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@suresh_arvind @marynmck @9brandon There is a lot to this thread – first let me respond that health and welfare traits are very much included in selection indexes – for example in broiler selection >50% of selection weighting goes to health, welfare, and fitness - trends are improving ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20308417 1/11
@suresh_arvind @marynmck @9brandon Likewise in dairy the index has matured over time to move from a sole emphasis on milk production to a balanced index with now a -1 rating on milk production! Yes you read that correctly queries.uscdcb.com/AGIL-cache/ref… @John_B_Cole .@biobeef 2/11
@suresh_arvind @marynmck @9brandon @John_B_Cole And all this needs to be considered in terms of tradeoffs – for example due to genetic improvement we have decreased number of dairy cows in US from 26 million down to ~9 million while increasing 1.6 fold amount of milk produced @John_B_Cole .@biobeef academic.oup.com/jas/article/87… 3/11
@suresh_arvind @marynmck @9brandon @John_B_Cole Same trend can be seen in beef cattle academic.oup.com/jas/article/89… and also more dramatically by far in pigs academic.oup.com/af/article/6/4… 4/11
@suresh_arvind @marynmck @9brandon @John_B_Cole So genetic improvements decrease environmental impacts per unit of product – e.g. GHG of a glass of milk today is around 1/3 of what it was in the 1950s or so academic.oup.com/jas/article/87… 5/11
@suresh_arvind @marynmck @9brandon @John_B_Cole If we had forgone that genetic improvement – there would be real environmental consequences as captured in this slide – showing much additional resources would be required if we stuck with 1950s production levels 6/11 
@suresh_arvind @marynmck @9brandon @John_B_Cole To the concern about “genetic engineering” being used in animal improvement – 30 years after its development there is only one approved food animal product @AquaBountyTech salmon that has ever made it through the regulatory labyrinth and it is now stuck in US political purgatory
@suresh_arvind @marynmck @9brandon @John_B_Cole @AquaBountyTech However the session was on gene editing which geneticists hoped would not get caught in the regulatory quagmire of genetic engineering – and indeed they will not in some countries like Brazil and Argentina 8/11
@suresh_arvind @marynmck @9brandon @John_B_Cole @AquaBountyTech But the traits being discussed at the @AAASmtg session were a knockout that makes pigs disease resistant (PRRS) ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28390179 Should we use genetics to solve a disease problem or just keep letting them get sick? @roslininstitute #tradeoffs 9/11
@suresh_arvind @marynmck @9brandon @John_B_Cole @AquaBountyTech @roslininstitute And Appolinaire discussed use of genetics in sub-saharan Africa @ctlgh_info to address animal disease and adaptability traits like slick (heat tolerance) ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29527221 to help small holder farmers avoid catastrophic losses of their limited number of animals 10/11
@suresh_arvind @marynmck @9brandon @John_B_Cole @AquaBountyTech @roslininstitute @ctlgh_info So there are pros and cons aka #tradeoffs that must be part of discussion around genetic improvement of animals – and in some cases I would argue editing is compelling but likely won’t be able to use it in US due to proposed regulatory framework liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/cr… 11/11 END.
