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Scientists Create Genetic Map of Cattle

*By H. Josef Hebert* Associated Press Writer
Published: Oct 6, 2004

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WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first time, scientists have created a genetic 
map of a cow, providing researchers a new tool to reduce animal disease 
and improve the nutrition of beef and dairy products, the Agriculture 
Department announced Wednesday.

The announcement was a major development in the $53 million 
international project to sequence the genome of different breeds of cattle.

"Sequencing the bovine genome is a major accomplishment ... in human and 
agricultural research," Agriculture Undersecretary Joseph Jen said in a 
statement.

The program, launched last December, was aimed at documenting each of 
the 3 billion "letters" - or base pairs - of the cattle DNA code, about 
the same number as found in humans and other mammals.

The initial draft involved genes of the Hereford breed. Gene sequencing 
of a half dozen other breeds will follow, the department said.

Jen said that the first draft sequence has been put into a free public 
database, making it accessible to biomedical and agricultural scientists 
around the world.

"The bovine genome sequence will serve as a tool for agricultural 
researchers striving to improve health and disease management of cattle 
and enhance the nutritional value of beef and dairy products," the USDA 
statement said.

Scientists believe that by identifying and better understanding the 
function of genes in cattle, researchers will be able to track the 
genetic makeup of the animals and breed cattle that are more disease 
resistant while using fewer antibiotics. That will increase the safety 
of the food supply, said the department.

The gene tracking also will help cattle breeders discover traits that 
will allow for better meat and milk products, the USDA said.

The research was carried out by a team at the Baylor College of 
Medicine's Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston, Texas.

Additional work to develop more detailed information about individual 
cattle genes, is being conducted at the British Columbia Cancer Research 
Center in Vancouver, Canada, the USDA said.

The Baylor team was led by Richard Gibbs, a pioneer in genetic research, 
who also participated in the first mapping of the human genetic code. 
Last March, Gibbs and other scientists at the Baylor center completed 
the genetic mapping of a Norwegian brown rat, a development also viewed 
as important in research into human disease.

About half of the funding for the project, $25 million, was from the 
National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National 
Institutes of Health. The USDA contributed $11 million and the state of 
Texas $10 million. Additional support came from organizations in Texas, 
South Dakota, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

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On the Net:

Agriculture Department: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahomenome

AP-ES-10-06-04 1309EDT