Preparing for disease control by gene editing for a more sustainable livestock production

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

Livestock meat industries are aiming for a more sustainable production and better food safety through focus on animal welfare, disease resistance, mortality and antibiotic use. Animal welfare and production efficiency can be severely affected by the presence of diseases, however, breeding for disease resistance is a difficult task as it requires high quality phenotypes on the disease status of animals in the population. This is hard to get because diseases are often caused by different pathogens and influenced by environmental factors. Gene editing technology offers new opportunities in breeding for disease resistance through identification and editing of important genes. The objective of this project is incorporating CRISPR screening tools in pig and cattle, to help solve the challenge of breeding for disease resistance. Main activities include screening of whole genome CRISPR edited cells with pathogens causing animal welfare and production losses due to diarrhea and lung infections in Norwegian livestock. Whole genome CRISPR screens have been successfully used to identify functional genes in several infectious diseases in human, however, these tools have not been developed in livestock previously. In Norway, diarrhea is the most important disease leading to piglet death, whereas respiratory infection is the most common disease in calves. Antibiotics are often used to treat both piglet diarrhea and bovine respiratory disease, however, antibiotics resistance is a concern. The identification of functional genes involved in host-pathogen interactions can not only be used for future gene editing to obtain resistant animals but also for identifying genetic markers to be used in traditional breeding today. Better animal welfare, less production loss and reduced carbon footprint contributes to further developed competitiveness of Norwegian livestock in a world that increasingly request sustainably produced food.