Animal Science Faculty Receive New Grants

Professor Gary Anderson's embryo transfer laboratory received a $100,000 gift toward bovine cloning research from Peter Pfendler of Pfendler Ranches in Petaluma in honor of his father, David, a former associate dean of agriculture at Purdue University 

Professor Juan Medrano's new grant from USDA-National Research Initiative will permit his laboratory to pursue gene identification in a major locus that increases animal growth. He and his students will sequence and characterize all the genes in the high growth region of mouse chromosome 10. High growth is a mouse model resulting from a mutation that produces a 40 to 50 percent increase in body size and feed efficiency it is hoped this might lead to development of genetic strategies to improve growth rate in domestic animals. The $175,000 grant will extend for two years. 

Professor Jan Roser and her graduate student Nancy Hedley received a yearlong grant last September for $38,000 from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association Conservation Endowment Fund to develop a simple and quick field kit for elephant luteinizing hormone and progesterone. This field kit will allow zoos to monitor the female elephant cycle for ovulation and timed insemination. Both African and Asian elephants are on the endangered species list. 

Dr. Dennis Hedgecock, participating with researchers at several other universities, will continue to work on improving crossbreeding techniques for farmed Pacific oysters for high yield with the help of a USDA grant for $100,000 a year for four years. This grant represents 16 years of continuous funding from the Western Regional Aquaculture Consortium. The goal during the next four years is to determine early indicators of hybrid vigor and validate their use in predicting the yield of hybrid seed. The Pacific oyster is second only to tiger shrimp in yielding the highest annual production of farmed aquatic species. 

Dr. Hedgecock also received a three-year grant for $170,724 from the California Sea Grant College Program to quantify and minimize the risk that hatchery-enhancement will reduce the genetic diversity of white seabass. This project will examine the potential genetic impact of a large hatchery program to enhance white seabass, an important recreational fish in southern California. 

Dr. Doug Conklin, Animal Science Professor, and Dr. Raul H. Piedrahita, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, received a three-year grant for $193,802 from the California Sea Grant College Program. The project title is "Development of a recirculation system and diet for the culture of California halibut (Paralichtys californicus)." Their goal is to develop in a synergistic fashion optimal diets and engineer waste removal systems as components of an integrated recirculation culture operation. Potentially, this commercially attractive marine species could be developed into another successful aquaculture venture like the California sturgeon industry. 

Dr. Wolfgang Pittroff received a grant of $190,464 for three years as part of the Davis component of the Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program to study livestock development and develop rangeland conservation tools for Central Asia, specifically mapping primary and secondary productivity of sheep production systems in the semi-arid and arid zones of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. 

Dr. Graham Gall is in the first year of a $78,000, three-year grant on genetic improvement of tilapia with a collaborator in Israel. Their goal is to use selective breeding to develop new stocks of this important aquaculture fish that grow better in colder and more saline waters, enhancing their use in tropical and arid coastal areas. 

Professor Anita Oberbauer received two American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation grants. One grant for $40,000 that began in December 2000 supports locating a genetic marker linked to epilepsy in Belgian Tervuren dogs. Cooperating investigators are Adjunct Professor Bernie May and Professor Tom Famula. The second grant, for $24,000, which began in January 2001, focuses on defining the inheritance of idiopathic epilepsy in the poodle and giant Schnauzer. Tom Famula is also working with her on this one. 

Departmental researcher Dr. Elizabeth Maga and collaborators Jim Murray and Gary Anderson were awarded a 2-year BioSTAR grant for $926,068 to evaluate the feasibility of increasing the kappa-casein (milk protein) content of milk by inserting extra copies of the kappa-casein gene into dairy animals. BioSTAR is a University of California program aimed at increasing University collaboration with private industry. The industrial collaborator on the project is Pangene Inc., a Bay-area biotechnology company 

Professor Jim Murray received a two-year USDA grant for $180,000 to map the horse genome. Genetic mapping is essential for identifying and locating genes on horse chromosomes. 

The Morris Animal Health Foundation has provided $200,000 to a consortium of universities, including UC Davis, to study the functional genomics of the horse. Functional genomics involves the study of the expression of genes. Jim Murray leads the UC Davis component of this multi-university effort.