Precision Animal Breeding as a Sustainable, non-GMO Solution for Improving Animal Production and Welfare

Although dehorning and castration are recognized as requisite practices in modern livestock systems, producers would like to avoid animal welfare issues that arise from current management methods. Increased criticism and scrutiny of both producers and the food industry emanates from a growing number of concerned citizens and NGOs with animal rights/animal welfare agendas. The optimal and simple solution for dehorning cattle is to breed for polled animals, but crossbreeding devalues animals when considering the cost of recovery to re-establish elite performance for production. Similarly, solutions for genetic castration would seem impractical due to obstacles for propagating sterile lines. In this study, we report the efficacy of precision cross-breeding, also known as gene-editing, as a means for elimination of dehorning and surgical castration.