A scientist of the Don State Agrarian University received a grant to develop a test system for the early diagnosis of porcine bursitis

The Innovation Promotion Foundation announced the winners of the UMNIK contest for the Rostov Region. Among the grant holders are young researchers from the Don State Agrarian University, who presented innovative projects in the field of biotechnology.

Among the winners of the competition is the project "Development of a test system for identifying the predisposition of pigs to the formation of bursitis", the author of which is Timofey Romanets, Ph.D.

The project aims to develop a method that can, using molecular genetic methods, provide early detection of animals predisposed to inflammatory disease. “The grant from the Innovation Assistance Fund will allow us to continue the study of genetic mechanisms that affect the manifestation of bursitis and create a test system that allows, based on the analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), to carry out early diagnostics of pigs,” explains Timofey Romanets.

Bursitis of pigs - swelling of the skin over protruding bones, develops on the sides of the knees and elbows, as well as above the kneecap. Bursitis affect the appearance of breeding pigs: such animals are no longer suitable for sale, which has an extremely negative impact on the economic efficiency of production. In this regard, laboratories for molecular and genetic diagnostics of farm animals, breeding farms, breeding and breeding-hybrid centers can become consumers of the developed test systems. “Test systems will be adapted to standard PCR (polymerase chain reaction) methods that do not require expensive equipment,” notes Timofey Romanets.

The grant recipient of the Innovation Promotion Fund under the UMNIK program in 2022 was also an assistant of the Department of Technical Mechanics and Physics of the branch of the Don State Agrarian University - the Azov-Chernomorsk Engineering Institute, candidate of technical sciences Konstantin Dubina, who presented the project "Development of the design of a vacuum seeding machine for a row seeder" within the framework of the competition .