In order to further strengthen our animal industry, it is essential to produce high quality livestock products at lower cost. To support those production, breeding technology that produce livestock with excellent productivity and animal reproductive technology that produce excellent livestock reliably and in large quantities is necessary.
For the breeding technologies, we are developing the genetic evaluation methods of livestock for improving the reliability of genetic estimates of productivity, longevity, fertility, disease resistance, and durability in order to improve the lifetime productivity in dairy cattle, beef cattle and pig, and developing methods to apply the DNA typing information to estimate the genetic ability with higher reliability. Moreover, in order to contribute for the improvement in productivity, using genome analysis technology, improving quality, taste along with the productivity in cattle, pigs and chickens, we are exploring and utilizing useful genes and developing breeding improvement technology utilizing the genome information. Also we are proceeding with the identification of important genomic regions responsible for meat quality and productivity by whole genome association study with SNP chip. In addition to the genome analysis, we performed transcriptome and proteome analyses for products of gene expression, and also metabolome analysis for metabolic products in vivo. To improve the ability of honeybee as pollinator and to utilize honeybees effectively, we are developing the infection restraint technologies and the detection method for bee diseases.
For the reproductive technologies, in order to improve bovine fertility, we are trying to clarify the factors affecting the appearance of estrus symptoms and we aim to develop practical methods to determine the optimal time for AI. Also, we are trying to elucidate the physiological mechanisms of establishment and maintenance of pregnancy, and to develop the early pregnancy diagnosis and the determination of critical time points for embryonic survival. We are developing innovative techniques for improving reproductive performance of cattle. In order to make fertilized eggs with high developmental abilities after embryo transfer, we are developing the techniques for selection of excellent sperm and oocytes that have high abilities and also technology to preserve the excellent oocytes, sperm and fertilized eggs.
