Introduction

A joint National Program Workshop for the Animal Genomes, Germplasm, Reproduction, and Development Program (NP101) and the Animal Production Systems Program (NP102) was held at the Holiday Inn, College Park, Maryland, on February 13, 2000.  An outcome of the workshop was the merging of the two National Programs to integrate the sciences with the structure and renaming the combined National Program Food Animal Production (NP101). Prospectuses and project plans were developed for 40 projects during 2001.  The peer panels will meet early in 2002 to review the Food Animal Production National Program.

Animal Production, Product Value, and Safety is indebted to Drs. Chadwick Chase, Claud (Rick) Barb, Michael MacNeil, Curtis Van Tassell, and John McMurtry for serving details as Acting National Program Leader (NPL), Food Animal Production.  John Kirby has accepted the NPL position for Food Animal Production and will report to duty in April 2002.  

The Program at Range and Livestock Research Unit was reviewed June 25 to 27, 2001.

An increase of $450,000 for Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 was appropriated for genomics research. 

ARS cohosted the Stakeholders Workshop for Animal Agriculture:  FAIR 2002 Implementation Partnerships, November 27, to 29, 2001 at the Holiday Inn, College Park, Maryland. 

Several scientists were recipients of national research awards, including:

• H. Duane Norman, from the Animal Improvements Program Laboratory, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Beltsville, Maryland, was awarded the American Dairy Science Association 2001 Fellow Award.
• J. Joe Ford from the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, Nebraska, was awarded the American Society of Animal Science Animal Physiology and Endocrinology Award.
• Gary L. Bennett from the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, Nebraska, was awarded the American Society of Animal Science Rockefeller Prentice Award in Animal Breeding and Genetics.

Reproductive Performance 

Increasing value of heifers in beef production systems.  Producers routinely receive less money for heifer calves than for steers that are destined for the feedlot because of reduced productivity associated with estrous activity and pregnancy.  Heifers at the ARS Range and Livestock Research Laboratory, Miles City, Montana, were immunized using three genetically engineered vaccines against a reproductive hormone at approximately 8 months of age.  Estrous cycles were eliminated or prevented in nearly all females that received the sterilization vaccines, while all untreated heifers entered puberty and exhibited regular estrous cycles during the 6month period following immunization.  A sterilization vaccine such as those used in this study could save the beef industry millions of dollars in carcass quality, morbidity, and mortality, and reduce losses associated with pregnant or cyclic heifers in feedlots.

Maintenance and Enhancement of Genetic Diversity

National collection of animal germplasm underway.  The availability of animal genetic resources is important to the future security and profitability of livestock production.  The National Animal Germplasm Program collected samples representing 30 breeds of cattle and 2 breeds of sheep in the repository during FY 2001.  The National collection serves as a secure reserve for U.S. consumers and the livestock industry.

Cloned piglet produced.  Scientists at the ARS Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Beltsville, Maryland, produced a live cloned piglet in collaboration with scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland.  The ability to clone mammals was demonstrated by the birth of Dolly, a sheep and the first true clone of a mammal produced by somaticcell nuclear transfer technology.  Since Dolly, many clones have been produced with nuclear transfer, in cattle and goats, but until recently, there was no success in adapting this technology for use in swine.  These results indicate that cloning may be a viable tool for germplasm regeneration and propagation in many species of livestock.

Product Quality (preharvest)

Development of mating tool to optimize use of gene associated with heavy muscling.  Myostatin is associated with the ?double muscling? syndrome, a phenotype considered undesirable by many producers and results from an animal inheriting two inactive copies of the gene.  However, animals with both an inactive and active form of myostatin demonstrate superior performance and meat tenderness to animals with two active forms of the gene, which is the common form of the gene.  As a result, utilization of inactive myostatin for commercial beef production is complicated by antagonistic effects on economically important traits.  We developed a bioinformatics tool to help producers identify the most profitable mating system among cattle with active and/or inactive myostatin.  Careful use of this tool can lead to increased profit for many production and marketing situations.

Genetic Improvement

Global information on mastitis resistance and dairy conformation traits incorporated into the U.S. dairy genetic evaluation system.  The world's dairy industries are closely united through breeding programs and international genetics companies.  U.S. dairy producers need information on genetic merit of animals and germplasm regardless of the country of origin.  The improved accuracy of U. S. evaluations and genetic indexes for economic merit from including global information will enhance competitiveness of U.S. dairy products, dairy animals, embryos, and semen.

Increasing twinning frequency for higher profitability of small farms.  Cows pregnant with twins require intensive management and have increased nutritional requirements.  These needs can best be met in beef herds of 150 cows or less (i.e., small herds) with underutilized labor resources.  Especially suited to twinning are small, seasonal, grain farms.  Such farms frequently utilize the beef cattle herd as a method to add value to farmgrown forages and grains and to utilize excess labor during the winter and early spring months. A longterm genetic selection study is being conducted at the U. S. Meat Animal Research Center (MARC), in Clay Center, Nebraska, to increase reproductive efficiency of beef production by increasing the frequency of fraternal twin births. Twinning rate in the herd in the past year exceeded 50 percent compared to approximately 2 percent in unselected herds.  Cows producing twins weaned 70 percent more calves than did cows with single births, resulting in nearly 50 percent increase in total weaning weight per cow calved.

Genomes

Insertion of bacterial gene to decrease disease in dairy cattle.  Mastitis in dairy cattle is often caused by infections with Staphylococcus aureous, one of several bacteria that cost milk producers approximately $1 billion annually.  Scientists at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland, in collaboration with scientists at the University of Vermont, have successfully produced cloned transgenic calves that have the potential to produce an enzyme (lysostaphin) in milk that destroys the S. aureus bacteria.  A low level of lysostaphin was detected in milk produced by the first cloned animal, which provides the potential to test the ability of this approach for providing dairy cattle with resistance to mastitis infection.

ARS leads effort in sequencing expressed genes in cattle and swine.  Scientists at Clay Center, Nebraska, and Beltsville, Maryland, have generated DNA sequences of genes expressed in cattle and pigs.  These groups have submitted 144,918 cattle sequence to the public genomics database, representing 74 percent of all publicly available bovine data and 67,427 swine sequences, representing 68 percent of the public swine data.  Gene indexes for both species have been generated collaboratively with The Institute for Genomic Research to identify unique gene sequences using all public data.  These data were used by scientists at MARC to discover DNA sequence variation in over 500 livestock genes that will allow mapping of these genes.  Over 400 genes have been added to the genetic map in cattle using this method, and over 200 genes mapped in swine.

Gene associated with muscling differences located.  Scientists in Clay Center, Nebraska, are conducting research to identify callipyge, a naturally occurring mutation in sheep that increases the rate of muscle deposition and decreases the rate of fat deposition.  The mutation has been localized to a relatively small region of the sheep genome.  A large amount of DNA sequencing has been performed in this region in an effort to identify the exact cause of this phenomenon.  A mutation has been identified that is perfectly associated with animals with known callipyge genotypes.  An assay was designed to rapidly identify the genetic status for large numbers of animals at this location to predict the callipyge carrier status.

Gene expression used to identify possible genes associated with disease resistance.  Marek?s disease costs the poultry industry over $160 million per year, and, therefore, developing methods that augment the current vaccinebased control methods is a high priority.  Scientists at the ARS Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory, East Lansing, Michigan, in collaboration with the University of Delaware, screened chickens that were resistant and susceptible to Marek?s disease using DNA microarrays, or ?chips,? that measure expression levels of many genes.  Locating these differentially expressed genes on a genetic map revealed many positional candidate genes for resistance to Marek?s disease.  This approach of integrating global expression studies with genetic mapping shows great promise to rapidly identify disease resistance genes that can be rapidly transferred to the poultry industry to enhance disease resistance.

Growth and Development

Genomic regions identified that impact carcass traits in beef cattle.  Economic return to farmers and ranchers from beef production is a function of growth and carcass merit.  Scientists in Miles City, Montana, conducted a genomewide investigation to identify genomic regions affecting traits associated with carcass value.  Regions were found affecting carcass weight, ribeye area, fat depth, yield grade, and marbling score. These results suggest promising new locations for genomic regions that may be exploited by farmers and ranchers in selecting breeding stock to improve carcass value.

Nutrient Intake and Utilization

Patent granted to improve health and growth of suckling dairy calves.  The transfer of immunity by the natural transfer of immunoglobulin from the mother cow to the new calf by colostrum during the first few days after birth is often unsuccessful.  An ARS scientist at Ithaca, New York, and collaborators at the Cornell University discovered a method to improve the health and growth of suckling dairy calves that includes supplementing the calves' diets with a ruminal fluid preparation obtained from the rumen of a mature cow.  This supplement provides the calves with the protection needed to grow faster and healthier, and leads to a decreased incidence of scours in the treated calves.  A licensing agreement is being negotiated to commercialize the product.

Identification of compounds associated with objectionable waste odors.  Initial steps were achieved in defining key compounds perceived as objectionable by the general public.  Research by scientists at the ARS Swine Odor and Manure Management Research Laboratory, Ames, Iowa, have demonstrated a strong relationship between a number of organic compounds and odor perception by a human panel.  Identification of these key compounds can now be used as a screen to determine the impact of diet modification and treatment of waste on the production of odor from swine facilities.

Protein in feed linked to excessive nitrogen excretion of dairy cattle.  Feeding excess protein to dairy cows results in excessive nitrogen excretion.  In lactation experiments conducted at the Dairy Forage Research Center, in Madison, Wisconsin, dietary protein and energy were varied in various diets.  Increasing dietary protein for high producing dairy cows increased feed intake but did not affect milk production; however, nitrogen excretion increased.  Increasing dietary energy increased milk production as well as feed and nitrogen efficiency.  These results indicate that feeding excess protein in the diet is wasteful, leading to higher feed costs and excessive nitrogen excretion and environmental pollution.