The ability of scientists to improve health and disease management of cattle and enhance the nutritional value of beef and dairy products has received a major boost with the release this week of the most complete sequence of the cow genome ever assembled.
“This is very valuable information,” Dr Ross Tellam says. “We could potentially achieve as much improvement in cattle breeding and production in 50 years as we have over the last 8000 years of traditional farming.”
Cattle geneticists will use the bovine genome as a template to highlight genetic variation within and between cattle breeds, and between cattle and other mammal species.
“We can use this data to identify those genes that are involved in important functions like lactation, reproduction, muscling, growth rate and disease resistance,” Dr Brian Dalrymple says.
I wonder how much guidance will come from considerations of public health and nutrition — and how much from agri-business and Walt Disney?
[Thanks to SN for reminding me of this illustration]
I just can’t help questioning the wisdom of tinkering with things which have developed naturally over millions of years.
most people can’t help but question the wisdom of such tinkering… including me… is it just common fear of the unknown?
Hey mike! He you would’ve believed in God, I’d understand your point of view (since his knowledge and wisdom is far superior to ours). But as of mother nature, who’d say that the way things evolutionary developed is the right way to go? Isn’t a plane with a pilot destined to be more stable than one without one?
Not all things ‘Natural’ are good things. As proven by the Ebola Virus, the Hanta Virus, and the Bee Gees.
Isn’t a plane with a pilot destined to be more stable than one without one?
Not if the pilot and the passengers have different and incompatible destinations in mind.
#1 There is nothing natural about the way that the current cattle herd has developed.
isn’t a plane with or without a pilot unnatural?
oh, wait, can someone define natural for me? and how humans are not natural? if a beaver builds a dam, its natural, right, so, if a man builds a house, same thing… so if a man builds a cow….
That picture makes me want to get into bestiality.
oh, I mean… what I meant to say was… they changed the pic… its funny it is… the udders look a little high, though, don’t they?
Is that supposed to be a picture of a Furry? That is disturbing. Moo!
Not all things ‘Natural’ are good things. As proven by the Ebola Virus, the Hanta Virus, and the Bee Gees.
I beg to differ, there is nothing ‘natural’ about the Bee Gees. Their music, image, and powers come directly from the Dark One himself.
I don’t even want to know the GIS search vocabulary that found that image. I guess you could say she’s a heifer.
GIS?
do a quick google image search for heifer and find out…
Holy crap…actual nudity on the Dvorak board! I knew I liked coming to this place for a reason….
I am strangely amused and yet disturbed that I am happy about this….
#4Not all things ‘Natural’ are good things. As proven by the Ebola Virus, the Hanta Virus, and the Bee Gees.
Comment by Thorndike — 8/22/2006 @ 10:45 am
HEY!! You leave the Hanta Virus out of this!!!
#7oh, wait, can someone define natural for me? and how humans are not natural? if a beaver builds a dam, its natural, right, so, if a man builds a house, same thing… so if a man builds a cow….
Comment by woktiny — 8/22/2006 @ 12:03 pm
Exactly right. I do not fear man tinkering with genetics. I fear corporations lacking the patience to get it right before they release a deadly abomination on the public. What has happened to our food in the last 50 years is horrifying and you can see the effect in our overall poor health. Corporate food is not healthy, period.
#7 “oh, wait, can someone define natural for me? and how humans are not natural? if a beaver builds a dam, its natural, right, so, if a man builds a house, same thing… so if a man builds a cow….”
The problem with this is that genetic code is not linear. What I mean is, a change in patterns in one place can have a radical effect elsewhere. People have been eating and domesticating cows for quite awhile and we know reletivly the effect on the human body. These new super cows could end up being carsegenic or play host to the super virus… Not to mention I dont think, in good faith, I could ever eat something that could talk back to me.
A “Natural Cow” is something that does not exist. Neither a natural Dog or a natural Cat. In fact a cow 300 years ago would look a lot different of that spotted icon on your keychain. Farm animals are what they are now, trough thousands of years of selective reproduction.
So now we are stepping a little bit on the pedal and try to make evolution happen in decades instead of centuries…Ok! Just hope we are wise enough to beware of “fools gold”…
when cows, FLY, we will need better umbrellas..
Nature likes to Cull the week, and most things nature brings along does a good job..
What HURTS, is that MAN can circle the planet in 24 hours and spread a disease to all corners of a planet, NOT just that 1 little location, in S. Africa.
If you guys are interested in seeing more “cows” like that check http://www.furaffinity.net.
For those who prefer the bulls here’s a great artist http://www.furaffinity.net/user/braford0005/
Just remember that you can surf the site freely but you can’t see the NSFW pieces unless you log in or modify the settings.
Who knew the Dvorak blog was a closet Furry?
Why do you guys hate science so much?
We blame the cow’s bad genetics for all the horrible things we’ve done to their environment and bodies with chemicals and limited living space and the problems surfacing from the fact that we feed these herbivores their own species ground up in their food to speed weight gain.
Yeah, it’s the cows bad genetics that need fixed.{sarcasm}
BTW, anyone older than mid 30’s remember when the non-GM food actually had some enjoyable natural taste to it and didn’t require all the flavoring it needs today? The majority of fruits and vegs today look nice but taste like cardboard and the fact that apples don’t turn all brown when cut and left out anymore is a visual clue to the reason.
Quote: “Why do you guys hate science so much?”
We don’t, Frankenstein was a marvelous creation!
Frankenstein was a character, not a real person.
Chernobyl was real…
21,
wellllll,
Because Nature has been doing it for Alooonnngggg time, and has come to this point. Science, has been doing it for, MAYBE, 200 years…
But we have stagnated the advancement of cattle…WE, us, not nature has been controlling its advancment for 1000’s of years.
Go to the middle east and try and find a Jersey, or ANY of the cattle we have in domesticated reagions.
I’ll have to take my camera to the Oregon State Fair, next week, just in case I spot one of those “heifers” posing!
Who knows, I may even get a picture of the Virgin Mary… 🙂