A Lakeland College livestock research project received international attention when results were recently shared at a conference in China.

Dr. Obi Durunna, Lakeland College's livestock research scientist, was excited to be invited to present some of the college's research findings at the 2019 Cattle Science Conference (CSC) in Tai'an city, Shandong province, China.

The conference is organized every two years by the Cattle Science Committee, Chinese Association of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine (CAAV). The 2019 conference was hosted by the Shandong Agricultural University.

Durunna presented results from the Core Body Temperature (CBT) project during the plenary session of the conference.

The project (funded by Sask-ADF, ALMA and SBIDF) was conducted in collaboration with the universities of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Calgary, as well as the United States Department of Agriculture. It evaluated whether some metabolic substrates, microbiome species abundance and rumen temperature profiles (from rumen thermistors, Thermobolus®) could predict the feed efficiency profile of cattle.

The project profiled about 80 steers per year for production and feed-efficiency traits over two years (2016-2018) at the University of Saskatchewan's Termuende ranch near Lanigan, Sask. During the trial, all steers received the Thermobolus®, while half of the steers were also fitted with a rectal temperature datalogger. Body temperature was collected every five minutes in both devices.

One of the objectives was to evaluate whether rumen temperature would be a good predictor of feed efficiency. Previous studies showed that differences in surface skin temperature (measured from infrared scans) were associated with differences in feed efficiency profiles. The study proposed that using core body temperature, i.e. deep body temperatures measured from the rumen, would provide more reliable temperature profiles indicative of feed efficiency than the skin temperature.

The results showed significant differences in average rumen temperature between animals with High (inefficient) and Low (efficient) RFI profiles, but the results were not consistent across different seasons. The study also showed a high correlation (65%) between rumen and rectal temperatures.

Validating some of these emerging profiling tools is important because part of Dr. Durunna's research interest explores practical low-cost tools or telemetric applications that can improve the bottom line of livestock producers under extensive systems.

A highlight of Dr. Durunna's trip was presenting to the host group, Innovation Team of Cattle Genetic Breeding (ITCGB) at the Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science in Beijing. The group was interested to learn about profiling animals for RFI and the production implications.

"The team gave me a virtual, real-time tour of some cattle farms and a tour of their facility on campus. We also climbed the famous Mount Tai (Taishan) in Tai'an and visited the Summer Palace in Beijing, which are exquisite displays of Chinese artistry and architecture," says Dr. Durunna.

The Cattle Science conference started in 1986 and has been hosted in different Chinese cities over the years. It is regarded as the most comprehensive cattle meeting in China with presentations showcasing scientific research in beef/dairy cattle, as well as in other members of the Bos genus such as the yak and buffalo.

There were wide-ranging topics of interest to attendees involved in research, teaching, extension and other commercial activities related to the bovines. This international conference provides a platform for research scientists around the world to engage, share research ideas and collaborate on research projects pertaining to cattle. There were about 500 attendees from several institutions around the world including Canada, United States of America, China, Poland, Denmark, Germany and Australia, among others.