| 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.
المشاركات
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق