Improving Livestock Productivity Using Gene Editing

The FDA has approved CRISPR-edited pigs for human consumption. These pigs are resistant to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), a disease that costs the U.S. pork industry over $560 million annually. Let me tell you what this means: PRRS is a devastating virus in pig farming, causing: → Reproductive failures → Respiratory issues → High piglet mortality → Increased antibiotic use It's been labeled the "most economically important disease" in pig production. Enter CRISPR. British company Genus used CRISPR to disable a receptor that PRRS uses to infect pigs. The result? Pigs that are immune to 99% of known PRRS strains. The FDA's approval confirms that meat from these gene-edited pigs is safe to eat. The gene edit is introduced at the embryonic stage, ensuring the resistance trait is passed to future generations. Benefits of PRRS-resistant pigs include: → Improved animal welfare → Reduced antibiotic usage → Lower greenhouse gas emissions by up to 5% in U.S. pork production. While FDA approval is a significant milestone, Genus is seeking regulatory approvals in key export markets: → Mexico → Canada → Japan → China Commercial availability in the U.S. is anticipated by 2026. This development marks a turning point in agricultural biotechnology. Gene editing offers a proactive approach to disease prevention, enhancing sustainability and food security. As we embrace this innovation, questions arise: → Will consumers accept gene-edited meat? → How will labeling be handled? → What are the long-term impacts on farming practices? The conversation is just beginning. What are your thoughts?

We Can Breed Faster Growing Pigs. But Can We Breed Tougher Ones? For decades, genetic progress in livestock has centred on traits with obvious economic value: faster growth, better feed conversion, higher carcass yield, and ever-larger litters. This delivered enormous gains. Today’s finishing pigs commonly grow over 1 kg per day with more than 60% lean body mass. But those gains came with consequences. Sow longevity declined. Larger litters pushed birth weights down and hurt survivability. Like a high-performance vehicle hitting a bump at speed, these animals became more sensitive to health challenges and management. Breeding companies have already begun rebalancing, shifting from “more pigs” to “more surviving pigs,” emphasising piglet vitality, mothering ability, and functional teat count. Yet the world around us is changing faster than these incremental adjustments. Reduced antibiotic use is increasing disease pressure. Welfare expectations mean less castration, less tail docking, fewer crates. Labour shortages—especially in farrowing—demand calmer, more autonomous sows. Sustainability pressures are pushing diets towards more fibrous, local raw materials. And genotype × environment interactions are exposing the limits of selecting animals under ideal nucleus conditions for farms that look nothing like them. The traits that now matter most—resilience, robustness, disease tolerance, behavioural stability, gut health, and the ability to perform on alternative diets—are the traits genomics alone struggles to improve. They’re low heritability, difficult to measure, expensive to phenotype, and often only expressed under stress. This is why the future of breeding needs a new biological layer: transcriptomics. Transcriptomics reveals how genes actually function—how animals respond to challenge, nutrition, stress, or pathogens. It uncovers expression signatures linked to resilience, immune function, gut integrity, metabolic efficiency. When integrated with genomic selection, it has the potential to enhance prediction accuracy, identify functional markers, and provide early-life indicators for traits that normally appear late or only under difficult conditions. At BIOFRACTAL we translate gene expression patterns into practical tools: signatures of disease resilience, gut health, metabolic efficiency using AI models linking mRNA expression to real biological performance. This approach can accelerate the shift from selecting animals that simply maximise output to selecting animals genuinely fit for the future—productive, robust, welfare-aligned, sustainable, and capable of thriving under real-world conditions. Transcriptomics isn’t just an add-on. It could be the defining differentiator for the next generation of genetics companies. I’d love to hear how others in the genetics, production, or nutrition space view this shift. Is transcriptomics the missing layer our industry needs? #transcriptomics #animalGenomics #swineRobustness

This startup analyzes genes to boost cow health 🐄 (And just raised $4.3M to scale across Europe) Antler Bio is transforming dairy farming with precision biotech… …helping farmers unlock healthier, more productive herds. 🍼 The Challenge: ↳ Dairy herds face hidden stress, nutritional imbalances & declining fertility leading to reduced milk yields & farm profitability ↳ Traditional herd management relies on observation, missing subtle biological signals  🧬 The Innovation: ↳ EpiHerd uses gene expression analysis to detect how cows respond to environment, stress & nutrition in real-time  ↳ Converts complex biological data into practical recommendations for farmers  🎯 How It Works: 1) Collects gene expression data from dairy cows  2) Analyzes biological signals to identify stress, nutritional gaps & health risks  3) Translates findings into clear, actionable steps for farmers  4) Improves milk quality, fertility & overall herd wellbeing  5) Continuously refines recommendations as new data is gathered  🌿 The Impact: ↳ $4.3M seed round led by The First Thirty Ventures, bringing total funding to $8.5M  ↳  Already deployed on 100+ farms across Europe ↳  Enhances farm profitability,  animal welfare & understanding of epigenetics for long-term human  & animal health  From guesswork in the barn… ...to data-driven, healthier herds. "Antler Bio is making a real impact for farmers and animal welfare and could unlock new insights into human health too." – Naeem Lakhani, The First Thirty Ventures 📥 Like this post? Follow me for more insights on NatureTech and Nature Finance