The Vet

Transforming Food Production Series A Investor Partnership. Earlier this year, the company won the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) Edge award of £100,000 at the Scottish Edge competition, supporting the development of its first product, Dynescan.

Set to launch in January 2022, Dynescan aims to improve cattle conception rates, which have fallen by 20% over the past four decades costing the average dairy farmer in the UK around £37,000 per year.

Dynescan is a portable instrument that provides reliable measurements of livestock semen quality, ensuring only the right samples are used for reproduction. Independent analysis suggests that if conception rates can be elevated by 27%, the carbon footprint of farming could be reduced by up to 20% .

The company is now recruiting seven more people to join its team over the next few months.

Tiffany Wood, CEO at Dyneval, said: “The Series A funding will be critical to launching our product and growing our team – it is an incredibly exciting time for our business. Dyneval’s technology is automated and easy to use so that anyone can check semen quality, from the time it leaves a genetics company, during storage on farm, and prior to insemination by a technician. Through regular checks, our tool will improve the quality, handling and storage procedures for semen across the livestock production industry.”Jim Dobson said: “Dyneval met our criteria of being an early-stage company, looking for smart money with a focus on a solution that is a clear win for agriproduction, not only in the UK, but globally. We look forward to an exciting journey with a great team in Dyneval as they aim to address key challenges in the agri-food supply chain.”

Liz Fletcher, director of business engagement and operations at IBioIC, said: “We are proud to have supported Dyneval in its journey so far and are pleased to see the company attract substantial funding from a group of venerable investors.

How to get Immunity from poor Immunity

I’ve just got an appointment for my Covid booster jag. 18.50 on a Saturday night! That would suggest the local health board is burning the candle at both ends to get everyone’s immune system working well as we head into the depths of winter. Good on them. It also assumes I have a fully functioning, robust immune system that will respond to the vaccine. It’s a fair assumption, I’m generally fit and well; well fed and well housed and I’m not growing a calf or lambs inside me or lactating 30L a day (to the best of my knowledge!) So generally stress free and a good candidate for a good vaccine repsonse.

Can we say that for the animals under our care?

At a cellular level immune systems can be damaged by an imbalance between oxidative free radicals which damage cells and the protective mechanisms that mop them up and switch them off.

So what are these oxidative free radicals and where do they come from? They are a continual product of metabolism of any animal, they are electron hungry cells that go and damage other cells and thereby tissues, by pinching electrons off them. However certain situations increase their production, stress of any kind ( transport, housing, bullying, inadequate nutrition, pregnancy etc), tissue injury, infection, and detoxification( eg mycotoxins in diet).

To protect against these damaging metabolites the

By Andy Cant Northvet Veterinary Group

body has various antioxidant mechanisms that donate spare electrons and so neutralise the threat, preventing damage to tissues. The immune system can be one of the first areas to be compromised by oxidative damage and so having antioxidants in good supply is essential to keep immunity working well.

Many of the antioxidant mechanisms rely on enzyme pathways to function properly and a component of many of these enzymes is trace elements and vitamins, specifically Vit E, Vit A, Copper, Selenium, Zinc and Manganese. So suddenly we can see the importance of trace elements and vitamins as their deficiency can cause damage to the immune system as the oxidant free radicals are not getting neutralised. Damaged immune system = more disease.

So much for the cellular level, what does it look like in the byre? I’ve no doubt stated before that one of our biggest areas of loss is the neonatal period; stillbirths and deaths within the first 48hrs of life. We know this is mostly due to infection getting across the placenta in the last weeks of pregnancy and calves unable to survive the stress of calving or succumbing soon after. The last weeks of pregnancy are stressful, free radical production will be increased, vitamin levels in conserved foraged come springtime are decreasing so our antioxidant mechanisms are lacking. The perfect storm.

What can we do? Make our animals life as stress free as possible, feed them well, house and bed them well. Supplement vitamins and trace elements in the run up to calving when we know demand is high, will that help? In theory yes. Mineral analysis of silage and from bloods of animals is a good starting point, but what is the best method of supplementation, powders?, boluses?, so many things can interfere with digestion and absorption. Are injections better? We wondered that. A small trial last spring using an injection containing copper, selenium ,zinc and manganese did show a statistically significant reduction in neonatal losses on farms we had a good history of previous data. So certainly supports the theory of doing our best to support antioxidant production for the maintenance of a good immune system. All this applies to your own health too, free radicals are associated with many degenerative disease processes, ageing, skin wrinkles and even white hair! ….oh dear, I better eat some more carrots!