Location: Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit
Project Number: 6066-31320-017-001-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2018
End Date: Jun 30, 2023
Objective:
1. Develop and adapt existing imaging and photon emitting technologies toward describing the intrauterine environment, and sperm qualities such as motility, and develop strategies to enhance and improve reproductive health and fertility in food animal reproduction systems.
2. Use novel imaging and related technologies for the tracking of relevant pathogens (disease stressors; e.g. Salmonella, Mycobacterium avian paratuberculosis) in avian and livestock hosts using photon emitting sentinels in the animal system and/or environment (e.g., nanoparticles, energy transfer systems, transformed bacterium) to address bacterial abundance and persistence related to livestock well-being and production performance, and develop mitigation strategies.
Approach:
Sub-Objective 1A. Examine in vivo uteroplacental hemodynamics following acute maternal infusions with vasoactive supplements.
Sub-Objective 1B. Development of in vitro and ex-vivo approaches for cellular and tissue biophotonic imaging using nanoparticles.
Sub-Objective 1C. Development of specific molecular-based approaches for in vivo biophotonic imaging.
Sub-Objective 1D. Development of alternate biophotonic animal models and the use of digital infrared thermal imaging and near infrared (NIR) spectroscopic approaches to study specific reproductive health, environmental, and/or physiological processes in livestock and poultry.
Sub-Objective 2A. Use of biophotonics imaging strategies to establish potentially unknown infection sites of Mycobacterium avium subsp. Paratuberculosis in a rodent model.
Sub-Objective 2B. Development of alternate biophotonic animal models and the use of digital infrared thermal imaging approaches to study various disease states in livestock and poultry.
