As the global population continues to grow, there is an increasing demand for high-quality, sustainable animal products. The animal agriculture industry must balance the need to produce more food with the need to protect the environment, ensure animal welfare, and meet changing consumer expectations.

Fortunately, modern scientific advancements are providing innovative solutions to these challenges. One of the most promising areas of research is genomics, which has revolutionized selective breeding and animal genetics. By using advanced genomic technologies, scientists and breeders can identify specific genes and traits that contribute to improved animal performance, health, and welfare, as well as greater efficiency in production. This leads to more sustainable practices, better quality products, and ultimately, more satisfied consumers.

However, implementing genomic solutions also presents some challenges, particularly when scaled to large populations which can be costly and time-consuming, requiring significant investment in technology and expertise.  To meet this need, Eurofins Genomics Agrigenomics offers a full range of customisable services for livestock breeding, covering every step of the workflow from sample extraction to delivering actionable genomic evaluations for herd management.

Eurofins Genomics Agrigenomics are industry leaders in providing genomic services to the agriculture biotechnology industry.  As pioneers, Eurofins were the first lab in Europe to begin offering microarray services, and since then, continued to gain over 20 years experience serving clients in agriculture genomics.  Despite the ever-changing landscape in genomic analysis technologies, microarrays remain the core platform for the majority of applications in Agrigenomics, and have been the focus of extensive optimisation. To complement our microarray capabilities, our realtime PCR and cutting edge NGS platforms can address any scale of resolution from individual gene or variant analysis such as inherited disorder screening, all the way up to full genome level, to capture as much detail about variation and identify the best animals in the herd for breeding.

Driven by our focus on automation and lean operations at scale, we are able to help lower the cost of genotyping, which in turn has led to successful partnerships with some of the largest livestock breeding companies and cattle federations globally. Our dedicated team of Project Managers ensure that projects are delivered on time and within budget. Furthermore, our highly experienced R&D teams can develop custom workflows for nucleic acid extraction and genotyping from even the most challenging of sample types.

In the next step of our evolution we have partnered with informatics specialists, Breedi, to be able to offer genomic evaluation services and bring additional value to our clients seeking an end-to-end solution for genomic selection in breeding.   

Website:  https://eurofinsgenomics.eu/

Article supplied by Eurofins.  The British Cattle Breeders Club would like to thank Eurofins for their support of the 2024 BCBC Conference 'Green Genes - Revolutionising cattle breeding for a sustainable future'