Scientists develop cattle age test using tail hair

Scientists from The University of Queensland (UQ) have developed a technique that uses a real-time sequencing device to determine the age of a cow using DNA extracted from their tail hair. Published in the journal Frontier in Genetics, their research has been described as a game changer for Australia’s lucrative cattle industry.

Being able to determine the age of a cow is useful for a farmer given that it can define how farmers plan for the farming and development of cattle, as well as their herd management. Yet according to UQ Centre for Animal Science Director Professor Ben Hayes, herds range freely in between annual musters and the births of individual animals are generally not recorded.

“Without age records, it’s difficult to establish the baseline growth rates, apply genomic predictions, and there are also adverse impacts on herd management,” Prof Hayes said.

The new cattle age test has been developed by a team led by UQ research fellow Dr Elizabeth Ross, using an Oxford-developed portable DNA sequencing device called MinION. Dr Ross said the device was already being used to provide information about the genetic make-up of the animal, but her team has since discovered that it can also be used to accurately measure a cow’s age to within 1.5 years.

“The DNA extracted for the animal’s tail hair using this method works across all ages in a herd, from five days to 14 years,” Dr Ross said.

Dr Ross said if adopted by producers, the technology can deliver both the age estimate and genomic predictions from the same DNA test and is a “game changer” for improving herd performance. Her team is now working to include hundreds more tail hair samples before taking the technology for proof-of-concept trials on cattle stations later this year.

“There’ll be gains across the board for producers including improved herd fertility, growth rates, health and meat traits,” she said.

“The performance data and DNA gathered from cattle will enable genomic predictions and this completes the feedback loop and making sure that industry data will be used to drive ongoing genetic improvement,” added Michael Crowley, General Manager of Research Development & Adoption for Meat & Livestock Australia, which funded the research.

Image caption: UQ Centre for Animal Science Director Professor Ben Hayes collects a tail hair sample. Image credit: QAAFI.

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