CRV is applying genomic and reproduction technology in a responsible, skilful and artful way to further improve animal breeding

1. THE SHIFTING ART OF ANIMAL
BREEDING
Sijne van der Beek and Erik Mullaart

2. CRV IS ABOUT SMART
HERD MANAGEMENT
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016

3. ACTIVE AROUND THE WORLD
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016
CRV Xseed, South Africa
CRV Lagoa, Brazil
Central Bela Vista, Brazil
CRV USA
CRV Spain
Netherlands and Belgium
CRV Germany
CRV CZ, Czech Republic
CRV Luxembourg
CRV Ambreed, New Zealand
Liberty Genetics
CRV Avoncroft, UK

4. ANIMAL BREEDING
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016

5. IS CHANGING RAPIDLY
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016

6. DUE TO GENOMIC AND REPRODUCTION
TECHNOLOGY
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016

7. -100
0
100
200
300
400
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Conventional
Genomics
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016
16/yr
35/yr
Genetic gain has doubled

8. CRV Delta nucleus embryo production
Left
De Volmer
Ellmau Warsi,
137 embryos
Right:
Josefien 19 P rf
98 embryos
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Aim for 2020:
20.000 embryo’s from
same number of donor
animals
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016

9. How to achieve 20.000 in 2020
• Build new facilities (ready 2017)
• Further improve young stock management
• Start OPU/IVP at even younger age [but only after first natural
heat]
• Individualized animal protocols
• Optimize the use of FSH
• Optimize OPU/IVP protocol
• From “no variation in # embryo’s per donor policy” to
“exploit variation between donor’s policy”
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016

10. Today, we sell all our embryo’s
+ Highly flexible
+ Environmental factors average out
+ Farmer participation in breeding program
- Limited control
- Vulnerable for milk price volatility
- Not easy to rapidly increase scale
We need additional methods
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016

11. Embryo genotyping
Morulea or
early Blast Biopsy with
knife
Freeze
embryo
Biopsy
Genotype
GS breeding
value
Select
desired for
transfer
Flush embryo
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016

12. Effect of call rate
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
CalfGEBV
Embryo GEBV
High Call rate
Low call rate
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016

13. Pregnancy rates in vivo embryos
# Embryo’s Pregnancy rate
Not Biopsied 13,000 54%
Biopsied 1,200 46%
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016
Not working for IVP yet.
Therefore testing new vitrification protocol

14. Genomic prediction of number of oocytes
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016

15. And it works!
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016
R² = 0,27
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
ObservedNoOocytes
GEBV No Oocytes

16. How to further improve animal breeding
Responsible
Skilful
And Artful
Application of Technology
will do the job!
MoCaS symposium | The shifting Art of Animal Breeding | September 2016