The US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has purchased a Fluidigm microfluidic-based EP1 system to help test America's dairy and beef cattle. The system will be used to develop and validate focused 96- and 384-SNP (single-nucleotide polymorphism) panels. ARS scientists are collaborating with members of the US biotechnology industry to develop low-cost, high-throughput SNP panels that can genetically indicate cattle growth rates, disease resistance, milk productivity, health and longevity.To date, ARS has studied more than 100 of the 50,000 previously discovered genetic markers for cattle. The project's goal is to turn out healthier cows that produce higher-quality milk and meat for consumers, while also preserving the viability of the country's thousands of cattle ranchers and dairy farmers. Validated SNP panels are expected to be utilised routinely in livestock breeding management. The ARS project is led by animal geneticist Curtis P Van Tassell.
Under his leadership, ARS scientists are integrating newly identified molecular markers with existing data sources to determine how to raise the predictive accuracy of evaluated traits in cattle, thus increasing the rate of productivity improvement. The project involves top researchers in government, academia and industry to find the best and most cost-effective genetic testing markers and methods to improve the quality and productivity of the country's cattle.
