Project: Quantification of male fertility – development of an innovative commercial test
_x000D_Future scarcity of resources such as energy, fresh water and arable land necessitate a move towards a more sustainable and efficient food production. One of the most important factors governing the sustainability of a production regime is a high reproductive rate. The pronounced decline in fertility seen in dairy production over the last decades threatens the long-term sustainability of the industry and already causes significant economic loss to the farmers. The farmer’s loss can be estimated to approx. €100 each time a cow is bred without a successful outcome. Aggregated, sub-optimal fertility therefore represents an annual global loss of € 1.4 billion to the dairy industry._x000D_ _x000D_The FERTID project aims to remediate the problems of declining cattle fertility by applying an innovative biotechnological approach to develop a test for male (bull) fertility that can be implemented by breeding companies or individual farmers. Bearing in mind that hundreds of thousands of bulls are used for breeding each year globally, the market potential for a bull fertility test is significant._x000D__x000D_The unique competitive advantage for the consortium is the access to the Norwegian dairy industry’s health recording system, which records accurate fertility data for individual bulls used for artificial insemination (AI). This database gives an exclusive opportunity to select bulls with high and low fertility for further extensive analysis. Combined with an innovative research platform that utilizes a range of novel biotechnological and molecular tools, the bull represents an excellent model system for the development of a male fertility test. The consortium brings together Ps with a wide range of expertise within cattle breeding, artificial insemination and fertility research that has a proven track record of delivering results._x000D__x000D_Fertility problems are an important challenge also in breeding of other species, and cause an immeasurable loss of welfare in humans. With the aid of comparative genetics, a bull fertility test will lay the groundwork for the development and implementation of fertility tests applicable to other livestock species such as pigs, horses and sheep as well as to humans. This will fully exploit the market potential of the invention._x000D__x000D_Two dairy cattle breeds will be used for the development of the bull fertility test, specifically the Norwegian red (NRF) and the Holstein Friesian (HF). NRF will be used due to the high fertility of the breed and the availability of fertility data and biological material from bulls in use over the past 20 years. HF is included due to the low fertility of the breed and its dominance on the international market._x000D__x000D_Geno is the CO P of the FERTID consortium, which besides providing semen from NRF bulls and fertility data, has know-how and expertise in the fields of AI, cattle breeding, sperm physiology and quality assessment, fertility studies and functional genomics. Semen and fertility data from the HF breed will be supplied by consortium P Elpzoo, which also has expertise in AI and fertility studies. Geno and Elpzoo both have the opportunity to conduct field studies for documentation of the fertility test and are both participants on the international market, which gives an excellent opportunity for market penetration. The third consortium P, the University of Rennes 1 (France) provides a state-of-the-art proteomics facility and know-how and expertise in proteomics applied to the field of male reproduction._x000D__x000D_
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Acronym
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FERTID
(Reference Number: 4859)
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Duration
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01/09/2009 - 31/08/2012
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Project Topic
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Using the bull as a model this project will develop a novel test to solve the current problem of accurate quantification of male fertility in domestic animal breeding and human reproduction
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Network
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Eurostars
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Call
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Eurostars Cut-Off 2
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Project partner
