| New MSU Animal
Biosciences Facility Will Lead Teaching and Research into the Next
Era of Food Production |
| The dream is
coming much closer to reality. So far $4 million of private and MSU
Foundation grants and pledges have been received for the proposed
Animal BioSciences Facility at MSU. |
| Research
at the facility will put Montana livestock producers in
a prime position to benefit from the USDA's $53 million
Bovine Genome Sequencing Project announced in 2003. MSU
teachers and Experiment Station researchers will work
in the facility as part of a Center for Excellence for
Livestock Genomics. The research will develop ways for
commercial and seedstock producers to benefit from genetic
technologies. The building also will house the College
of Agriculture's Department of Animal and Range Sciences. |
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Artist's
conception of proposed Animal BioSciences building.
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| The new facility
and Center for Excellence will build on Montana's internationally
recognized leadership in cattle breeding. Researchers in the facility
will work to provide livestock producers with genetic technologies
that improve the quality, safety and consistency of red meat for consumers
and enhance its nutritional value while improving environmentally
sound livestock production. |
| The USDA Genomics
Project uses the genetics of the USDA's Line 1 Hereford Cattle developed
at the USDA-ARS Livestock and Range Research Laboratory in Miles City.
While much of the project will be centered at Baylor College of Medicine
in Texas, it dovetails nicely with the study of the immune receptors
of humans and beef calves for which MSU's Department of Veterinary
Molecular Biology recently received $10.5 million from the National
Institutes of Health. |
The primary USDA-ARS
emphasis will be to discover genome sequencing information, genes
and gene combinations related to desirable livestock traits, including
nutritional characteristics. This application of "functional
genomics" is key to the next generation of genetic advances in
the livestock industry. The same process can identify genes that contribute
to disease susceptibility in beef cattle.
The 62,000-square-foot building will cost about $30 million, equipped.
With $4 million in private donations and beef industry grants toward
it and USDA-ARS funds adding $21.5 million, the university is still
working to raise approximately $4.5 million. Major donors to the new
teaching and research facility will receive permanent recognition
in this facility. |
| The new facility
also will let animal and range science students experience the forces
that are shaping the next era of livestock and food production for
people around the world. It will place the MSU College of Agriculture
on the cutting edge of livestock genomics research and education in
the United States. It will increase the educational capabilities of
the College of Agriculture, as well as its stature and ability to
attract students, while enhancing research within the college and
the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station. |
| For more information,
contact Jim Peterson or Sandra Germann in the College of Agriculture. |
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