Critical Need
For generations, farmers have bred cattle for productivity, and climate change is shifting farmers’ focus toward traits that help cattle not just survive but thrive in changing environments. However, breeding for critical traits like feed efficiency remains slow and imprecise and increases the risk of inbreeding. Today, there is no scalable, non-GMO way to ensure calves inherit specific genetic advantages from the bull.

Technology Vision
For the first time, farmers will be able to select for specific genetic traits they want to breed into their herd. Unlike current methods that are limited by probabilistic genetics—using artificial insemination (AI) to breed their cattle with top-performing bulls—Vertility Health’s technology enables farmers to select for desired traits directly from the sperm before AI. Using fluorescent probes that bind to specific genetic sequences, the sperm is identified and separated based on the presence or absence of target traits, such as heat tolerance or feed efficiency. This innovation allows for precise genetic selection at the sperm level, which in turn accelerates breeding outcomes without gene editing.

Potential for Impact
More cattle genomes are being sequenced than ever before, yet farmers are still limited to probability-based breeding. Vertility Health’s technology changes that by rewriting the rules of inheritance without gene editing. By enabling trait selection at the sperm level, we can accelerate the spread of climate-resilient genetics like heat tolerance and feed efficiency, reducing the environmental footprint of the livestock industry. This means fewer resources wasted, lower methane emissions, and healthier herds while preserving genetic diversity and avoiding the risks of inbreeding. The result is a scalable solution that supports both sustainability and profitability across the global cattle industry.

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Vertility Health