beef and dairy products has received a major boost with the release this week of the most complete sequence of the cow genome ever assembled.
“This is very valuable information,” Dr Ross Tellam says. “We could potentially achieve as much improvement in cattle breeding and production in 50 years as we have over the last 8000 years of traditional farming.”
Cattle geneticists will use the bovine genome as a template to highlight genetic variation within and between cattle breeds, and between cattle and other mammal species.
“We can use this data to identify those genes that are involved in important functions like lactation, reproduction, muscling, growth rate and disease resistance,” Dr Brian Dalrymple says.
I wonder how much guidance will come from considerations of public health and nutrition — and how much from agri-business and Walt Disney?
[Thanks to SN for reminding me of this illustration]
Why do you guys hate science so much?
We blame the cow’s bad genetics for all the horrible things we’ve done to their environment and bodies with chemicals and limited living space and the problems surfacing from the fact that we feed these herbivores their own species ground up in their food to speed weight gain.
Yeah, it’s the cows bad genetics that need fixed.{sarcasm}
BTW, anyone older than mid 30′s remember when the non-GM food actually had some enjoyable natural taste to it and didn’t require all the flavoring it needs today? The majority of fruits and vegs today look nice but taste like cardboard and the fact that apples don’t turn all brown when cut and left out anymore is a visual clue to the reason.
Quote: “Why do you guys hate science so much?”
We don’t, Frankenstein was a marvelous creation!
Frankenstein was a character, not a real person.
Chernobyl was real…
21,
wellllll,
Because Nature has been doing it for Alooonnngggg time, and has come to this point. Science, has been doing it for, MAYBE, 200 years…
But we have stagnated the advancement of cattle…WE, us, not nature has been controlling its advancment for 1000′s of years.
Go to the middle east and try and find a Jersey, or ANY of the cattle we have in domesticated reagions.
I’ll have to take my camera to the Oregon State Fair, next week, just in case I spot one of those “heifers” posing!
Who knows, I may even get a picture of the Virgin Mary…