HOW HAS BIOTECHNOLOGY IMPROVED CATTLE PRODUCTION IN AFRICA?

Biotech in cattle

Biotechnology is the application of in-genuine biological principles in manipulating living organisms or their derivatives to either improve or multiply a product. Biotechnology is a means by which you can produce useful products from raw materials with the help of living organisms or other biological processes (Gupta et al., 2012). Biotechnology has in recent years emerged as a powerful tool to improve various livestock products including milk and meat products (Gupta et al., 2012).

In Africa, biotechnology has a great potential in improving food security thus the careful interpretation of relevant biotech techniques in livestock production is of utmost importance (Kahi et al., 2008). Here I will review some improvements and recent development application of biotechnology techniques in the cattle industry in Africa. Biotechnology techniques have been applied to several areas in the cattle industry:

Production of high yielding cattle with improved attributes and resistance: The transgenic technique is used to develop cattle with desirable characteristics and improve growth rate causing effective changes like improved milk production in cattle. Transgenesis is a technique that involves the manipulation of genes of one organism which can subsequently be introduced into the genome of another organism of the same or other species in such a way that the genes are not only expressed but also get transmitted to its progeny. For example, Transgenic dairy cows have been developed to produce milk containing specific human proteins that helped in the treatment of human emphysema; Cloned transgenic cattle are made to produce an increased amount of Beta and Kappa casein in milk fat and increased level of human lactoferrin (Kahi et al., 2008). These Transgenic cows as well produce more milk with less lactose and cholesterol; about 90% of people of African and Asian origin have lactose intolerance.

Transgenic cow

Production of cattle with good carcass quality: Biotech is used to manipulate the lipoprotein receptor and leptin genes which cause a reduction in the cholesterol and fat level contents in beef. Thus, beef cattle with low cholesterol and fat are now easily made available in the market.

Injection of growth hormones in cattle: Biotech has been used to produce growth hormones that have been found to stimulate the growth rate of the animals. A hormone called Bovine Somatotropin (BST) improves the growth rate by 20% and the lean fat ratio by 40% when introduced into the cattle (Kahi et al., 2008). It can also increase milk yield by as much as 10 to 15 percent in lactating cows.

hormonal injection

Production of enzymes used in the dairy industry: The treatment of milk with galactosidase (an enzyme) makes it easily digestible by lactose-intolerant people. It is also possible to produce enzymes used in the dairy industry on a large scale with Biotech at a cheaper rate.   

enzymes production

Bio-preservation of cattle products and byproducts: the fear of people to consume preserved cattle products can be reduced if biotech techniques are used for preservation. Biotechnology techniques have been used to preserve these animal products in an extremely safe and healthy condition for consumption. Biotech help in suppressing spoilage of cattle products by the addition of certain antimicrobial agents thereby improving the shelf life and safety of the products to consume. It is an economical, nutritional and therapeutical method of preservation that tends to be beneficial to both the manufacturers and consumers (Gupta et al., 2012).

Efficient utilization of cattle byproducts: Biotechnology has made it possible to get several by-products ranging from cheese to ascorbic acid which has a high market value. Not only that, the yeast which is also a byproduct from the dairy industry can be converted to single-cell protein supplements in animal feed. Also, some other byproducts when treated with enzymes can be easily metabolized by microorganisms to produce antibiotics and hormones needed in chemical and pharmaceutical companies.

Breeding in cattle: Biotechnology can be used to genetically modified cattle in a very short time if the appropriate and desirable genes have been identified. Biotechnology can be used to greatly increase the rate at which desirable characteristics like better growth rates or increased milk production in cattle can be introduced. While classical breeding to enhance animal traits works well, it takes decades to produce major changes. The recent breakthrough in cattle reproduction is that high-value heifers can be used in breeding long before they reached their normal breeding age using a biotech technique known as Oocyte Pick-Up (OPU) where oocytes from heifers (11-12months old) are harvested twice a week for embryo production and transfer.

Another technique that is also in use in the cattle industry is Multiple Ovulation and Embryo Transfer (MOET) this technique allows for superior females to also have an effect in effecting genetic changes and giving control over the sex of the animal. However, these techniques allow for sexing, cloning, micromanipulation of gametes and embryo for splitting and gene transfer in cattle. The usage is not foreseeable in Africa in the near future owing to the poor infrastructure facilities and economy of the African countries. Nevertheless, the common biotechnology techniques used mainly in Africa are the Artificial Insemination and hormonal treatment which aids the increased production and release of oocyte and embryo for ovulation to take place.

MOET

 Cattle Nutrition:  most of the feeds consumed by cattle are fibrous with varying level of digestibility and nutritive values. Some of these feeds such as forages, grasses and the likes contained a certain level of anti-nutritional content which need to be removed to make it palatable and easily digestible for the cattle and this can be done through plant breeding. However, biotech techniques like the manipulation of rumen microbial population through alkali treatment, microbial balancing and genetic manipulations are probably the most reliable means of enhancing degradation of feeds with high fiber content to improve intake by the animals. In making silage, silage can be treated with enzymes that can help inhibit the bacterial growth in order to facilitate fermentation by lactic acid bacteria to give good quality silage.

Animal Health: biotech has made the production of more stable, specific and safe recombinant vaccines compared to conventional vaccines to prevent against pathogens and parasites in cattle. At a relatively economical rate on a commercial scale, the vaccines can be made readily available to the smallholder farms.

vaccination in cattle

genetically modified cattle

genetically modified bull

Biotechnology has in time past caused positive changes in livestock industry leading to improved and sustained production of livestock animals but, it adoption and use still suffers some setbacks in Africa due to the poor facilities that can encourage biotech, economy and system of farming widely practiced; Extensive and Semi-intensive system of keeping livestock animals are mainly used in Africa. Nevertheless, biotech can be seen as the future in the livestock industry especially in cattle and its use must be encouraged in Africa.  

REFERENCES

Anonymous. Applied Biotechnology in Animal Production. Available at:

http://www.fftc.agnet.org/library/

Gupta S, Savaliya CV (2012). Application of biotechnology to improve livestock products,

VetWorld, 5(10): Pp634-638.

A. K. Kahi and T. O. Rewe (2008). Biotechnology in livestock production: Overview of

possibilities for Africa. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 7 (25), pp. 4984-4991.

Khan, F., Saeed, A., Haider, S., Ahmed, K., & Ahmed, A. (2017). Application of Biotechnology

to Agriculture- Review article. World Journal of Biology and Biotechnology, 2(1), Pp. 135-138.