# Presentation: 286174

## Slide 1

## Slide 2

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Production Efficiency**
_**Explanation:**_**  Cow-calf and feeding systems: use of feed energy, reproduction, and longevity**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  End Product Quality**
_**Explanation:**_**  Pre-harvest molecular characterization and interventions in conventional systems and emerging systems; post-harvest quality assessment**

## Status:  New and needs to be investigated

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Information Systems for Phenotypic and DNA**
_**Explanation:**_**  Establish open systems architecture platforms for quantitative and molecular investigations**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Animal Well-Being/Welfare**
_**Explanation:**_**  Adaptability - e.g., heat, fescue tolerance, etc.**

## Status:  New and needs to be investigated

**Priority Rating:  Medium**
_**Issue:**_**  Transgenics**
_**Explanation:**_**  Conduct discovery research, food production currently lower priority**

## Status:  New and needs to be investigated

**Priority Rating:  Medium**
_**Issue:**_**  Rumen microflora**
_**Explanation:**_**  initiate developing platform for characterization and future use**

## Slide 9

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Nutrient Intake and utilization**
_**Explanation:**_**  Basic research in this area is paramount. Need to look at triad of nutrients-microbes-host genetics. Priority should be rumen, but all areas of gut need to be explored. Need ways to measure and capture information. Gene expression/regulation studies **

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Reproductive efficiency**
_**Explanation:**_**  Need to investigate triad of nutrition-immune system-genetics. Make selection tools more accurate.  study expression/regulation of important genes. Evaluate economic impact.**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Genetic Improvement and Genomic Tools**
_**Explanation:**_**  Need wider range phenotypes. ARS should remain repository of data. Emphasize health, fertility and well-being. Incorporate molecular data into genetic evaluations. Continue aggressive genomic program.**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Animal behavior/ well-being**
_**Explanation:**_**  Important to develop standard methods and measures.  Important to educate producers and practitioners how to recognize problems.  **

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  Medium**
_**Issue:**_**  Conserve and Characterize Germplasm**
_**Explanation:**_**  Keep current repositories.  There is a need to both conserve germplasm and to characterize it.  May need to expand current repositories to include non-domestic breeds.**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  Low**
_**Issue:**_**  Growth and Development**
_**Explanation:**_**  Focus should be on heifer growth. Also, mammary gland growth and regeneration in terms. Studies of structural conformation needs of high producing cows would also be interesting.  **

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  Low**
_**Issue:**_**  Product Quality**
_**Explanation:**_**  Work in this area should focus on improving the nutritional value of milk and enhancing important milk components.**

## Status:  Should no longer be investigated

**Priority Rating:  N/A**
_**Issue:**_**  Integrated Systems**
_**Explanation:**_**  Panel felt this was an important area, but that important decision making tools should be incorporated into other objectives and programs.**

## Slide 18

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Infrastructure needs**
_**Explanation:**_**  ****Continued support and research for functional genomics including continued genome funding for additional coverage and SNPs research.  Needs exist for facilities to house a production unit of relevant size & population for genetics/genomics studies that can be accessed by the genetics/genomics community. Priority for increased support of training and development programs for bioinformatics personnel.**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Biological efficiency**
_**Explanation:**_**  ****This includes nutrient utilization & efficiency, seasonality, longevity, male reproduction, energy efficiency, other repro components (pregnancy success, piglet survivability, maternal ability), and alternative feed ingredients.**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Swine Well-being**
_**Explanation:**_**  This includes research into useful measures and mechanisms that explain why they are relevant measures of animal well being. Also includes efforts to mitigate problems in swine well being once useful measures are defined.**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Environmental impacts of swine production**
_**Explanation:**_**  This includes nutritional and genomic research on the retention of nutrients versus shedding of nutrients into the environment for odor abatement and pollution mitigation.**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Pork Quality**
_**Explanation:**_**  Relevant factors and their interactions that predict pork quality are not fully known. Tools to predict pork quality and product tenderness pre-harvest are also needed. **

## Slide 24

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Reproductive efficiency limits profitability **
_**Explanation:**_**  Lifetime reproductive efficiency focusing on uterine health/embryonal and fetal survival, and assisted reproduction technologies including germplasm conservation should be emphasized.**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Characterize genetic variation among breeds, animals within breeds, and alleles in distinct production environments **
_**Explanation:**_**  This characterization should emphasize fitness traits, lifetime productivity, meat and wool quality, and disease and parasite resistance/tolerance.**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Suboptimal nutrient intake, utilization, and partitioning limits all aspects of production; nutrition is the largest cost factor in production**
_**Explanation:**_**  This should include elements from previous action plan, including grazing behavior, rumen microbiology.**

## Slide 28

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  Low**
_**Issue:**_**  Reproductive Efficiency **
_**Explanation:**_**  Considered to be the responsibility of the breeder companies.  (Most important for broiler and turkey industries.)**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Conserve, characterize and use of genetic resources**
_**Explanation:**_**  Populations are valuable and should be maintained.  Recommend combining this with the Genomic Tools component.**

## Status:  Should no longer be investigated

**Priority Rating:  Low**
_**Issue:**_**  Genetic improvement **
_**Explanation:**_**  Specifically referring to (1) developing breeding objectives  and (2) accelerating selection response.  Recommend moving (3) health and well-being and (4) transgenic poultry under Genomic Tools.**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Genomic tools and Genetic resources**
_**Explanation:**_**  Extremely important for all three commodities. Combined the relevant sections of Components 2, 3 and 4.  **

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Nutrient intake and use**
_**Explanation:**_**  Fundamental problem in poultry production.**

## Status:  Should no longer be investigated

**Priority Rating:  Low**
_**Issue:**_**  Growth and development**
_**Explanation:**_**  Primary breeders should be working on this issue not ARS. **

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  Medium**
_**Issue:**_**  Product quality**
_**Explanation:**_**  Need to continue on genetic/nutrition interaction aspect only.**

## Status:  Needs to be investigated further

**Priority Rating:  High**
_**Issue:**_**  Scientific measures of well-being and stress**
_**Explanation:**_**  This is a front-line issue for industry.**