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Establishment of Cryo-bank System for Vietnamese Native Pig Resources and Sustainable Production System to Conserve Bio-diversity

Bioresources

Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Finished

Establishment of Cryo-bank System for Vietnamese Native Pig Resources and Sustainable Production System to Conserve Bio-diversity

Protecting Rare Breeds of Pig with a Gene Bank System

Principal Investigator

- Dr.
  KIKUCHI Kazuhiro
  Research Reader, Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, NARO (National Agriculture and Food Research Organization)
- Dr.
  Ngo Thi Kim Cuc
  Vice Director General, National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)

ODA Recipient Country

Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Research Institutions in Japan

Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS), NARO / National Institute of Animal Health (NIAH), NARO / Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science (NILGS), NARO / Tokushima University / Itochu Feed Mills Co., Ltd. (IFM)

Research Institutions in Counterpart Country

National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) / Institute of Biotechnology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (IBT, VAST) / Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), etc.

Adoption fiscal year

FY 2014

Research Period

5 Years

Overview of the Research Project

Discovering and maintaining native Vietnamese varieties using up-to-date breeding techniques
There are many valuable breeds of pig in Vietnam, but many native Vietnamese varieties are at risk of extinction as economic development has resulted in the introduction of foreign breeds. Some native varieties are expected to include lines suitable as animal hosts for the production of organs for xenotransplantation into human recipients, and there is conjecture that other breeds with useful traits may still be undiscovered. In order to protect these rare breeds as pig germplasm, the project is creating a cryogenic gene bank (cryo-bank) system that stores sperm, oocytes, fertilized oocytes, etc., and promotes their utilization.

Potential boost to regenerative medicine using iPS cells
Many pigs retain gene sequences that derive from certain strains of virus, so the problem of infection must be overcome in order for organs grown inside pigs to be used for transplantation into humans. However, in 2015, it was discovered that there may exist lines of pigs possessing few of these sequences. The discovery or generation of pigs for which there is no concern of viral infection would be a significant contribution to medical advances.