Avian Influenza Confirmed in 9 B.C. Poultry Barns, Affecting Over 180,000 Birds
A strain of avian influenza has now been confirmed in 9 poultry barns in British Columbia, affecting over 180 000 birds. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency first reported the presence of H5 avian...
View ArticleBig data, drones and livestock genetics in 2015
No doubt you’ve heard about big data by now. Several farm organizations have warned farmers of the dangers of vendors collecting farm data although some associations have struck accords with some of...
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Reindeer versus Caribou: How Rudolph's Ancestry Could Affect His Name's...
The word ‘caribou’ has been used since the mid seventeenth century, originating from the Micmac word for North American Rangifer tarandus, ‘qalipu,’ means ‘snow shoveler.’ Occasionally in North America...
View ArticleThe Intricacies of Spinning Spider Silk Strands out of Goat Milk
Imagine milking goats not to take white butter or fromage de chèvre to the farmers’ market, but to sell spider silk proteins. The concept was originally brought to the lab by Montreal scientists in...
View ArticleBeer and bread yeast-eating bacteria could open door to better health in both...
It turns out that eating fermented food and drink, including beer, for the past 7,000 years has led to the evolution of bacteria that may hold the key to strengthening the immune system in both humans...
View ArticleAvoiding a Global Train Wreck: Hope in the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance
"You can look at antibiotic resistance as a slow moving global train wreck, which will happen over the next 35 years," health law expert Kevin Outterson at Boston University, told Scientific American....
View ArticleCan I Get This Steak Cloned To Go?
Scientists in the United States have successfully cloned cattle from a beef carcass, in an attempt to replicate Prime, Yield Grade 1 meat. The endeavour began when West Texas A&M University (WTAM)...
View ArticleInvestigating the Role of Genomics in Combatting Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea
Last week, at the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference, Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart announced $3.8M in funding to support livestock-related research projects. One of the projects will...
View ArticleDueling DNA public debates and the nonsense that will starve us all
Genetically modified organism (GMO) foods are still a topic of hot public debate in many places around the world. Unfortunately much of the opposition to GMOs is based on misinformation and...
View ArticleUnique collaboration will combat deadly disease found in pigs
The PED virus kills young piglets at an astonishing rate with a near 100% mortality rate in suckling pigs. A Canadian effort has been launched to understand and stop the disease to protect the young...
View ArticleThe Incredibly Hairy Journey to DNA Extraction
A while back, I wrote of my curiosity for genomics, and understanding the hands-on aspects of collecting and analyzing DNA. I’d like to explore that topic in the next few posts, with this one focusing...
View ArticleMade-in-Alberta Livestock DNA Analysis
At the end of last week’s post, I briefly mentioned a Canadian DNA lab specializing in livestock. When it was launched in 2011, Delta Genomics was a spin-off of the University of Alberta’s Livestock...
View ArticleTidbits of BSE Research: Is There a Blood Test for That?
With the latest case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) garnering all kinds of media attention, I thought it might be interesting to turn our attention to some promising research into the...
View ArticleClimate change brings new infectious diseases to farms, new urgency in...
Several reports from researchers around the globe predict the emergence and spread of infectious diseases as the result of climate change. Some of these diseases are new; others are not but they’re...
View ArticleDavid Bailey presentation about genomic influence on antimicrobial research
In March of this year Genome Alberta's President and CEO David Bailey was asked to make a presentation to the Beef Value Chain Roundtable (BVCRT) held in Ottawa. The BVCRT brings together multiple...
View ArticleWhen big data algorithms meet livestock genetics, farmers win big
Farming has never been an easy occupation and it will never appeal to those looking to get money for nothing. But there are changes afoot that will make farming considerably more profitable for those...
View ArticleHuman genome-editing debate may prove beneficial for similar advances in...
Here is the first post from our new blogger, Lisa Willemse. Feel free to leave some comments to welcome her to the fold and read a little bit about her background. The spectre of undesirable inherited...
View ArticleInternational consortium cracks cattle genome, builds global database
Wait?! You might say. Hadn’t we already cracked the cattle genome? Yes and no. Before we had a basic outline of the genome so yes, it was cracked, but minimally so. But now, thanks to the work of an...
View ArticleGenomics is taking the sting out of the bumblebee’s uncertain future
If you’ve ever followed a bumblebee in its foraging, you might conclude by its lazy, almost drunken behaviour that it hasn’t a care in the world. But it should. Bumblebee populations, along with those...
View ArticleEmbryo transfer: from livestock genetic transfer to synthetic biology in farming
Prize cattle go for big bucks at auctions precisely for their breeding value. However, no matter how perfect any given cow is, she can only produce a calf a year in the natural order of things....
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