Genetically, livestock from Indonesia or subtropical countries have their respective advantages. However, due to various factors, sometimes the potential for winning cannot be realized. Therefore, efforts are needed to optimize or increase productivity or production performance through reproductive technology.
This was said by Ir. Diah Tri Widayati, S.Pt., MP, Ph.D., IPM, lecturer at the Faculty of Animal Science (FAS) UGM in the Obrolan Peternakan (OPERA) event entitled “Application of Genetic and Molecular Reproductive Technology to Increase Animal Productivity, Wednesday (29/9) in Zoom Meeting.
“There are many reproductive technologies ranging from artificial insemination to the latest. Next, I will present several technologies that can be applied to improve the performance of livestock production and reproduction,” Diah said.
First, artificial insemination technology. This technology maximizes the use of superior males, the spread of superior genetic material, increases the speed and efficiency of genetic selection, introduces new genetic material by importing high-breed semen, reduces international transportation costs, enables the use of frozen semen even after the donor dies, and reduces the risk of spreading infectious sexual diseases.
“Artificial insemination is carried out using semen from exotic breeds and is used in the hope of increasing the population and production of local livestock. Cement from local descent can also be used for this purpose,” Diah said.
Diah explained that in artificial insemination, what cannot be ignored is the detection of estrus. Detection of estrus must be carried out appropriately, because artificial insemination must be done when cattle are experiencing estrus.
“It can be done by visual observation. “There is another technology, namely the vaginal smear, which is very helpful in observing animals whose lust does not show symptoms,” Diah said.
Another technology is artificial insemination with sexing cement. The benefits of this technology are the production of calves with the desired sex, the ratio of male to female can be adjusted, the production of superior male livestock, lowering the cost of the program testing program. Of the several available methods, Gledhill’s Flow-cytometry sexing is the most effective because it can be widely applied.
“The next technology is In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), which is a technology that can be used to mass produce embryos in livestock. In the last few decades there has been a technological evolution for in vitro embryo production (IVEP) in livestock,” Diah said.
In vitro production technology not only assists in the production of animals with high genetic advantages, but also provides a source of embryos for biotechnological purposes (embryo sexing, cloning, nuclear transport, transgenec, etc.).
“IVF technology enables analysis of the development potential of the embryo, including gene expression patterns, epigenetic modifications and cytogenetic disorders during development. In animals, IVF is very profitable to use, especially in livestock whose reproductive cycles have stopped, especially in superior livestock, ” Diah explained.
Another known reproductive technology is embryo transfer. Embryo transfer involves taking embryos from females with superior genetics and placing them into the reproductive tract of another female (of average genetics).
“Embryo transfer aims to obtain the maximum number of genetically superior embryos in the minimum time. By implementing embryo transfer, it can increase the genetic potential of a livestock in a relatively short time, can increase milk production in dairy farming, can increase weaning weight in cows and dairy cows, and so on,” Diah said.
Embryo transfer begins with the selection of a donor cow. The donor cow will donate embryos for transfer. Recipient cattle (recipients) function as surrogate cows (foster) for calves, but do not provide genetic information.
“The genetic quality of recipient cattle is not as important as donor cattle. However, recipient cows must be able to maintain their pregnancy until quite a month and produce sufficient milk supply for their calves,” Diah said.
Ir. Dyah Maharani, S.Pt., M.P., Ph.D., IPM., Faculty of Animal Science UGM lecturer who was also a presenter in the event said, there are several molecular technologies that can be applied to increase livestock productivity.
“Genome editing is a form of genetic engineering in the form of inserting, replacing, or removing DNA in the genome of a living organism using nuclease enzymes that play a role in cutting and connecting it,” said the lecturer who is familiarly called Rani.
Another technology is transgenic. Transgenic animals are animals that are injected with DNA from other animals either from the same species, or from different species that are carried on embryos before the transgenic animals are born.
“There are several methods that can be used, namely pronuclear injection, sperm-mediated DNA transfer, embryonic stem cells, germ cell transplantation, and nuclear transfer “Cloning”,”Rani said.
The medical application of transgenic technology in animals is as an animal model for detecting and treating human disease, making transgenic sheep that have hormones that play a role in the formation of breast cells and producing milk that is owned by humans so that the milk produced contains human hormones, and xenotransplants, namely organ transplants. from animal to human body.
“Another technology is cloning, which is a process to produce or multiply a number of individuals whose results are genetically identical (identical) from the same parent, having the same arrangement (number and genes),” Rani said.
Rani said, there are three types of cloning, namely recombinant DNA cloning, this cloning is the transfer of part of the DNA chain from an organism to one element of genetic replication, reproductive cloning, namely the technology used to produce the same animal, and therapeutic cloning, which is a cloning for producing human embryos for research.
Another technology described by Rani is a functional gene or gene expression. Functional gene is the study of how a gene is expressed in the development process of a cell that plays a role in certain traits.
“Genes that consist of DNA sequences that are arranged in a nucleotide can undergo a mutation (a change in the arrangement of bases that make up the nucleotide). Mutation events will affect cellular processes and affect the phenotype expression of an individual. Mutation in DNA sequences is a genetic marker that differentiates the expression of certain traits between individuals which is the basis for individual selection,” Rani explained.
Rani has carried out research in an effort to improve the quality of livestock using a molecular approach (functional gene), both in cows, pigs, goats, and poultry.