Rex Animal Health is using genomics to keep livestock healthy

A startup known as Rex Animal health wants to offer protection to cattle from illnesses that may fast become epidemics, and lend a hand farmers breed animals with the healthiest and most enticing features.

lately at Disrupt SF, Rex unveiled know-how to assist veterinarians provide clinical reinforce at the point on the farm, and predict the genetic motives of problematical traits in their herds, and within the diseases effecting them.

consistent with CEO Amado Guloy, his company didn’t start out this manner. The pet parent of a unwell canine, he set out initially to build one thing like “Zocdoc for pets,” he stated, to assist folks to find and time table appointments with veterinarians.

but as a chemist by coaching, and Techstars-backed entrepreneur, he soon noticed a a lot larger market chance in bringing knowledge analytics and genomics to the farm. the corporate pivoted in 2015.

these days, Rex Animal health’s platform lets the people who raise cattle, pigs, chickens and every other animals in the meals supply chain preserve a digital document of their health concerns, even converting notes on paper into digital information.

The platform tracks which animals experience signs, which animals suffered from a veterinarian-diagnosed health drawback and when, in addition to the remedy measures taken, outcomes and related costs to the trade.

Rex Animal health standardizes the info to make comparisons and calculations straightforward.

the company also conducts genomic and phenotype diagnosis, and gives farmers “climate maps,” or epidemiological maps, displaying which viruses, bacteria and different well being problems are sweeping a area.

With these maps, the farmers and veterinarians who work with them can prioritize lab checking out of their animals, and rule out or diagnose locally well-known considerations quickly.

Over time, the company will combine digital health records of animals with genomic data about each animals and the pathogens effecting them.

“What we’ve got is a genotype and phenotype database that no one has built earlier than, and that would assist resolve issues around disease transmission and sustainability within the international meals supply,” Guloy mentioned.

information could also lend a hand pharmaceutical companies velocity drug building to stop recently mutated viruses or bacteria effecting cattle. And it might probably influence animal husbandry.

If a bull consistently sires calves that finish up producing plenty of milk, as an instance, or a heifer and her offspring seem to never be plagued by respiratory viruses, Rex Animal well being can use the info it’s collected to trace down the causal genes affiliated with these sure features, the CEO explained.

figuring out which animals have illness resistance and yield good milk and meat would encourage breeding of both into a roughly super herd.

the corporate, which earlier raised bout $ 270,000 in seed money from Techstars and 500 Startups, is hoping to boost additional undertaking capital to amplify its own genetic sequencing capability and rent extra staff.

they’re competing against other startups bringing genomics and knowledge science to farms, together with Metabiota and hint Genomics.