537 - Animal Growth and Development – A Scorecard and Recalibration

The ASAS Public Policy Committee (PPC) provides updates of Grand Challenges (GCs; www.asas.org/about/public-policy/asas-grand-challenges) to clearly articulate research priorities, to provide science-based information for shaping public policy, and to enhance future funding for research and education programs in animal sciences (AS). In this nexus symposium for 2021, PPC examines previous stated priorities and provides a progress report card and offers additional perspectives and recommendations for research needed to address some of the GCs continuing to face animal agriculture. Among the GC topics is growth and development, a rather broad field of inquiry focused on improving the overall growth efficiency of meat producing animals. The genesis of this discipline and its popularity grew mainly in response to heightened efforts by pharmaceutical companies to identify, develop and adopt novel new growth promotants. This included a myriad of work on the highly heralded technologies involving estrogenic and androgenic implants, somatotropin, and beta-adrenergic agonists. Because the potential application of these technologies was so broad, many disciplines within the animal sciences became involved in the process of creating knowledge around these drivers of productivity. In the process, our understanding of how tissues grow in response to these compounds, under a myriad of other conditions, and our fundamental understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating growth and development, expanded significantly. Areas of significant expansion included but were not restricted to: satellite cell biology and myogenesis, whole body and tissue-specific protein synthesis and degradation, growth factor biology, adipogenesis, and repartitioning of nutrients throughout the body. In our quest to increase productivity and product quality, coupled with advances in scientific techniques, long-existing and emerging genetic mutations with desirable traits were studied and mechanisms undergirding their biology began to develop. Applying the most innovative tools for the detailed manipulation of cellular processes, great strides were made during this time. However, this eclectic area of investigation is perhaps more important than ever given the inevitable replacement of growth promotant technologies with new and emerging genomic technologies. Many biological research challenges lie ahead such as applications of gene editing, RNA control, and epigenetic regulation through fetal programming. This presentation will review some of the significant advances made in the growth and development area and explore where significant gains may be possible in the future.