Food-tech start-ups are using precision fermentation technologies for another alternative to cow’s milk. This segment’s future remains vague as conservative consumers are not likely to quickly embrace synthetic products. While lab-grown meat has already been around for some time, lab-grown dairy is something consumers do not frequently hear about.

“Synthetic milk is still a somewhat emerging industry, with many start-ups in their research and development phase. However, some companies are leading the way with products already in the market,” comments Milena Bojovic, a PhD candidate at Macquarie University, Australia. She pointed to the US-based company Perfect Day as one of the examples of a start-up working in this field.

‘We’re changing the process, not the food’ – this is Perfect Day’s slogan, reflecting the key feature of precise fermentation technologies. Ultimately, it will showcase products indistinguishable from cow’s milk. The milk from bioreactors will have the same taste, appearance, mouthfeel and good nutritional value.

Milk obtained through precision fermentation, referred to as ‘synthetic milk’, is environmentally friendly. “Because this novel form of animal protein can be produced without a cow, there is a significant opportunity to reduce methane and carbon emissions, water pollution, land use and animal welfare concerns,” Bojovic explains.

While the short and mid-term outlook of the synthetic milk segment is not yet clear, analysts express confidence that the products obtained through precise fermentation will gain a foothold on the market in due course. As precision fermentation technologies are becoming more advanced, synthetic milk is expected to become more affordable over time. One of the start-ups, Australia-based All G Foods, has rolled out plans to make its synthetic milk cheaper than cow’s milk in the short term. “Novel proteins like synthetic milk offer another pathway to increase sustainable food production.” Bojovic added.

Kazakhstan has rolled out plans to boost the dairy herd by 100,000 and milk production by 725,000 tonnes in the next 4 years. Some market players have expressed skepticism that all projects will eventually see the light. The growth should primarily be fueled by government loans with subsidised interest rates for the construction and modernisation of milk farms and dairy processing infrastructure. In 2023, plans to build 81 milk farms and 17 dairy processing plants were made public in Kazakhstan, many of them with state aid, local news outlet The DairyNews Central Asia estimated. It is yet to be seen, however, whether all these projects will be implemented.

Mikhail Mishenko, director of the Dairy Intelligence Agency, a Moscow-based think tank, expressed doubts that the released figures are realistic. “Frankly speaking, I don’t fully believe that these figures will be achieved given that the official sector in Kazakhstan, according to our estimates, produces 1.9 million tonnes of milk [per year],” Mishenko said, adding that some growth is possible due to a low-base effect.

Daniyar Abitaev, deputy general director of the local dairy firm OAHK, said that only 10% of the announced projects would be implemented. He cited the labour shortage, and primarily a deficit of highly-skilled personnel, as the main constraint for the new dairy projects in Kazakhstan. It will be challenging for Kazakhstan to purchase 100,000 heads of cattle, especially highly productive animals, in a relatively short period, Mishenko said. Moreover, it will take around 10 years to repay investments in the dairy industry, Abitaev said. As a result, investors typically are reluctant to jump into big projects in the dairy sector.

In addition, Mishenko voiced concerns that the disclosed plans say nothing about animal feed. A lack of feed in some cases could heavily weigh on the expansion plans. Besides, Kazakhstan has insufficient processing capacities to deal with 725,000 tonnes of milk, Mishenko said, emphasising that the planned 17 factories will not make a difference.

Over the past few years, the Kazakh authorities and business organisations have shared ambitious goals of ramping up aquaculture and beef production and exports. However, in neither industry have the declared plans led to an actual rise in production performance.

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD), also known as shipping fever, is one of the most common and costly diseases that affect the North American beef cattle industry. Mainly affecting the lungs of cattle, BRD is highly prevalent during the first week or two after animals arrive at a feedlot. Weaning and shipping — two of the high-stress events that happen before calves arrive at feedlots — can depress their immune systems and increase their chance of developing disease. However, an accurate and timely diagnosis of BRD can maximize the effectiveness of subsequent antibiotic treatments.

Precision technological advancements allow beef cattle feedlot employees the opportunity to monitor and flag cattle showing signs of illnesses like BRD. “The huge challenge with all of these [precision technologies] is you can invent a system to track behaviour, but you still have to come up with an algorithm for the behaviours that accurately predict respiratory disease”, says Dr. John Campbell, a professor and beef cattle specialist at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM). 

Using cameras placed above the pen of the subjects, the researchers at WCVM observed any behavioural changes that occurred in the cattle following treatment for BRD. Since the cameras allowed for continuous video collection, team members completed analyzing all of the footage with the goal of identifying the specific behaviours indicative of recovery. “All cattle are somewhat prey animals, so they are good at disguising when they feel sick. You’re looking for fairly subtle signs. [But] the current case definition is very vague: ‘They look sick and have a fever.’”

The common observable clinical signs of BRD include nasal discharge, depression, reduced feed intake, separation from herd, changing respiratory rates and coughing. Since some of these behaviours last only a short time, they can be easily missed during routine pen checks.

“I think we will gradually see more and more as some of these systems get cheaper. We are seeing adaptations coming in industries such as dairy already, so it is probably just a matter of time [for the beef cattle sector],” says Campbell. “At the end of the day, it does come down to cost though. You are still going to need people to go in and select the sick cattle and bring them out of the pen and treat them, so you cannot completely eliminate your labour costs.”

The Ukrainian Parliament discussed the current situation of the dairy industry on 8 February. According to Arsen Didur, executive director of the Ukrainian Union of dairy industry enterprises, the main topic on the agenda was the complaint from the milk processors about a sharp deficit of raw milk. In 2023, the cow population in Ukraine dropped by 4% to 1.29 million heads, the preliminary calculation of the Ukrainian Agricultural and Food Ministry showed. The shortage adds pressure along the entire value chain, driving prices higher. For example, the average price of butter on the Ukrainian market last year jumped by 40%. “The average capacity utilisation ratio [of Ukrainian dairy processors] is 50% to 60%. This impacts production costs and competitiveness,” Didur told the local newspaper, the Telegraph. Without state aid, milk companies will neither modernise their production capacities nor maintain operations at the level of last year.

The issue appears so tense that Ukrainian food security might be on the line. Didur indicated that the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, in order to not let the situation in the dairy industry deteriorate further, had issued a decree ordering the authorities to embark on the 10-year development plan. Without it, the industry will be doomed for gradual weakening. “If we do not stimulate milk production and increase the number of livestock due to state support,” Didur said, “then we will constantly have a deficit. Consequently, of course, there will be a high price for raw materials. Now we are already losing some foreign markets due to increased costs,” he said, adding that the domestic market would be lost. “If today we have already lost it significantly in cheeses, then tomorrow we will lose it in cottage cheese, as well as in the same dairy products.”

However, the Ukrainian 2024 national budget has already been put together with no extra funds to support the dairy business. Any aid the lawmakers approve for the sector will not come earlier than 2025. In the meantime, the big question is whether the already strained national budget can afford subsidies to milk manufacturers.

Each year, more than 200 million people suffer from malaria around the world, and every two minutes a child dies from the disease. The disease is most common in poor areas and is itself a contributing factor to poverty: a sick person cannot perform his or her daily tasks, which can lead to a loss of income for the household. At the societal level, the healthcare system and the economy of countries, where malaria is endemic, are affected. At the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the fight against malaria continues through novel research on how to control and trap the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite. As there is currently no effective vaccine available to prevent malaria, controlling the mosquitoes that spread the parasite is imperative for preventing the spread of the disease. However, the existing techniques for indoor malaria mosquito control have been put to the test, due to the development of pesticide resistance in mosquito populations and behavioral changes in the mosquitoes. As a result, there are now more people being bitten outdoors. Therefore, there is an urgent need for innovative control methods that complement the current strategies and specifically focus on mosquitoes that are active outdoors. Outdoor-based traps can be substantially more efficient when baited with synthetic human and animal odours. For example, it has been demonstrated that cattle urine attracts many blood sucking insects, in various physiological stages and different species of mosquitoes. Adult female malaria mosquitos use the urine as a supplementary nitrogen–rich meal, enhancing flight mobility, survival and reproductive traits. Researchers from SLU took this into account when they initially developed a synthetic cattle urine odour to lure malaria mosquitoes into traps. During one year, the researchers collected seasonal information on the malaria mosquito species populations along with data on the presence and prevalence of malaria in mosquitoes and humans. At the onset of the second year, they installed 50 traps baited with the synthetic cattle urine odour, powered by solar panels, in one of the villages and continued collecting entomological and parasitological data. By mass trapping, they were able to reduce the population of malaria mosquitoes by up to 70% and malaria prevalence by up to 60%, despite a major malaria epidemic affecting the region, said Professor Rickard Ignell, Department of Plant Protection Biology, SLU.

Johne’s Disease or paratuberculosis is a chronic disease of ruminants which is responsible for large economic losses in the dairy sector. The disease is caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), which typically infects calves that remain latently infected during a long period, making early detection of infection especially challenging. Cow-to-calf transmission can occur in-utero via milk/colostrum or faecal-orally, so understanding the different transmission routes to calves is important in informing control recommendations. The aim of a longitudinal study carried out by researchers at the Royal Veterinary College was to measure the association between the transmission routes via the dam and the environment on a calf that subsequently tested serologically positive for MAP. The study comprised of 439 UK dairy calves from 6 herds enrolled between 2012 and 2013. These calves were followed from birth until 2023. Individual calf data was captured at birth. During follow-up, individuals entering the milking herd were quarterly tested for the presence of MAP antibodies using milk ELISA. Cox regression models were used to measure the association between exposure from the dam (in-utero and/or colostrum) or from the environment (long time in dirty yard) and time to first detection of MAP infection. In conclusion, the researchers found that: 1) Map infection risk is partly driven by the dam’s infection status. 2) Calves from infected dams have higher MAP infection risk, regardless of the dam’s test status at calving. 3) Spending prolonged time in a dirty yard increases the risk of MAP infection. 4) The dam’s impact on MAP risk extends beyond colostrum transmission. 5) MAP persistence in commercial dairy herds results from a combination of dam-related and environment-related factors.

When dairy cows are fed diets with reduced protein concentrations – aimed at decreased environmental nitrogen pollution from their manure such as nitrate leaching, nutrient-laden run-off and ammonia volatilization – their milk production can suffer. Supplementing the amino acid histidine may help in maintaining, and even increasing, milk and milk-protein yields. That’s the conclusion of a new study conducted by an international research team led by Alexander Hristov, a senior researcher at Penn State University. The researchers recently published their findings in the Journal of Dairy Science. Histidine is an essential amino acid for protein synthesis, Hristov explained. He added that earlier studies in Europe have shown that low histidine levels can limit milk production in dairy cows fed diets based on grass silage, which is the predominant forage in Northern Europe. Limited histidine was not considered a challenge for dairy cows fed typical North American diets until research conducted in Hristov’s lab in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State a few years ago revealed the problem. In those experiments, blood histidine concentrations dropped significantly when cows were fed reduced-protein diets aimed at curbing nitrogen losses and ammonia emissions from manure.

The recently published series of experiments also confirmed the importance of histidine to maintain milk production and milk protein content when cows were fed diets with reduced protein concentration. “The culmination of this research was the recently published meta-analysis of 17 studies which concluded that histidine supplementation of dairy cow diets increased feed dry matter intake, milk yield and milk protein concentration,” Hristov said. “Notably, and as Penn State research has shown, the increase in milk protein concentration with histidine supplementation was up to four times greater for cows fed diets that had lowered protein content than diets formulated to provide adequate protein intake, according to diet-formulation models.” Histidine is unique among the essential amino acids because there are body reserves that can serve as sources of histidine and mask short-term deficiencies, Hristov said.

For that reason, histidine effects in dairy cows should be studied in long-term, continuous-design experiments. “Further, microbial protein synthesized in the rumen – which is the main source of amino acids for the cow – is low in histidine, relative to other potentially milk-limiting amino acids,” Hristov said. “That supports our hypothesis that histidine becomes the first limiting amino acid when cows are fed low-protein diets. So, the role of microbial protein as a source of amino acids for milk protein synthesis and body functions becomes even more critical.”

Coccidiosis is an intestinal disease caused by unicellular parasites that usually occurs in young dairy or beef calves between 3 weeks and 6 months of age. Although it is rarely fatal, it can cause extensive gut damage and ill-thrift and is commonly seen under intensive management conditions with high stocking rates.

Autumn-born calves are at greater risk, with Cocci requiring warmth and moisture. A wet September and October increases infection risk as the environment becomes more favourable for the occysts to spread from calf to calf.

Veterinary specialists Murray Direct said calves become infected by consuming coccidiosis eggs from pasture, feed, waste and bedding, or by licking contaminated calves. The parasite can exist for months in their surroundings and failure to control the disease can influence future productivity levels, including growth rates, as well as delaying the onset of puberty, leading to milk loss production in dairy calves.

Third-generation dairy farmer, Darren Coombes, who farms with his son Tim on 890 acres near Bridgwater, Somerset in the UK, believes feeding a coccidiostat to his dairy calves can help control the disease. He recently had an outbreak affecting a fifth of his calves. 

Coombes milks 425 cows – year-round calving Holsteins – supplying Muller and Sainsbury’s. Animals are milked twice daily, producing 10,500 litres at 4.3% fat and 3.25% protein.

“We didn’t lose any calves, but we lost a lot of growth and it took the calves a long time to recover,” he said.

His vet recommended the calves be fed the coccidiostat Deccox and, alongside improved cleanliness, it has helped get on top of the outbreaks.

Coombes said newborn calves receive colostrum for the first 3 days. Calves are kept in pens for the first week and at day 4 they transition onto a milk replacer with 3 litres fed in a bottle twice a day. From birth, calves are given clean water and free access to fresh straw and Mole Valley Farmers’ NSP NPP Calf Rearer 18+ Deccox, which is an 18% protein rearer nut with an added coccidiostat to help treat and manage coccidiosis.

“It is a very consistent, palatable product and calves love it. After 7 days, calves move onto one of the 2 Forster-Technik automatic milk feeders where they are kept in groups of 30. Calves get fed 4 feeds a day and can have a maximum of 8 litres in 24 hours. At day 49, the milk is gradually reduced and calves are weaned at day 56.”

Calves stay in the same group until they are 6 months old. After 5 months they are introduced to 1kg of homegrown rolled barley and ad-lib grass silage with the rearer nut cut back to 1kg. Deccox is removed at 9-10 months. Coombes notes: “It has completed kept coccidiosis at bay. We tried different things and we could never really get to the bottom of it until we introduced the Deccox.”

But hygiene is key, too. Calf sheds are disinfected and steam-cleaned between batches and straw bedding is also replenished liberally to keep calves dry.

Andy Adler of Molecare Farm Vets said preventing faecal contamination of water and feed troughs is crucial in controlling coccidiosis. “Raising feed and water troughs alongside regular cleaning is very important to prevent faecal-to-oral transmission. Straw bedding should be replenished often so calves are only eating fresh, clean straw.”

Scientists have collaborated to produce the first gene-edited calf with resistance to bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV). The study, published recently in PNAS Nexus, is the result of a collaboration between several universities and industry players. BVDV is one of the most important viruses affecting the health and well-being of cattle worldwide and has been studied by researchers since the 1940s when it was first identified. The virus does not affect humans, but is highly contagious among cattle and can cause severe respiratory and intestinal disease. BVDV can be devastating to pregnant cows, as it can infect developing calves, causing spontaneous abortions and low birth rates. Some infected calves survive to birth and remain infected for life, shedding massive amounts of virus to other cattle. Over the past 20 years, the scientific community has discovered the key cellular receptor (CD46) and the site where the virus binds to this receptor and causes infection in cows. In this latest study, scientists have modified the virus binding site to block infection. Aspen Workman, lead author and researcher at ARS’ US Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) in Clay Center, Nebraska, said, “Our goal was to use gene-editing technology to slightly modify CD46 so that it doesn’t bind the virus but still retains all its normal functions in cattle. The scientists first tested this idea in cell culture. After seeing promising results in the lab, Acceligen edited cattle skin cells to develop embryos carrying the modified gene. These embryos were transplanted into surrogate cows to test whether this approach could also reduce viral infection in live animals. It worked, and the first CD46 gene-edited calf, named Ginger, was born healthy on 19 July 2021. The calf was followed for several months and then challenged with the virus to see if it could become infected. She was housed for a week with a BVDV-infected dairy calf that was born shedding virus. Ginger’s cells showed significantly reduced susceptibility to BVDV, resulting in no observed adverse health effects. Scientists will continue to monitor Ginger’s health and ability to produce and rear her own calves. This promising trait is still in the research phase and no associated cattle are currently entering the US food supply.

A Holstein cow at the ripe old age of 14 has set a new lifetime production record in the USA. Owned and bred by the Dankert family at Nor-Bert Farm in Bremen, Indiana, the cow named Nor-Bert Colby Connie has pumped a record 486,300 pounds (over 22 tonnes) of milk. And she is still producing, as Connie has just calved again and is increasing her production every day. Connie has equally impressive results for her milk quality components with a lifetime record of 12,275kg of fat and 8,045kg of protein in her last completed lactation. These massive fat and protein totals are currently the highest lifetime fat and protein totals in the Holstein Association USA database. This new production record comes in quick succession to that set by another US cow, Chrome-View Charles 3044, who set the record earlier this year with a total of 217 tonnes of lifetime milk. These lifetime production records have highlighted the scope of what Holstein cows can achieve.