Pioneering technology for protein production
During our last financial year progress against our strategic objectives included:
Gene editing
- Produced gene-edited pigs that demonstrate resistance to PRRSv and made our first submissions for regulatory approval (in China and the U.S.).
- Commenced knowledge transfer with BCA, our strategic partners, to inform their work to develop PRRSv-resistant pigs in China.
- Expanded our scope of work with Kansas State University to explore whether gene editing can help to combat other diseases in pigs, particularly swine influenza.
- Produced live beef calves from embryos containing edits intended to improve resilience to Bovine Respiratory Disease, with testing to come in FY21.
Gender skew
- Increased IntelliGen (sexed semen technology) production capacity to help ABS meet global demand for Sexcel and introduced a new microfluidic chip, to improve the performance of our industry-leading technology.
- Continued to expand our network of IntelliGen Technologies laboratories, which now number eight owned and licensed facilities across four continents.
Reproductive biology
- Established a new programme to strengthen our current capabilities and embryo manipulation techniques while developing new technology, with initial emphasis on bovine in vitro fertilization.
Data strategy
- Enhanced the management, integration and advanced analytics of internal and external scientific data, to accelerate product development and enhance the service we provide to customers.