Teagasc Research News – Winter 2009

Ranking Grass Varieties

On-going research at the Teagasc animal production and grassland research centre is working towards developing an economic index for ranking grass varieties. This index which will allow traits such as dry-matter yield, quality and persistency to be assessed and valued in euro and allow varieties to be ranked on total economic merit, will be available at the end of 2009. Trials at Moorepark have already found that management systems have an effect on the performance of different grass varieties. Differences arise depending on how they are assessed. Some varieties emerged on the top of the list when assed using a ten-cut system, which simulated a grazing system, while others emerged on top when assessed using a two-cut silage system or a three-cut silage system. For example, the grass varieties Bealey and Tyrella were ranked one and two, respectively, in the ten-cut system; but were eight and twelfth on the list when assessed using a three-cut silage system, which indicates that these two varieties are more suitable for grazing systems of production.

Teagasc Develops New Anthelmintic Drug Residue Analysis Method

A new method of testing foods for anthelmintic residues has been developed at Teagasc Ashtown Food Research Centre in Dublin. Described as a gold standard method, the method was developed using the QuECheERS (Quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe) method, and reduces the time taken to carry out an analysis, reduces the amounts of solvent used and improves food safety. The new method, which was developed in a collaborative project with the United States Department of Agriculture, has increased the testing output, with 45,600 results delivered in 2009 compared to 10,500 in the previous year. In 2009, the method was submitted for accreditation to the Irish National Accreditation Board to ISO17025 standard and is currently being applied to monitor the safety of Irish food. The technology has already been established in seven countries and it is expected that as many as 20 countries will be using the technology within the next 12 months.

The GM Debate and the Irish Pig Sector

If Irish pig producers were to feed non GM pig diets, the increased cost to the pig industry could amount to in excess of €8.7 million per annum. Writing in the latest edition of TResearch, Peadar Lawlor and Maria Walsh of Teagasc estimate the costs on the Irish pig industry of substituting conventional for GM ingredients. At the time of writing, - the authors point out that GM-free soya was trading at a premium of €35 per tonne, while non-GM maize gluten and maize distillers were trading at a premium of €10 per tonne and €18 per tonne, respectively, over GM product.

The combined increased cost of feeding non-GM versus feeding GM ingredients was estimated by the researchers at €2.51 per pig. Given Ireland’s dependence on imported feed ingredients, the researchers point out that if Ireland were to adopt a GM-free position, the resulting increase in feed cost would make it difficult for the Irish pig meat sector to survive.

Understanding Bioinformatics

Scientists at the Teagasc Animal Bioscience Centre, Grange, County Meath are exploring the research area of bioinfomatics. In broad terms, this is the use of computational techniques to analyse biological problems. Since the advent of DNA sequencing, the amount of data available to analyse has risen to such high levels that whole areas of bioinformatics research have arisen just to develop new ways of visualising and handling the data.

At the core of the Animal Bioscience Centre in Grange are two bioinformatics research groups headed by Dr Chris Creevy and Dr David Lynn. Teagasc researchers are already utilising genome-wide analyses, such as gene expression and genome-wide association studies to investigate important aspects of bovine biology with significant economic impact including production, reproduction, immunity and disease.

Such analyses, however, generate vast quantities of data, and efficiently analysing such large complex datasets requires advanced computational approaches that bioinformatics can offer.

The above articles are featured in TResearch, Volume 4, Number 4, Winter 2009, which can be downloaded from www.teagasc.ie/publications/tresearch.