The cattle fertility study case performed in GLOMICAVE had the objectives to promote the identification and validation of different biomarkers for predicting pregnancy and birth after embryo transfer in Holstein -and subsidiary in other cattle breeds- and to increase the knowledge of biological pathways involved in fertility and pregnancy establishment .
Cattle fertility
PREVIOUS CONTEXT
Nowadays, there are no efficient methods to select competent embryos and recipients in cattle and between 40 and 60% of the pregnancies from embryo transfer do not reach birth. Such a drawback leads to important economic losses that ultimately entail social and environmental impacts. Discrimination of recipients for embryo transfer is usually based on embryo-recipient synchrony, followed by detection of a functional corpus luteum by ultrasonography, progesterone measurement, or simply rectal palpation. However, such selection methods often fail to include all receptive animals and discards, sometimes erroneously, high percentages of synchronised females. Therefore, developing systematic and reliable methodologies for recipient selection is a major objective within bovine embryo transfer.
Current understanding of biological pathways in cattle reproduction, while growing, remains limited. A deeper knowledge of these pathways would lead to improved reproductive strategies, enhanced livestock reproductive health, and hence, more efficient and sustainable farming practices.
GLOMICAVE SOLUTION
The GLOMICAVE integrative platform allows to identify and validate efficient biomarkers to select competent recipients in livestock, increasing the potential of pregnancy expectation.
Through the validation of robust biomarkers for the selection of recipients for embryo transfer, the GLOMICAVE approach minimizes the chance of discarding fertile females. In this sense, the project facilitates a better selection of the embryorecipients, as well as an increase in pregnancy rate and a reduction of the environmental footprint caused by current embryo technologies. Additionally, a comprehensive metabolic analysis of the recipients helps to identify biological pathways dealing with cattle fertility and pregnancy establishment. Finally, the discovery of robust biomarkers could be used in the future (beyond GLOMICAVE) for the development of portable diagnostic tools for on-site (i.e., farm) evaluation.
EXPECTED BENEFITS
- Discovery of reliable and robust biomarkers for predicting pregnancy and birth with the aim of improving the recipient selection for embryo transfer in Holstein.
- Add significant knowledge about the metabolic pathways involved in fertility and in pregnancy establishment in cattle.
- Transfer knowledge to instrumental industries able to implement portable analytical solutions to analyze recipient biomarkers on field.
USE CASE LEADERS
