Disease Resistant Livestock
Disease and death of livestock is a significant problem, particularly in underdeveloped countries were veterinary care is minimal and livestock plays such a large role as a key source of food source, savings, income, credit, insurance, loans, gifts and investments. In the past 30 years, access to animal health services, vaccines and medicines has decreased significantly in Africa. As a result, at least 25 percent of the livestock in many African countries die every year compared to less than 5 percent in developed countries. Major diseases of poultry in Africa that have been predominantly identified in commercial poultry are Newcastle disease, infectious bursal disease or Gumboro, Marek disease, fowl typhoid, cholera, mycoplasmosis and coccidiosis. UGA animal and dairy scientists provide a novel strategy to create disease resistant animals using animal stem cells and cellular adaptive resistance technology. This will produce animals with natural resistance to specific diseases resulting in animals that need less veterinary care and will significantly reduce livestock mortalities. They have secured a grant to develop naturally resistance chickens. The likely mechanism is that a small number of cells undergo an adaptive change preventing the virus from entering the cells.