Crillo Cattle - Could heat resistant cattle be the industry's answer to climate change?
News
- AgriFood Matters Podcast Series
- Recent News 2022
- Recent News 2023
- 22/23 School Awards Ceremony
- UCD Teagasc Knowledge Transfer Funded Masters 2023
- SAFS Achieves First Silver Athena Swan Award in UCD
- Ensuring Food Security on the Island of Ireland
- UCD Masters in Agricultural Extension and Innovation Webinar
- UCD Horticulture develops 'Top 10 Pollinator-friendly Plants' guide
- UCD & Macra Agricultural Skillnet - MSc Agricultural Extention and Innovation
- Ireland’s Claire Mc Cormack is first visiting global agricultural journalist
- ‘Sustainable Food Systems’ the theme at the Agri Aware and UCD stand at the National Ploughing Championships
- UCD leads ‘Ireland Day’ at Science Summit at UNGA78 in New York
- BAgrSc class of 1983 reunion
- UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science Alumni Profile
- Leading UCD, Queens and Sheffield researchers awarded €31.5 million to transform food system
- School of Agriculture & Food Science Awards 2023
- Dr Helen Sheridan appointed to the Teagasc Authority
- BSc Sustainable Food Systems
- Exciting PhD Opportunity
- Graduate Spotlight: Richard Shakespeare
- Graduate Spotlight: Seán Molloy
- Coillte Launches New Foresty Scholarship Programme
- My Uni Life returns to RTE featuring UCD students & Lyons Farm
- University College Dublin researchers recruiting horses for Equine Headshaking Syndrome research.
- Farming Minds Project
- One Health: UCD launches pioneering new centre for better health of people and the planet
- UCD Agriculture, Food Science & Human Nutrition Careers Day 2024
- Farm Walk and Talk Returns to Lyons Farm
- UCD Teagasc Knowledge Transfer Funded Masters 2024
- UCD SAFS celebrates St.Patricks Day in China
- Crillo Cattle - Could heat resistant cattle be the industry's answer to climate change?
- Emerging Greentech Start-Up Wins UCD’s 2024 VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme
- UCD Summer Schools 2024
- UCD School of Agriculture & Food Science Graduate Taught Webinar Series
- A number of exciting PhD Opportunities Available
- Our Rural Future: Minister Humphreys launches first ever bursary to support Masters Students in field of rural development
- New collaborative research centre to transform food system launches at UCD
- PWE - Why it's one of the best thing about studying Ag & Food Science
- ‘We need a one-cycle agri-food system,’ says FAO Director General
- Aoife Feeney - Studying at UCD through DARE
- Beef-Quest Research Project aims to Reduce Age of Cattle Finishing
- UCD School of Agriculture & Food Science Celebrates it's new Class of 2024
- Adaptive predator management to promote breeding wader conservation
- GDIC Conferring Ceremony 2024
- The launch of the new FBD UCD agricultural research and education centre takes place at UCD.
- Teagasc PhD Walsh Scholarship Opportunity
- EU Commissioner Mairéad McGuinness awarded UCD Honorary Degree
- UCD Goes Ploughing 2024
- UCD gradaute, Christopher Cahill wins FBD Young Farmer of the Year
As the threat of rising temperatures puts the world’s food supplies at risk new UCD research on a rare breed of ‘heat-resistant’ cattle that thrive in warmer climates could point towards a more sustainable beef industry.
Criollo cattle have been in Latin America for hundreds of years, having originally been brought to the New World from Spain on the second voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1493.
Having been undervalued in the past, Criollo cattle breeds could now offer a solution to the challenges posted by climate change due to their unique heat tolerance and disease resistance traits.
(opens in a new window)A new study published in Royal Society Open Scienceby UCD researchers involved in an international collaboration with scientists from Brazil, Venezuela, Germany, the UK, and the United States into the microevolutionary changes in Criollo cattle as they adapted to the tropical environments of Latin America provides strong evidence of several distinct coat and skin coloration traits that are advantageous in cattle populations exposed to significant levels of incident solar radiation.
This ‘slick’ phenotype in Criollo cattle results in a short, slick-hair coat that provides improved thermotolerance, allowing them to better withstand hot and humid weather.
Genomic selection signatures were also discovered that may be associated with further thermotolerance, again underscoring the breeds adaptation to hot climates.
Scientific studies have shown that cattle better able to withstand hot weather are less likely to experience temperature-related stress, resulting in improved body weight and more efficient food production, as well as improved animal welfare in warmer climates.
Criollo cattle have already been the focus of commercial gene editing efforts according to lead author (opens in a new window)Professor David MacHugh,UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, as US industry collaborators who are co-authors on the study have used gene editing to introduce the ‘slick’ trait into European cattle.
Climate change brings more than just higher temperatures, warmer weather also means too little precipitation, abrupt temperature swings, increased soil erosion, more wildfires, and generally more pests and more diseases.
Using whole-genome sequencing data however, the UCD team detected a host of gene signatures associated with a myriad of adaptive traits, revealing genes linked to reproduction, fertility, and disease immunity.
“This study underscores the remarkable adaptability of Criollo cattle and highlights the genetic richness and potential of these breeds in the face of climate change, habitat flux and disease challenges,” added Professor MacHugh.