File image. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
Animal genetics company Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) is set to play a big role in creating more heat resistant and disease tolerant cows for Sub-Saharan Africa.
The $8.3 million project being funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation involves LIC and American breeding company Acceligen.
In a bid to address food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa they want to create cows that can produce more milk than native species and are more heat tolerant and disease resistant.
LIC chief executive David Chin said the project will combine LIC's expertise in breeding efficient dairy cows for pasture-based systems, with Acceligen's cutting-edge gene editing capabilities.
"Embryos bred from LIC's genetics will be sent to the United States, where Acceligen will perform gene edits on the stem cells.
"The embryos will then be transferred into dams that will give birth to gene edited sires.
"The bull calves will be transported to Brazil for rearing. The semen will be collected from these sires and sold into Sub-Saharan African markets through a developed distributor network."
Chin said LIC was actually the first to identify the gene which regulates a cows temperature but New Zealand's gene editing rules means we can't take advantage of that.
He said it will be great to see how it works in Africa.
"I think for African farmers I think the genetic merit of their animals can be increased, with the climates they operating in heat tolerance will improve the productivity of those animals and go a long way to help food security issues in that area of the world."
