Background

 

It will now be possible to choose the best calves, long before they are born. This will help boost the breeding of milk cows and, thus, improve the competitive power of Danish milk producers. At the same time, the project could positively prevent climate change, as we would be able to select cows with the lowest methane emissions.

A new research project will develop a method that, with the help of DNA markers, can select the calves with the desired genes, just a few days after egg fertilization. One of the new DNA markers picks the fertilised egg that will result in cows whose stomach produces the least amount of methane possible. This will mean that methane emission from the project’s cows and their offspring can be reduced by 5% per year. If this is transferred to the Danish milk cattle herd, it will result in a 2,3% reduction of the total methane emission in Denmark.

EliteOva’s overall aim is to ensure faster progress in the breeding of the milk cows of the future, thus making the production of Danish milk as efficient and environmentally friendly as possible. The project includes extensive research on the fertilised egg and the calves born so that their health and the quality in further breeding is ensured.

The EliteOva partners, who are both leading Danish universities and central commercial players in the Danish cattle-breeding scene, are conscious about the fact that the aim of the project being to speed up the cattle breeding with the help of biotechnology may give rise to ethical debate. With this website and many other activities, that will continuously be announced here, the project will be open for a discussion with its most important stakeholders, the Danish public sector and the Danish milk producers. Since the Danish dairy industry is an important trade export-wise, this parallel English version of this website has been created to supplement the already established Danish version.

EliteOva is funded by Innovation Fund Denmark under the program 'Grand Solutions'.