The Rural Voice, 1983-03, Page 38FARM ADVICE
BREEDING MICE
FOR
DAIRY RESEARCH
The mouse is considered a pest by
most people, but dairy cattle research-
ers look on the tiny rodents with
respect.
"Through breeding programs, re-
searchers work to increase livestock
productivity," explains Jiro Nagai, a
livestock geneticist at Agriculture Can-
ada's Animal Research Centre in Ot-
tawa.
"But it can take many years before
the results of the breeding programs are
known."
This is where the mouse is gaining in
stature.
Dr. Nagai and his colleague Dr. Jack
McAllister, have been using the labora-
tory mouse in dairy cattle breeding
research.
"Mice can be used to study breeding
principles that are common to larger
animals. The mouse, because it is a
small, milk -producing animal, is parti-
cularly useful in dairy research," Dr.
Nagai says.
"While the mouse is biologically
different from dairy cattle, experiments
with mice could lead to the discovery of
useful breeding principles for increased.
long-term dairy cattle production."
The major advantage of using mice in
research is their rapid turnover in
generations -- a feature that is essential
in breeding programs.
"The generation interval for dairy
cattle is about 3.5 years while for a
mouse it is only 115 days. This means
a mouse will produce 11 generations
during the time for one generation of
dairy cattle," Dr. Nagai says.
The researchers had been breeding
mice to increase milk production. The
combined weight of litters. standardized
to nine offspring, at weaning,was used
as an indicator of milk production of
the mother.
Among the findings, the researchers
have established that crossbred animals
produced 15 per cent more milk during
lifetime lactation than did their parental
lines. The scientists also established
that the number of laciations during the
productive lifetime of the animal was
more important than milk yield per
Lactation in calculating lifetime milk
production.
"Such findings are helping us focus
ongoing breeding efforts to produce
dairy cattle which are superior in long
term production for the Canadian dairy
industry," Dr. Nagai says.
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THE RURAL VOICE, MARCH 1983 PG. 39