The Continuum of Bovine Genomic Innovation

Cattle breeding is undergoing a paradigm shift from identifying animals with valuable phenotypes to identifying genes and genetic loci responsible for valuable traits. This paradigm shift is driven by revolutionary new tools that enable scientists, animal breeders and producers to screen large populations and assess genetic variation on a genome-wide basis. Illumina’s genetic analysis tools enable discovery, validation and screening of any variant in any species. Next generation sequencing projects have improved the accuracy of bovine genome builds and identified novel genetic variation across temperate and tropical bovine species, Bos taurus taurus and Bos taurus indicus alike, supported by collaborations between Illumina and world-wide thought leaders in the bovine industry. The BovineSNP50 BeadChip, commercially launched in 2007, has become the standard whole-genome genotyping tool for both the research and industry communities in Cattle. Recently, Illumina added several important genomic tools to create a unique genomic portfolio: BovineHD, a whole-genome genotyping BeadChip with more than 777,000 SNPs for the identification of agriculturally important genes and a deeper implementation of genomic selection and Bovine3K, a genotyping panel to enable broader access of cattle herds to genetic tests for the evaluation of net merit. These tools are enabling breeders world-wide to identify valuable traits quicker, publish faster and be first to market with new and better animals to feed the world.