Feed efficiency in beef cattle: a phenomic approach to point-of-care test prototyping

• Grant number: 22/14260-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): October 01, 2023
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Heidge Fukumasu
• Grantee: Alanne Tenório Nunes
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/18937-0 - Earlier weaning of calves from Nellore cows and its effects on the fetal programming and on the produtive and reprodutive performance of the next progeny, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/14983-8 - Advanced training program to development of point-of-care testing, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Considering the economic and sustainable impact of cattle selection for feed efficiency (FE), several proposals have emerged for the identification of efficient animals. Among them, the residual food intake (RFI) presents a great importance, butlow feasibility, due to the time and cost required for its measurement. One strategy to deal with this limitation would be the identification of associated biomarkers to RFI through a phenomic approach. Thus, the objective of the present study is to determine and validate the metabolomic profile associated with RFI, aiming the prototyping of a point-of-care test for early and accurate selection of animals for FE. For this, a prospecting step was initially carried out to select metabolites with potential use as biomarkers for RFI. At this stage, the targets were selected through the analysis of data obtained in the systematic review and through the analysis by machine learning of data from previous studies by the phenomics research group at the University of São Paulo. The selected metabolites will then be filtered in 120 samples from divergent cattle for RFI and, based on this result, the targets will then be validated in 480 plasma samples from cattle evaluated for RFI. This proposal will be fundamental to characterize a metabolomic signature of bovines divergent for FE, with prototyping potential to point-of-care test for identification of efficient animal in Brazilian herds. (AU)